"Big Bang" according to the 19th century poet ("Science-v-Poetry")

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Discussion Overview

The discussion explores the interpretation of 19th-century poetry, specifically Juliusz Słowacki's "Genesis from the Spirit" and Edgar Allan Poe's "Eureka," in relation to modern cosmological concepts such as the Big Bang. Participants examine the poetic descriptions of creation and their potential connections to contemporary scientific theories.

Discussion Character

  • Debate/contested
  • Conceptual clarification
  • Exploratory

Main Points Raised

  • One participant suggests that Słowacki's poem may represent an early literary description of the Big Bang, questioning its alignment with modern physics.
  • Another participant argues that any resemblance to the Big Bang is coincidental, noting that the concept had not been hypothesized during Słowacki's time.
  • A different viewpoint dismisses the poem's relevance to scientific understanding, implying that the interpretation may stem from a misunderstanding of physics.
  • One comment critiques the poetic approach to scientific concepts, emphasizing the necessity of mathematics in physics, which poets may overlook.
  • Another participant humorously suggests that cultural aspects, such as Polish vodka, might influence the interpretation of the poem.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express differing opinions on the relevance and accuracy of Słowacki's poem in relation to the Big Bang theory. There is no consensus on whether the poem can be meaningfully connected to modern scientific understanding.

Contextual Notes

The discussion reflects a range of interpretations and critiques of the poetic texts, highlighting the challenges of aligning literary expressions with scientific theories. Some participants express skepticism about the validity of the connections drawn between the two domains.

EdDa
TL;DR Summary: the cosmology of Poe's "Eureka" vs "Genesis from the Spirit" of J.Slowacki

Polish poet Juliusz Słowacki [1809-1849] wrote a mystical prose poem (or a prayer) entitled "Genesis from the Spirit". If we omit the mystical parts in the poem and leave only the purely material, objective, physical ones, we ended up with the following description of the creation of the world :

“...The Spirit... turned one point... of invisible space into a flash of Magnetic-Attractive Forces. And these turned into electric and lightning bolds - And they warmed up in the Spirit... You, Lord, forced him... to flash with destructive fire... You turned the Spirit... into a ball of fire and hung him on the abysses... And here... a circle spirits... he grabbed one handful of globes and swirled them around like a fiery rainbow... “

(see :
https://www.salon24.pl/u/edalward/1...ng-to-the-19th-century-polish-poet-j-slowacki for more details and references)

My questions:
- Isn't this the first such detailed description (and close to what we know today) of the "Big Bang" in world literature?
- Would anyone like to interpret this description from the point of view of modern physics? Do the stages of the creation of the world in the poem and the forces mentioned there correspond to the “Big Bang” scenario known to modern science? (I'm not a physicist myself!) ;

Thank you in advance

Ed

P.S.
According to experts on the subject, the writing process started in 1844 or 1843, took about two years and resulted in four versions of the poem (published in 1871). The American Adgar Allan Poe - practically the contemporary of the Polish poet - had an analogous, astonishing intuition (in his famous « Eureka » published in 1848 ).
 
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That doesn't sound like the big bang to me. Of course any aesthetic similarity to the big bang would have to be coincidental, since he was a poet and the big bang hadn't been hypothesized yet.
 
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Woo woo.
 
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It reads like a non-physicist asked a couple of physicists to speculate about the origins of the universe, didn't understand a thing about their ideas (which were probably way off base anyway, before Friedman, Slipher, Hubble et al), and strung together a poet's madlib from what he remembered. It has a couple of points in common with bad popularisations of big bang theory, but pretty much nothing with the correct version.

I'd tend to suspect pharmaceutical inspiration over physical, frankly.
 
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Polish? Home of potato vodka? That might be the explanation.
 
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Poets are part of a group that deal and reason in words. They believe that, if they read enough literary works, in enough different languages, they will gain an understanding of the concepts needed, to appreciate the complexity of the universe. Poets believe that they can express and understand the mysteries of the universe, by finding the right arrangement of words in their language.

For scientific analysis of physics, the only language in which the poet's belief holds is mathematics, a language rejected by the vast majority of poets. Physics is based on the solid rock of mathematics.

The poet in me cannot resist a quote: Matthew 24-27.
24 “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. 26 And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. 27 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”
 
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Wooshka. Thread is paused for, um, "Moderation"...
 
This thread is inconsistent with the forum mission statement
Our mission is to provide a place for people (whether students, professional scientists, or others interested in science) to learn and discuss science as it is currently generally understood and practiced by the professional scientific community.
so it will remain closed.
 
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