I'm really liking this one. Hope it holds up.

It didn't. There is a long section of "letters" Kepler writes to various people, fellow astronomers and/or patrons, and it just doesn't seem to me it moves us ahead. The book returns to narrative structure for the ending, and that was pretty well done, but I'm afraid it doesn't live up to the promise of the beginning.

Some parts of this book I liked others I found tedious and dubious and drawing too much on artistic license but that's the authors privilege but this reader was not engaged despite it being very well written and interesting enough to go to other sources to explore Keplers work and life.

A crank writing about a crank. Admittedly, both author John Banville and his subject the astronomer Johannes Kepler are brilliant. There were snippets finely crafted, and the peripatetic life of Kepler around middle Europe against a background of religious warfare was a revelation. I don't know if I could recommend it, however.

Biografía que se centra más en el individuo que en su obra. No transmite todo el desconcierto con el que Kepler aceptó sus leyes y menos el inmenso respeto de este por las tablas de Tycho.

Kepler fue un gran científico, eso no se nota tanto en estas páginas.

Banvil je izuzetno dobar pisac, a Đorđe Krivokapić majstor prevođenja.

Ova knjiga, kroz Keplerovu biografiju (delovi su stvarni, nedostatak podataka je nadomestio autor) priča o strasti na kojoj se, najverovatnije, sve temelji: žudnjom za razumevanjem poretka sveta. Traži Kepler dokaz za harmoniju u Kosmosu, dok ga sapliću razne srednjovekovne muke: bolesti, samovolja raznih careva koji se takmiče u zvekanstvu ali su revnosni u neplaćanju obaveza, raznorazni hirovi klera, ratovi, deca koja umiru, žene slabog zdravlja, smarači koji traže da im napravi horoskop, Galilejeva sujeta, samodovoljni bonvivan Tiho Brahe inkvizicija koja smatra da mu majka mora goreti na lomači i svašta još. A on računa odnose između Marsove i Saturnove putanje i svašta još. Meri, gleda u nebo, u svoje snove, čeka znak, prati intuiciju, štampa knjige, piše, piše, piše… i veruje da je rešenje evo, tu.
Da je ovo pisao Umberto Eko, bilo bi mnogo zanimljivije – verovatno bi nakitio radnju svakakvim misterijama i čudesima, a Banvilu je više stalo do književnog izraza, pa pored svega toga samo prolazi, uz pogled jednim okom. Zato, ako niste dobro skocentrisani, može biti malo nezgodno pohvatati ko je ko i šta se kad zbiva. Stil nije naporan, ali radnja nije linearna, a često sklizne iz trećeg u misli prvog lica, potom u epistolografiju (Keplerova korespodencija nije sačuvana, ali je Banvil to vrlo lepo rekonstruisao), a kad se tome dodaju matematika i astronomija, bude malko čupkasto. Ili je bar meni bivalo, jer sam u nedogled razvukla čitanje.

Na kraju možete da izaberete utisak: radovanje što, eto, ne živimo u baš najgorem istorijskom trenutku ako nam je do znanja ili očajavanje što se saznajne žrtve i dalje ne vrednuju, pa je, manje – više, situacija nepromenjena.
U prilog ovom prvom, Kepler kaže: „Pokaži im, svima im pokaži, nikada neću umreti“

Četvorka.

I was interested in the dialogues between Kepler and Tycho Brahe. The letters were also a joy. Were any of these original letters or purely fiction?

Џона Банвила сам упознао кроз његову вероватно најпознатију књигу „Море“ и тада ме је купило његово приповедање. „Кеплер“ је другачијег тона и интензитета, али се види исто мајсторство у писању.
Банвил је изузетно успешно креирао атмосферу и дух Кеплеровог времена. Сјајно је описао грозничави ум овог великог научника, суоченог са прозаичним проблемима свакодневног преживљавања, верским ратовима који раздиру Европу, неиспуњеношћу у брачном животу, као и смрћу своје деце. Значајан је и његов однос са другим великим научником тога доба – Тихом Брахеом, који му је практично био нешто попут учитеља и покровитеља (али веома незгодне нарави). Приповедање није линеарно, тако да ћемо парче по парче конструисати Кеплерово кретање и пут до постављања нових теорија и закона који су променили људски доживљај космоса и његових пространстава, но и даље ће остати доста неухватљивог и неизреченог.
Свакако је Банвил сјајан писац, а ово веома вредно читања. Надам се да ће бити преведена и остала дела из ове трилогије о научницима.

In tears, his vision splintering, he turned away, clasping the creature to him, and felt it twitch, and cough, and suddenly, as if starting in amazement, die: his son. The damp hot head lolled in his hand. What pitiless player had tossed him this tender ball of woe? He was to know other losses, but never again quite like this, like a part of himself crawling blind and mewling into death.

From BBC radio 4 Extra:
An exploration of the clash between two of the 17th century's leading astronomers - the assured, prickly and self-mocking Johannes Kepler, and the aristocratic, overbearing and secretly insecure Danish Nobleman, Tycho Brahe

Benedict Cumberbatch stars in John Banville's dramatisation set during the last year of Brahe's life.

Johannes Kepler .... Benedict Cumberbatch
Tycho Brahe .... Alun Armstrong
Barbara .... Arabella Weir
Sophie ..... Gillian Kearney
Longberg .... Scott Handy
Rudolph II .... Geoffrey Beevers
Jeppe .... Kenny Baker
Christine .... Marcella Riordan
Regina .... Hannah R. Gordon
Messenger .... Simon Imrie
Court Official .... Kevin Jackson

Director: Gemma McMullan

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in August 2004.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000...

Banville is god but even god needed practice, probably.

This is pretty awful. Banville pulled his interpretation of Kepler more or less completely from Arthur Koestler's Sleepwalkers (including the heaping pile of misogyny; there is zero historical evidence that Kepler didn't want to marry his first wife), chucks out all the science, and throws in a soothsaying dwarf, some unrequited intrafamily love, and a whole bunch of imaginary bellyaching about Galileo. Kepler as presented here isn't particular religious but he's new-agey as can be, navel gazing about the desire to "live", reflecting on the nature of happiness and childhood, and just adding a few requisite asides about chaos-of-the-world, harmony-of-the-spheres so you remember who you're reading about. The middle section of the book, written as fictionalized letters that actually reflect to some degree Kepler's actual letters, is by far the best part and is even occasionally moving. Things get much worse when Banville ignores the source material and gets creative.

This should have been exactly my sort of thing - just the right period, just the right subject with the rise of science and battles against superstition, religion and alchemy. The characterisations are solidly believable, the period brought to life well. Not sure why it didn't really click - I should have loved it, I just thought it was OK.