Sitting down to read a book on string theory, a scientifically unverified and even untested theory of how the universe is composed, might seem like an overwhelming task. The theory necessarily requires common knowledge to be bent and twisted and basically ignored, but Brian Greene’s work is generally hailed as easily understood by the common man. “The Hidden Reality” shouldn’t intimidate the reader though, because there’s really nothing intimidating about it. Rather than being too complex to understand, it’s almost too easy.
Greene relies on analogy to get the point across to his readers. That might sound kind of nice, since analogies are often the best way to make something otherwise impossible to relate to, relatable. But when paragraph after paragraph relies solely upon analogy to explain and argue various topics, the reader is easily lost. Was chapter two about a “quilted multiverse,” as Green called it, or was it about playing pool? Because Greene definitely mentioned cue balls about as many times as he did the idea of there being an infinite number of cosmic horizons.
The point here is not that he explains the concepts, because the concepts clearly need explanation – the criticism is instead that Greene relied on these abstract methods of clarification more than he does simply saying it how it is. Sometimes it’s very nice to explain things in the plainest terms so that no one is lost, but other times it’s truly a punishment to those with at least half a sense, because the analogies end up being more confusing than the idea they are being used to explain.
There is a point when Greene began to explain a concept by asking the reader to imagine a ball – shortly thereafter he changed his mind and asked instead that the reader imagine the round figure of Eric Cartman. Now, however cute it might be to make this book relatable for the youth (who apparently cannot understand anything unless it is communicated exclusively in popular culture terminology), the reader is likely going to be so caught up with imagining an infinite number of Eric Cartmans rolling up and down an infinite number of mountains that the principle is going to be completely lost. Hilarious? Sure, but utterly unnecessary.
If the reader wanted to have a more complex understanding of the subject, Greene sent the readers to the back of the book where a corresponding number would mark a more complicated explanation, generally containing equations for the math-minded. While this information was much appreciated, it was also very frustrating. Following the number to the back of the book could mean that the reader would get a few pages of complex details, or it could get a short sentence. After a few chapters of eagerly flipping to the back only to be vaguely disappointed, the reader might just give up on it altogether.
However, there’s a lot to be said about this book. Greene managed to convey his argument in a fair and balanced way. To the majority of the scientific community, string theory is not accepted and nothing in this book can be proven – he didn’t hide those facts. He openly discussed them. Thinking about string theory is a really good way to either induce a headache or provide a very engaging mental exercise, and Greene gave the reader all of the tools to understand the subject. He just had to sacrifice the more capable readers in the process.