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Tuva or Bust: Richard Feynman's Last Journey
A close friend of physicist Richard Feynman chronicles his relationship with the scientist and describes their ten-year quest to reach the remote country of Tannu Tuva
256 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1991
35 people are currently reading
2313 people want to read
About the author
Ralph Leighton
20 books19 followersRalph Leighton is an American biographer, film producer, and friend of the late physicist Richard Feynman. He recorded Feynman relating stories of his life. Leighton has released some of the recordings as The Feynman Tapes. These interviews (available as The Feynman Tapes on audio) became the basis for the books Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! and What Do You Care What Other People Think?, which were later combined into the hardcover anniversary edition Classic Feynman: All the Adventures of a Curious Character. Leighton is an amateur drummer and founder of the group Friends of Tuva. In 1990 he wrote Tuva or Bust! Richard Feynman's Last Journey.
He is credited as associate producer and originator of the concept for the Academy-Award–nominated documentary film Genghis Blues (2000), which came about through the nexus provided by Friends of Tuva.
He is credited as associate producer and originator of the concept for the Academy-Award–nominated documentary film Genghis Blues (2000), which came about through the nexus provided by Friends of Tuva.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 97 reviews
March 13, 2010
This one is for the Richard Feynman fans. You know who you are. A real joy to read and brings out the personality of the non-conformist Nobel Prize winner even more so than "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman" or "What Do You Care What Other People Think?" If you buy a copy BE SURE that you buy one with the 33rpm plastic mini-record (for those with record players, still), which contains excerpts from Bands 1 and 9, Side A, of MELODII TUVY (GOST 5289-73, 33D-030773): "Reka Alash" and "Artyy Saiyr" (Melodiya Records, Moscow, USSR) -- Tuvan throat singing!
January 27, 2008
Ralph Leighton's casually epic description of a decade of obsession with the tiny country of Tannu Tuva in the 1970s and 1980s (now a part of the Russian Federation, and a part of the USSR before that) describes itself as "Richard Feynman's Last Journey." It might perhaps be better described as "The author's obsession, shared in part with Richard Feynman who was a great man, and to whom it provided some comfort in that man's final years."
In practice, I was at once charmed and disappointed in the book itself. On the one hand, I had hoped for more Feynman, the chief reason (it seemed to me) to read the book in the first place. On the other hand, Leighton's casually geeky and relaxedly obsessive storytelling is folksy and engaging.
The meat of the book, in practice, is its observations about the nature of US-USSR relations during the tail end of the Cold War. The modern reader will be struck by how closed that world seems, and how remote the tiny nation of Tannu Tuva appears to be to a Westerner trying to catch a glimpse of it from afar. The book's accounts of lost mail, of tedious archival research, of Russian bureaucracy, and of the habits of waiters in Communist restaurants paint a picture of How It Was through the lens of an enthusiastic hobbyist and his comrades-in-arms.
It's hard not to like the book, especially since Leighton is writing it so earnestly on Feynman's behalf. Leighton, clearly a good friend of Feynman's, is nevertheless stuck at arm's length, never really able to penetrate the aura of Feynman's greatness and forever praising him as part of his (well-deserved) cult of personality. As Feynman's health deteriorates through the book, Leighton's prose becomes more needful. The book is an homage to Feynman and to what comfort Feynman drew from a decade of Tuva-seeking. "I couldn't save him," Leighton seems to say, "but I eased his passing."
This sentimentalism, though benevolent and understandable, does start to wear on the reader by the end. As Leighton celebrates every minuscule step toward Tuva, the reader can't help but feel that beneath the celebration is a seed of bitter frustration. Leighton tries too hard, in the end, to think positive and comes across as a little forced.
Despite these shortcomings, the book remains light and entertaining. Anyone with an interest in Feynman, in geography, in the comedic side of the Cold War, or in Asian nomad culture should give this book a whirl. For other readers, the book is still recommended, but not with any sense of urgency or force. Tuva, at the geometric center of Asia, isn't going anywhere. For more information from Ralph's enthusiastic Friends of Tuva, visit their website.
