Would Chuck Klosterman love you? Part 1.
In his book Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs, Chuck Klosterman lists 23 questions that he asks someone before he can decide if he can really love them. I thought it would be interesting to extend these questions to the fluther community, so here goes the first one:
1. Let us assume you met a rudimentary magician. Let us assume he can do five simple tricks – he can pull a rabbit out of his hat, he can make a coin disappear, he can turn the ace of spades into the joker card, and two others in a similar vein. These are his only tricks and he can’t learn anymore; he can only do these five. HOWEVER, it turns out that he’s doing these five tricks with real magic. It’s not an illusion; he can actually conjure the bunny out of the ether and he can move the coin through space. He’s legitimately magical, but extremely limited in scope and influence. Would this person be more impressive than Albert Einstein?
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With a name like Chuck, I would not love him back…
I don’t go that way
Chuck Klosterman is wonderful. I remember when I read this book, I called my friends and asked them the questions. Anyway- I think he wouldn’t be more impressive because he is just performing something he doesn’t understand or do anything to deserve, it’s just something he can do. He will never get better at magic, he is just a one (five?) trick pony. Also Einstein had sick hair. But then again this dude can actually do magic. So I can’t decide.
No, he would not be more impressive than Einstein.
Chuck actually answered this question himself, but I’m not going to ruin this question by posting his answer. His answer is actually pretty damn good.
On just that criterion alone? No. Einstein was able to synthesize what he’d learned and come up with the theory of relativity with his mind.
Seriously, a bag of meat and water came up with the theory of relativity and increased our understanding of the universe by several orders of magnitude. Pulling a rabbit out of a hat doesn’t compare, not to me.
@elijahsuicide: Where did you find his answers? I would love to read them!
I’m going to say yes, for about a minute and a half. Then I’d go back to adoring Einstein.
Einstein made theories and tested them as much as he could. He pored a lot of brainpower into his work. He changed himself from someone who did not think of a theory of relativity, into someone who did. The magician is simply given these powers and cannot explain where they come from nor how they work, he can only use them. Thus Einstein is more impressive.
If this magician was capable of teaching his magic to others then i would imagine he too would be responsible for furthering our understanding of the universe greatly. Without that ability he himself is merely a curiosity although I’m sure that the researchers tasked with working out how he worked may make a lot of advancements. So he, on his own, would be nowhere near as impressive.
If this person knew how he did and could explain it then yes. If he had no idea how or why it happened then no, Einstein would be more impressive.
@TitsMcGee it’s a radio interview on digg.com.
A rudimentary magician? Sounds like he’s got the skills to pay the bills. I’d go with the magic man….More fun at parties.
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