No Other Love: Letters from Richard Feynman to His Late Wife, Arline • Hacker News Board

Re: No Other Love: Letters from Richard Feynman to His Late Wife, Arline

#11

Post by throwaway894345 » Sat, Dec 25, 2021, 1:27 PM UTC

hirundo wrote: post #7

gautamcgoel wrote: post #3

There is something indescribably vulgar about auctioning off a letter a man wrote to his dead wife. I am quite sure that when Feynman penned that letter he had no idea it would eventually be sold by strangers for profit.

Is it the selling of these historical artifacts that offends you, or just the fact that they have become public documents? I don't think we can categorically call it vulgar to make public the private correspondence of long dead historical figures. They can certainly help us understand those people better. So is it the fact that someone is making a profit from the transaction that you find disturbing? That doesn't bot…

The answer appears to be pretty plain in the original post: the letters are deeply personal.

Re: No Other Love: Letters from Richard Feynman to His Late Wife, Arline

#12

Post by globular-toast » Sat, Dec 25, 2021, 1:41 PM UTC

hirundo wrote: post #7

gautamcgoel wrote: post #3

There is something indescribably vulgar about auctioning off a letter a man wrote to his dead wife. I am quite sure that when Feynman penned that letter he had no idea it would eventually be sold by strangers for profit.

Is it the selling of these historical artifacts that offends you, or just the fact that they have become public documents? I don't think we can categorically call it vulgar to make public the private correspondence of long dead historical figures. They can certainly help us understand those people better. So is it the fact that someone is making a profit from the transaction that you find disturbing? That doesn't bot…

I doubt anyone values the documents that much. They are just another financial instrument now.

Re: No Other Love: Letters from Richard Feynman to His Late Wife, Arline

#13

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Dec 25, 2021, 1:47 PM UTC

amanaplanacanal wrote: post #6

gigatexal wrote: post #5

Quoted post unavailable.

Huh. Mine loves strip clubs.

[deleted]

Re: No Other Love: Letters from Richard Feynman to His Late Wife, Arline

#14

Post by kaiwen1 » Sat, Dec 25, 2021, 1:58 PM UTC

gautamcgoel wrote: post #3

There is something indescribably vulgar about auctioning off a letter a man wrote to his dead wife. I am quite sure that when Feynman penned that letter he had no idea it would eventually be sold by strangers for profit.

Perhaps it's just too soon? Would you feel the same about Solomon's letters to his (first) wife? Or Mark Antony's letters to Cleopatra?

Re: No Other Love: Letters from Richard Feynman to His Late Wife, Arline

#15

Post by pjc50 » Sat, Dec 25, 2021, 2:10 PM UTC

gigatexal wrote: post #5

Quoted post unavailable.

I think that was after his first wife died. I do wonder to what extent his later somewhat casual sex attitude was influenced by the traumatic experience of his first deep love dying young.

Re: No Other Love: Letters from Richard Feynman to His Late Wife, Arline

#16

Post by ykevinator2 » Sat, Dec 25, 2021, 2:26 PM UTC

gautamcgoel wrote: post #3

There is something indescribably vulgar about auctioning off a letter a man wrote to his dead wife. I am quite sure that when Feynman penned that letter he had no idea it would eventually be sold by strangers for profit.

On the other hand he knew we were all just carbon and that morality is exclusively a weapon for the living.

Re: No Other Love: Letters from Richard Feynman to His Late Wife, Arline

#17

Post by bell-cot » Sat, Dec 25, 2021, 2:34 PM UTC

gigatexal wrote: post #5

Quoted post unavailable.

Contrary to stereotypes, many men seem quite capable of both deep, loving devotion...and of enjoying various sorts of commercialized sex (strip clubs, "dirty" magazines, etc., etc.).

It makes for a lot of miscommunication and drama.

Re: No Other Love: Letters from Richard Feynman to His Late Wife, Arline

#18

Post by scotty79 » Sat, Dec 25, 2021, 3:20 PM UTC

tchalla wrote: post #2

> After the initial fear of a cancer prognosis, Arline was diagnosed with lymphatic tuberculosis in 1941, possibly contracted from unpasteurized milk. I want to take a step back and realise how far humans have come in 80 years.

It always irks me how people bash modern food and its safety and glorify all the natural handmade and handpreserved food. Literally zero respect for painstakingly developed processes that save life and health of hundreds of thousands people on daily basis.

Re: No Other Love: Letters from Richard Feynman to His Late Wife, Arline

#19

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Dec 25, 2021, 3:31 PM UTC

gautamcgoel wrote: post #3

There is something indescribably vulgar about auctioning off a letter a man wrote to his dead wife. I am quite sure that when Feynman penned that letter he had no idea it would eventually be sold by strangers for profit.

[deleted]

Re: No Other Love: Letters from Richard Feynman to His Late Wife, Arline

#20

Post by echelon » Sat, Dec 25, 2021, 3:37 PM UTC

hirundo wrote: post #7

gautamcgoel wrote: post #3

There is something indescribably vulgar about auctioning off a letter a man wrote to his dead wife. I am quite sure that when Feynman penned that letter he had no idea it would eventually be sold by strangers for profit.

Is it the selling of these historical artifacts that offends you, or just the fact that they have become public documents? I don't think we can categorically call it vulgar to make public the private correspondence of long dead historical figures. They can certainly help us understand those people better. So is it the fact that someone is making a profit from the transaction that you find disturbing? That doesn't bot…

Just wait until they auction off the frozen body of Ted Williams in a hundred years or so. The moral questions over private correspondence will pale in comparison.

I imagine if buying dead people becomes as commonplace as buying art, some future Cards Against Humanity performative comedy outfit might try an analogously outrageous "cut up a Picasso" stunt.

Which is all to say that selling love letters is relatively tame in the scheme of all the things that happen after we die.