In practice, I was at once charmed and disappointed in the book itself. On the one hand, I had hoped for more Feynman, the chief reason (it seemed to me) to read the book in the first place. On the other hand, Leighton's casually geeky and relaxedly obsessive storytelling is folksy and engaging.
The meat of the book, in practice, is its observations about the nature of US-USSR relations during the tail end of the Cold War. The modern reader will be struck by how closed that world seems, and how remote the tiny nation of Tannu Tuva appears to be to a Westerner trying to catch a glimpse of it from afar. The book's accounts of lost mail, of tedious archival research, of Russian bureaucracy, and of the habits of waiters in Communist restaurants paint a picture of How It Was through the lens of an enthusiastic hobbyist and his comrades-in-arms.
It's hard not to like the book, especially since Leighton is writing it so earnestly on Feynman's behalf. Leighton, clearly a good friend of Feynman's, is nevertheless stuck at arm's length, never really able to penetrate the aura of Feynman's greatness and forever praising him as part of his (well-deserved) cult of personality. As Feynman's health deteriorates through the book, Leighton's prose becomes more needful. The book is an homage to Feynman and to what comfort Feynman drew from a decade of Tuva-seeking. "I couldn't save him," Leighton seems to say, "but I eased his passing."
This sentimentalism, though benevolent and understandable, does start to wear on the reader by the end. As Leighton celebrates every minuscule step toward Tuva, the reader can't help but feel that beneath the celebration is a seed of bitter frustration. Leighton tries too hard, in the end, to think positive and comes across as a little forced.
Despite these shortcomings, the book remains light and entertaining. Anyone with an interest in Feynman, in geography, in the comedic side of the Cold War, or in Asian nomad culture should give this book a whirl. For other readers, the book is still recommended, but not with any sense of urgency or force. Tuva, at the geometric center of Asia, isn't going anywhere. For more information from Ralph's enthusiastic Friends of Tuva, visit their website.
August 25, 2007
Life is Beautiful
I'd heard my scientist husband enthuse for years about Richard Feynman, so on a whim I grabbed this book from the shelf before leaving on a multiple-leg plane ride. I was agreeably surprised at how much I enjoyed it, though it wasn't quite the type of book I had expected. (I won't spoil your possible future reading of this book by explaining why, but just let it suffice to say that this is not a straightforward travel account.)
What I particularly liked was the description of Feynman & author Leighton's gradually growing obsession with going to Tuva. Their quest to correspond (in Tuvan) with people there was particularly of interest to me, as I have a background in linguistics. It was also, at times, sidesplittingly funny. Here is the literal translation of one of their missives:
"How living, working, are you? You-with new what is? Us-by fall fallen-has. Your sent-letters-your received have I. Sent gift also received I. Big-with thanks full-am I..." etc.
There is also a description of encounters with Soviet-era bureaucracy that would try the patience of Job. Having undertaken a few trips to the USSR back in those days myself, I pretty much knew what they were up against and marveled at their persistence. Lesser folks would simply have given up.
I was also struck with how well the author infused the account with a sense of the times, or zeitgeist, if you will. Interlarded throughout the book are little observations about current events. Perhaps these would be meaningless to younger readers, but it certainly transported me back to those times in the 70's and 80's --- I was surprised at how well I remembered, for example, the invasion of the Falklands or the Challenger shuttle disaster.
But above all, this book is a tribute to an indomitable spirit. Feynman's almost childlike curiosity and boundless energy, even recounted second hand, are contagious.
I'd heard my scientist husband enthuse for years about Richard Feynman, so on a whim I grabbed this book from the shelf before leaving on a multiple-leg plane ride. I was agreeably surprised at how much I enjoyed it, though it wasn't quite the type of book I had expected. (I won't spoil your possible future reading of this book by explaining why, but just let it suffice to say that this is not a straightforward travel account.)
What I particularly liked was the description of Feynman & author Leighton's gradually growing obsession with going to Tuva. Their quest to correspond (in Tuvan) with people there was particularly of interest to me, as I have a background in linguistics. It was also, at times, sidesplittingly funny. Here is the literal translation of one of their missives:
"How living, working, are you? You-with new what is? Us-by fall fallen-has. Your sent-letters-your received have I. Sent gift also received I. Big-with thanks full-am I..." etc.
