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Love after life: Richard Feynman's letter to his departed wife (2017)

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Re: Love after life: Richard Feynman's letter to his departed wife (2017)

#81

Post by flkenosad »

jjulius wrote: post #53
Dig1t wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've read a lot about Feynman and have never read that. Would love to see a source.

Edit: Note that I have no opinion here, just answering someone's request for a source. A cursory Google reveals... > Neither were Feynman's escapades limited to bars; more than one of his biographies have documented affairs with two married women, at least one of which caused him considerable problems.[0] Charlie Munger seems to be a source for claims that he would sleep with the wives of his undergrad students[2]. A…

Gosh! A male mammal is obsessed with it's female counterpart. What could explain such odd behaviour?

It's funny how we like to think we're not animals when we really are.

Re: Love after life: Richard Feynman's letter to his departed wife (2017)

#82

Post by growingkittens »

BigTuna wrote: post #80
growingkittens wrote: post #66

Losing his first wife was a tragedy that seems to have led Feynman down a dark personal path. Everybody likes the funny second wife divorce story - "because he did calculus all the time!" His second wife testified in court that he flew into a rage and choked her if she unwittingly interrupted his calculus. [1] She was granted a divorce due to his "extreme cruelty." [1] p. 64-65 of FBI file - https://www.muckrock.com/…

A long time *ago I read re: Feynman's divorce that false accusations of abuse were common back then because no-fault divorce didn't exist. Couples that wanted a divorce would have to concoct a story in order to get a judge to sign off. I don't have strong feelings either way because it's impossible to know what really happened between them, but I found it an interesting counterpoint.

Do you remember what paper in particular? I would like to read the study about rates of false abuse accusations in areas with strict divorce laws.

Re: Love after life: Richard Feynman's letter to his departed wife (2017)

#83

Post by slibhb »

growingkittens wrote: post #66

Losing his first wife was a tragedy that seems to have led Feynman down a dark personal path. Everybody likes the funny second wife divorce story - "because he did calculus all the time!" His second wife testified in court that he flew into a rage and choked her if she unwittingly interrupted his calculus. [1] She was granted a divorce due to his "extreme cruelty." [1] p. 64-65 of FBI file - https://www.muckrock.com/…

Feynman clearly did not lead an exemplary personal life but his second wife also accused him of being a communist so I'd take her testimony with a grain of salt.

Re: Love after life: Richard Feynman's letter to his departed wife (2017)

#84

Post by BigTuna »

growingkittens wrote: post #82
BigTuna wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A long time *ago I read re: Feynman's divorce that false accusations of abuse were common back then because no-fault divorce didn't exist. Couples that wanted a divorce would have to concoct a story in order to get a judge to sign off. I don't have strong feelings either way because it's impossible to know what really happened between them, but I found it an interesting counterpoint.

Do you remember what paper in particular? I would like to read the study about rates of false abuse accusations in areas with strict divorce laws.

This was probably 20 years ago now but I don't think it was a formal paper

Re: Love after life: Richard Feynman's letter to his departed wife (2017)

#85

Post by growingkittens »

slibhb wrote: post #83
growingkittens wrote: post #66

Losing his first wife was a tragedy that seems to have led Feynman down a dark personal path. Everybody likes the funny second wife divorce story - "because he did calculus all the time!" His second wife testified in court that he flew into a rage and choked her if she unwittingly interrupted his calculus. [1] She was granted a divorce due to his "extreme cruelty." [1] p. 64-65 of FBI file - https://www.muckrock.com/…

Feynman clearly did not lead an exemplary personal life but his second wife also accused him of being a communist so I'd take her testimony with a grain of salt.

I'm having difficulty finding a source for this to read more. The closest thing I found are a few blog posts that suggest it might have been her.

Re: Love after life: Richard Feynman's letter to his departed wife (2017)

#86

Post by slibhb »

growingkittens wrote: post #85
slibhb wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Feynman clearly did not lead an exemplary personal life but his second wife also accused him of being a communist so I'd take her testimony with a grain of salt.

I'm having difficulty finding a source for this to read more. The closest thing I found are a few blog posts that suggest it might have been her.

You're right -- it's not known for a fact that the allegation came from her.

Re: Love after life: Richard Feynman's letter to his departed wife (2017)

#87

Post by functoid »

> Marriage, however, proved to be a towering practical problem — Princeton, where Feynman was now pursuing a Ph.D., threatened to withdraw the fellowships funding his graduate studies if he were to wed, for the university considered the emotional and pragmatic responsibilities of marriage a grave threat to academic discipline.

You have got to be kidding me. And I thought academia was bad in the 21st century.

Re: Love after life: Richard Feynman's letter to his departed wife (2017)

#88

Post by bgandrew »

growingkittens wrote: post #66

Losing his first wife was a tragedy that seems to have led Feynman down a dark personal path. Everybody likes the funny second wife divorce story - "because he did calculus all the time!" His second wife testified in court that he flew into a rage and choked her if she unwittingly interrupted his calculus. [1] She was granted a divorce due to his "extreme cruelty." [1] p. 64-65 of FBI file - https://www.muckrock.com/…

[flagged]

Re: Love after life: Richard Feynman's letter to his departed wife (2017)

#89

Post by waterhouse »

growingkittens wrote: post #82
BigTuna wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A long time *ago I read re: Feynman's divorce that false accusations of abuse were common back then because no-fault divorce didn't exist. Couples that wanted a divorce would have to concoct a story in order to get a judge to sign off. I don't have strong feelings either way because it's impossible to know what really happened between them, but I found it an interesting counterpoint.

Do you remember what paper in particular? I would like to read the study about rates of false abuse accusations in areas with strict divorce laws.

Wikipedia says:

> In many other states, especially California, the most popular allegation for divorce was cruelty (which was then unavailable in New York). For example, in 1950, wives pleaded "cruelty" as the basis for 70 percent of San Francisco divorce cases.[41] Wives would regularly testify to the same facts: their husbands swore at them, hit them, and generally treated them terribly.[41] This procedure was described by Supreme Court of California Associate Justice Stanley Mosk:

> > Every day, in every superior court in the state, the same melancholy charade was played: the "innocent" spouse, generally the wife, would take the stand and, to the accompanying cacophony of sobbing and nose-blowing, testify under the deft guidance of an attorney to the spousal conduct that she deemed "cruel."[42]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No-fault_divorce#Bypassing_the...

Re: Love after life: Richard Feynman's letter to his departed wife (2017)

#90

Post by [deleted] »

growingkittens wrote: post #66

Losing his first wife was a tragedy that seems to have led Feynman down a dark personal path. Everybody likes the funny second wife divorce story - "because he did calculus all the time!" His second wife testified in court that he flew into a rage and choked her if she unwittingly interrupted his calculus. [1] She was granted a divorce due to his "extreme cruelty." [1] p. 64-65 of FBI file - https://www.muckrock.com/…

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