focus on anything in particular—it enhances everything, including evil. It enhances Homo homini lupus.
Embittered, Nikola pushed those thoughts away. He studied Voltaire to arm himself against his father. Voltaire convinced him that “the exquisite is the enemy of the good.” So Mr. Tesla started working eighteen hours a day.
He passed nine exams his first year—twice the number necessary. “Your son is a first-rate star,” the dean wrote to the priest in Gospić. Milutin, however, showed little enthusiasm for Nikola’s success and a lot of concern for his health. Nikola dismissed his father’s worries as commonsense banalities. “Knowledge—if real—leaves you breathless,” he would say. “It’s much more exciting than the business of living.”
Warm and cold loves clashed within him. Warm love was for human beings. Cold love was for what his father called God (whom Milutin gave warm love). Nikola’s cold love was focused on the fierce, flame-like power of invention. Warm love was nothing in comparison. Nothing at all. A shadow. For Nikola, the library was the place of certainty that Father Milutin had never experienced. Other students absorbed science by rote, like a poem they would later live by and recite for the rest of their lives. For his part, Tesla was truly interested in the very essence of things. In addition to physics, he devoured volume after volume of classical and philosophical works.
He read and the world expanded for him. After all, he wanted to be an inventor, and inventing meant the expansion of the world. Just before the library would close, he went out and stared into Kant’s starry night. He felt that he was growing under the explosions of stars. Soon, his pointed ears would be at the same height as the city’s towers. And then? Galaxies would become entangled in his hair.
And then?
CHAPTER 18
A Tract on Noses
From the lecture Nikola Tesla gave to the Young Serbs Society on December 3, 1875
My dear colleagues, where would we be without noses?
Believe me—nowhere!
Noses connect us to the invisible world. They inform us about things healthy and unhealthy, let us know if the bed is clean or if the soup is hot, endow us with the smells of the morning and of the coming storm, and unite us with nature.
This is why noses are often compared to plants. We’re all familiar with so-called bulbous, cherry, or spud noses.
Human noses are bridges between us and the animal world. You’ve all heard of beak, snout, or pug noses. Many unfortunate young men are called toucans, unicorns, or rhinos.
Noses also tune us in to the seasons. They bring us the aroma of the frost in February and the linden blooms in June. A whiff of roasting peppers heralds August.
The nose is a kind of tool. People wonder if you can use it as a can opener. They often compare it to a spade, ax, or adze.
It’s a musical instrument similar to a trumpet, bassoon, or trombone. The nose provides a notorious sound box for snoring, which makes it unpopular with roommates.
The nose defines the timbre of the voice and therefore blesses singers and curses those who talk through it.
People sniff each other out in social situations as well. We’re all familiar with the “smell of money” and the “stench of poverty.”
The nose mirrors the features of Mother Earth, invoking her glorious mountain peaks as well as her deep, fathomless caverns.
The nose is a maze through which the light and the air find their way down to the darkness of the throat. It keeps us alive. Don’t forget that the nose gives us breath even before it endows us with fragrances.
The topic of noses has always inspired thinkers. Pascal believed that the fate of the world wouldn’t be the same if Cleopatra had had a shorter nose. Heine joked that “no matter how hard somebody sobs, he always blows his nose in the end.” Voltaire insisted that people come into this world with ten fingers and a nose but without the knowledge of God.
Picking
Embittered, Nikola pushed those thoughts away. He studied Voltaire to arm himself against his father. Voltaire convinced him that “the exquisite is the enemy of the good.” So Mr. Tesla started working eighteen hours a day.
He passed nine exams his first year—twice the number necessary. “Your son is a first-rate star,” the dean wrote to the priest in Gospić. Milutin, however, showed little enthusiasm for Nikola’s success and a lot of concern for his health. Nikola dismissed his father’s worries as commonsense banalities. “Knowledge—if real—leaves you breathless,” he would say. “It’s much more exciting than the business of living.”
Warm and cold loves clashed within him. Warm love was for human beings. Cold love was for what his father called God (whom Milutin gave warm love). Nikola’s cold love was focused on the fierce, flame-like power of invention. Warm love was nothing in comparison. Nothing at all. A shadow. For Nikola, the library was the place of certainty that Father Milutin had never experienced. Other students absorbed science by rote, like a poem they would later live by and recite for the rest of their lives. For his part, Tesla was truly interested in the very essence of things. In addition to physics, he devoured volume after volume of classical and philosophical works.
He read and the world expanded for him. After all, he wanted to be an inventor, and inventing meant the expansion of the world. Just before the library would close, he went out and stared into Kant’s starry night. He felt that he was growing under the explosions of stars. Soon, his pointed ears would be at the same height as the city’s towers. And then? Galaxies would become entangled in his hair.
And then?
CHAPTER 18
A Tract on Noses
From the lecture Nikola Tesla gave to the Young Serbs Society on December 3, 1875
My dear colleagues, where would we be without noses?
Believe me—nowhere!
Noses connect us to the invisible world. They inform us about things healthy and unhealthy, let us know if the bed is clean or if the soup is hot, endow us with the smells of the morning and of the coming storm, and unite us with nature.
This is why noses are often compared to plants. We’re all familiar with so-called bulbous, cherry, or spud noses.
Human noses are bridges between us and the animal world. You’ve all heard of beak, snout, or pug noses. Many unfortunate young men are called toucans, unicorns, or rhinos.
Noses also tune us in to the seasons. They bring us the aroma of the frost in February and the linden blooms in June. A whiff of roasting peppers heralds August.
The nose is a kind of tool. People wonder if you can use it as a can opener. They often compare it to a spade, ax, or adze.
It’s a musical instrument similar to a trumpet, bassoon, or trombone. The nose provides a notorious sound box for snoring, which makes it unpopular with roommates.
The nose defines the timbre of the voice and therefore blesses singers and curses those who talk through it.
People sniff each other out in social situations as well. We’re all familiar with the “smell of money” and the “stench of poverty.”
The nose mirrors the features of Mother Earth, invoking her glorious mountain peaks as well as her deep, fathomless caverns.
The nose is a maze through which the light and the air find their way down to the darkness of the throat. It keeps us alive. Don’t forget that the nose gives us breath even before it endows us with fragrances.
The topic of noses has always inspired thinkers. Pascal believed that the fate of the world wouldn’t be the same if Cleopatra had had a shorter nose. Heine joked that “no matter how hard somebody sobs, he always blows his nose in the end.” Voltaire insisted that people come into this world with ten fingers and a nose but without the knowledge of God.
Picking
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