There is also a description of encounters with Soviet-era bureaucracy that would try the patience of Job. Having undertaken a few trips to the USSR back in those days myself, I pretty much knew what they were up against and marveled at their persistence. Lesser folks would simply have given up.
I was also struck with how well the author infused the account with a sense of the times, or zeitgeist, if you will. Interlarded throughout the book are little observations about current events. Perhaps these would be meaningless to younger readers, but it certainly transported me back to those times in the 70's and 80's --- I was surprised at how well I remembered, for example, the invasion of the Falklands or the Challenger shuttle disaster.
But above all, this book is a tribute to an indomitable spirit. Feynman's almost childlike curiosity and boundless energy, even recounted second hand, are contagious.
February 23, 2022
Ralph Leighton and the Nobel Prize winning physicist, Richard Feynman, discovered Tuva as boy stamp collectors. As adults they became entranced, or shall we say obsessed, with this country. Unfortunately, by this time Tuva was no longer a country. It was part of the Soviet Union and the Cold War was at its height. This is the saga of the ten year attempt of the two friends to visit this unusual place.
The book shows the huge changes in research and communication of then (the late 1970s - the 1980s) and now. Leighton describes his trip to many libraries where he used card catalogs to find information. Aerial photos were ordered from the US government (photos with cloud cover were cheaper than photos taken on clear days). Friends sent him newspaper clippings and magazines with any mention of Tuva. Contact with Tuva and Tuvans required clever schemes. Embassies and consulates were visited. Translations were made using English to Russian and Russian to Tuvan dictionaries. When Gorbachev came to power a trip to Russia was possible, but Tuva was still a bridge to far.
Through Feynman’s status in the scientific community and reaching out to any name that could be found for a Tuvan or a Russian in a scientific, cultural or diplomatic position deemed helpful, the two friends built a network. Contacts and “pen pals” did not readily break the logjam but their clever diplomacy bore fruit when Leighton, as a volunteer, performed as an “international finder of traveling museum exhibitions” bringing a show of nomad artifacts to Los Angeles. (This is not Ralph’s first unusual venue, he alludes to training water polo teams, drumming and providing clown diving performances.) Confusing and confounding telegrams with the Russians (now owning their US "friends" a favor) followed.
There are (good and bad) twists and turns for an all around frustrating saga.
The actual trip is summarized in the end with a hint that there will be a book about it in the future. I don’t see that book, but Leighton went on to produce the film “Genghis Blues” about someone else’s trip.
In many ways this book is a paean to Richard Feynman who sounds like a wonderful person.
The book shows the huge changes in research and communication of then (the late 1970s - the 1980s) and now. Leighton describes his trip to many libraries where he used card catalogs to find information. Aerial photos were ordered from the US government (photos with cloud cover were cheaper than photos taken on clear days). Friends sent him newspaper clippings and magazines with any mention of Tuva. Contact with Tuva and Tuvans required clever schemes. Embassies and consulates were visited. Translations were made using English to Russian and Russian to Tuvan dictionaries. When Gorbachev came to power a trip to Russia was possible, but Tuva was still a bridge to far.
Through Feynman’s status in the scientific community and reaching out to any name that could be found for a Tuvan or a Russian in a scientific, cultural or diplomatic position deemed helpful, the two friends built a network. Contacts and “pen pals” did not readily break the logjam but their clever diplomacy bore fruit when Leighton, as a volunteer, performed as an “international finder of traveling museum exhibitions” bringing a show of nomad artifacts to Los Angeles. (This is not Ralph’s first unusual venue, he alludes to training water polo teams, drumming and providing clown diving performances.) Confusing and confounding telegrams with the Russians (now owning their US "friends" a favor) followed.
There are (good and bad) twists and turns for an all around frustrating saga.
The actual trip is summarized in the end with a hint that there will be a book about it in the future. I don’t see that book, but Leighton went on to produce the film “Genghis Blues” about someone else’s trip.
In many ways this book is a paean to Richard Feynman who sounds like a wonderful person.
