Life science: Richard Powers' novels, most recently his national book award-winning 'The echo maker,' plumb many disciplines

Dec. 18--As the latest proof, [Richard Powers] last month won the globally prestigious National Book Award for fiction for "The Echo Maker" (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $25, 464 pages). Another title, "Operation Wandering Soul," was an NBA nominee in 1993. The prize was good for $...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inMcClatchy - Tribune Business News p. 1
Main Author Pierleoni, Allen
Format Newsletter
LanguageEnglish
Published Washington Tribune Content Agency LLC 18.12.2006
Subjects
Art galleries & museums
Artificial intelligence
Book awards
Motion pictures
Mysteries
Novels
Science
Spirituality
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Summary:Dec. 18--As the latest proof, [Richard Powers] last month won the globally prestigious National Book Award for fiction for "The Echo Maker" (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $25, 464 pages). Another title, "Operation Wandering Soul," was an NBA nominee in 1993. The prize was good for $10,000 and a bronze statue -- and worth a fortune in reputation and exposure. Then something remarkable happened. At the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Powers chanced upon a picture taken by German photographer August Sander in 1914, just before the outbreak of World War I. "Young Farmers" shows three men in suits and hats, carrying walking sticks, who have paused to look into the camera. The dynamic of the photograph overwhelmed Powers. When I cited the menacing HAL 9000 computer in Stanley Kubrick's and Arthur C. Clarke's 1968 landmark movie "2001: A Space Odyssey," Powers quickly pointed out that "HAL was born here. In the movie, when HAL starts to slowly regress as (astronaut) Dave removes his circuits, HAL says, 'I was born in Urbana, Illinois.' "