December 19, 2017
Extremely pleasant and informative book on lost land of Tuva
When I was a kid in the 1950s I collected stamps and had quite a few from a mysterious little land called "Tannu Tuva". It always intrigued me because though I could find it on the old globe we had at home (made before the USSR swallowed the unfortunate Tuvans in 1944)I never heard the slightest news from there, nor did I ever hear of anyone going or coming from that little red country sandwiched between the yellow Soviet Union and green Mongolia. Time passed. A lot of time. Fast forward in fact, forty years. One day I saw a new book advertised--TUVA OR BUST. I could scarcely believe that somebody else in America remembered that hapless little country that once issued diamond and triangle stamps with yaks, camels, archers, and horsemen on them. Yet, they had it at our local bookstore. I bought it and read it as soon as I got home. What a treat ! I had never heard of Richard Feynman, not being a physics aficionado, but he turned out to be a great character. I enjoyed reading about his years-long efforts with Ralph Leighton to get to Tuva. They went through all kinds of trouble and interesting side voyages. For me, reading the book was only a beginning. I listened to the plastic disc of Tuvan throat singing that came with the book, and subsequently bought tapes and attended Tuvan concerts by the group Huun Huur Tu in Boston. I also became a "Friend of Tuva". You can find their website on the net. I drove around with my 'Tuva or Bust' bumper sticker for many years and had a few more interesting encounters because of that. All of this stemmed from reading this delightful book on a faraway, unknown country and two people's adventures trying to get there. A very pleasurable experience.
When I was a kid in the 1950s I collected stamps and had quite a few from a mysterious little land called "Tannu Tuva". It always intrigued me because though I could find it on the old globe we had at home (made before the USSR swallowed the unfortunate Tuvans in 1944)I never heard the slightest news from there, nor did I ever hear of anyone going or coming from that little red country sandwiched between the yellow Soviet Union and green Mongolia. Time passed. A lot of time. Fast forward in fact, forty years. One day I saw a new book advertised--TUVA OR BUST. I could scarcely believe that somebody else in America remembered that hapless little country that once issued diamond and triangle stamps with yaks, camels, archers, and horsemen on them. Yet, they had it at our local bookstore. I bought it and read it as soon as I got home. What a treat ! I had never heard of Richard Feynman, not being a physics aficionado, but he turned out to be a great character. I enjoyed reading about his years-long efforts with Ralph Leighton to get to Tuva. They went through all kinds of trouble and interesting side voyages. For me, reading the book was only a beginning. I listened to the plastic disc of Tuvan throat singing that came with the book, and subsequently bought tapes and attended Tuvan concerts by the group Huun Huur Tu in Boston. I also became a "Friend of Tuva". You can find their website on the net. I drove around with my 'Tuva or Bust' bumper sticker for many years and had a few more interesting encounters because of that. All of this stemmed from reading this delightful book on a faraway, unknown country and two people's adventures trying to get there. A very pleasurable experience.
January 13, 2010
I loved this book! Thanks Richard Feynman for refining my love for the Eurasian steppe! It was because of him that I saw my first herdsman in the Rose Parade so many years ago and was introduced to the music of Ondar. This book isn't a travel log of a trip to the nation of Tuva but a story of a different kind of journey; the one where it isn't the destination that really mattered but the adventure it took to get there. It's also interesting in that all the communication between USA and USSR was done in the era before emails and websites. They had to write actual letters that got stopped by the gov't of both sides, use the Telex and the telegram. Crazy that it wasn't all that long ago! Tuva or Bust!
July 4, 2014
This is a fascinating, humorous and sometimes bittersweet tale of Nobel-Prize winning physicist Richard Feynman’s search for the mysterious country of Tannu Tuva. Many years ago I read Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman, and have seen at least one PBS special on his life and search for Tuva. Reading this book, I am agog at the incredible lengths he and Leighton and others went through to get to a place so far away -- a place Feynman never reached in the end. The journey is sometimes more important than reaching the goal. This adventure occurred in the 1980s when Russia was the USSR, and before the Internet had really taken off; the nostalgia of pre-internet methods of researching -- letters, telexes, especially academic libraries -- is fascinating. Tuva is now well known, along with its famous throat singers, but back then it was one of the few remaining mysteries of the world—a country that existed on maps, then suddenly didn’t, hinted at through its colorful stamps to collectors like Feynman. With today’s globalization via the internet, there are no longer any mysterious unknown countries lurking about . . . are there? Read this book, then read more books by and about Feynman, a man who loved to learn and share his learning with the world.
February 17, 2015
Cuốn sách kể về nỗ lực để đến thăm Tuva - một đất nước nhỏ bé thuộc Liên bang Nga, nằm gần Mông Cổ - của tác giả và những người bạn của mình. Bị ấn tượng bởi những nét văn hóa độc đáo thể hiện qua các con tem và một số bài viết, tư liệu hiếm hoi về vùng đất này, Ralph Leighton và Richard Feynman (trong đó phần lớn là những nỗ lực của Leighton) đã tìm mọi cách để vượt qua trở ngại về ngôn ngữ, những cấm đoán trong thời kỳ chiến tranh lạnh giữa Liên Xô và Mỹ để có được tấm vé thông hành đến Tuva - trung tâm châu Á - trong cùng thời gian Feynman chống chọi với căn bệnh ung thư. Tuy nhiên cuốn sách không khắc họa được nhiều những nét tính cách độc đáo của Feynman (điều được thể hiện rất tuyệt vời trong cuốn sách
Feynman chuyện thật như đùa!
). Cũng vì qua giọng kể của Leighton (và những nỗ lực của ông) nên nhiều khi băn khoăn tự hỏi đây có phải là khao khát của Feynman không hay thật ra là nỗi ám ảnh được đến thăm Tuva của tác giả nhưng với mong muốn có cả Feynman trong chuyến hành trình.
July 8, 2012
I was enjoying this book, it's circuitous journey, the quirky explorations of intelligent minds... But, SPOILER ALERT! I resented finding out Feynman never got there when the book was advertised as the tale of his last journey. ... Just seemed like a cheap trick which kinda spoiled the theretofore pleasurable read for me.
April 11, 2015
There are some books that aren't on Must Read Classics lists but you end up going back to. Every time you do, there is something new. This is one of those books.
My copy traveled with me through southeast Asia. I thought I lost it on a Japanese train but when I went to the lost and found, it was immediately returned to me. Like Richard I didn't got to Tuva but never say never.
A great book and a timeless book. Highly recommend it.
My copy traveled with me through southeast Asia. I thought I lost it on a Japanese train but when I went to the lost and found, it was immediately returned to me. Like Richard I didn't got to Tuva but never say never.
A great book and a timeless book. Highly recommend it.
March 3, 2012
Here, I'll save you some time: Bust. Feynman is hardly in the book and never makes it to Tuva. Leighton does make it to Tuva but summarizes the trip in about a page. The rest of the book serves as a record of the letters and telegrams the author sent to various Soviet bureaucrats.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 6, 2014
A great book about how an causal interest can lead to a great adventure of life.
January 15, 2018
Richard Feynman is one of my heroes but there was not enough about him in this. It felt to me like his friend had written it to make money out of his friendship with Feynman. Disappointing
February 24, 2024
I'm a Feynman fan, picked this up cheap - and then it sat on my shelf for a decade or more. Glad I read it, but not what I was hoping for.
Ralph Leighton covers a timeline from a first discussion of Tannu Tuva (covered in both the first chapter and on the back cover) through many years. Visiting Tuva was his passion, and only to a lesser extent Feynman's. This is a travelogue, and Leighton is the driver.
A lot of history is referenced here, including the last decade plus of Soviet times. The lost mail and Soviet bureaucracy does get a little tiring to read. There are a few photos, and while there are no particularly good maps, the modern internet has plenty to provide. Liked it, but didn't really love it.
This review © Thom Denholm, All Rights Reserved
Ralph Leighton covers a timeline from a first discussion of Tannu Tuva (covered in both the first chapter and on the back cover) through many years. Visiting Tuva was his passion, and only to a lesser extent Feynman's. This is a travelogue, and Leighton is the driver.
A lot of history is referenced here, including the last decade plus of Soviet times. The lost mail and Soviet bureaucracy does get a little tiring to read. There are a few photos, and while there are no particularly good maps, the modern internet has plenty to provide. Liked it, but didn't really love it.
This review © Thom Denholm, All Rights Reserved
March 26, 2019
Unlike what the subtitle suggests, this book is not a story about the physicist Richard Feynman based on his own words, as in prior books for the general public edited by his friend, fellow drummer, and son of a colleague, Ralph Leighton. Rather, it is about an eleven-year campaign to circumvent Soviet bureaucracy waged by Leighton, Feynman, and Glen Cowan to visit a country on the far south of central Siberia, next to the northwest of Mongolia, known during the 1977-1988 period of this book as Tuva ASSR (now the Tyva Republic of the Russian Federation).
The idea for the visit came from a challenge made by Feynman to the thirty-year younger Leighton, then a high-school teacher, about this country that Feynman knew from his stamp-collecting days as Tannu Tuva. Somehow both were quite surprised in finding that its capital's name was Kyzyl. To Leighton it was "crazy" that it did not have "a legitimate vowel anywhere" -- quite an ignorant remark by a teacher whose native language includes words like SYZYGY, flyby, gynny, glycyl, pygmy, nymphly, slyly, shyly, spryly, thymy, besides a hundred odd words with only a Y as the single vowel. To Feynman, agreeing with his wife's suggestion that they had go there, a place spelled that way had to be interesting. (The city, built between 1914 and 1917 on a spot called Vilany by Russians and Khem Beldyr by Tuvans, was originally named Belotsarsk, in honor of the tsar. In 1920 it was renamed Krasny Gorod [Red City] by the bolshevik partisans and this name, Kyzyl in Tuvan --which means red as in other South Siberian Turkic languages, just as kizil means red in Turkish--, became official in 1922.)
Their various attempts to implement this whimsical goal, commonly described as examples of impulsive adventurous spirit, are the story Leighton narrates. Here Feynman quite often only pops in and out the chapters, playing a secondary role in the activities in spite of being annoyingly referred to as "the Chief" in a nearly constant manner by Leighton. Some descriptions seem contemporaneous notes. Otherwise it makes no sense, say, for Leighton to use quotes in speaking of a _"space shuttle"_ about the first flight of Challenger [p. 87], at a time the shuttle program had been in actual operation effectively for just two years, but abandon the quotes for the same _shuttle_ when it exploded four years later [p. 132]. The book lacks updated information about some significant milestones of the story, which by 1990 would had been available from Tuvan visitors. An example is the obelisk claimed to mark the center of Asia, inscribed in Russian, Tuvan, and English, which he called their Holy Grail after seeing its photo in 1980 [pp. 35-36]. That obelisk was the third generation making such claim, and the first generation actually located in the gardens on a quay of Kyzyl, where the Great and Little Yenisei tributaries join forming the Yenisei river. Built in 1964 and refaced with granite in 1984, that obelisk is now gone, replaced by another with Scythian motifs in 2014.
A number of people helped in greater or lesser degree in this quasi stereotypical California '80s dream adventure. No-one surpasses Glen Cowan in that help. Fluent in Russian, he was finishing his B.S. in Physics at UCLA in 1981 when he shows up in chapter 3, and continues to appear in the remaining chapters playing an active role. In the narrative, the campaign takes a greater impulse after he joined it while pursuing a Ph.D. at Berkeley (he is now professor of Particle Physics at RHUL, and contributor to the ATLAS experiment [Higgs boson] at the Large Hadron Collider of CERN). Cowan provided the indispensable capability to read and write in Russian that the campaign lacked; contributed with ideas and suggestions; went with Leighton on trips to Russia and Sweden; and was one of the members of the group (with Feynman, Leighton and their wives) twice scheduled to travel to Tuva in trips that ended up being cancelled. A criticizable aspect of the narrative is the petty treatment that Prof. Cowan ultimately received from the people he had helped.
Despite that he could not but mention Cowan frequently in the book, Leighton is rarely as enthusiastic in recognizing the help as would be reasonably expected towards a doctoral student giving pro bono assistance. Except for a minimal in-passing mention, Cowan vanishes in the fourteen-page epilogue and 'Reflections 2000' addendum -- Leighton apparently considered more relevant to gossip about the French rabbit-fur coat a member of the Russian delegation got for his wife.
I consider deplorable that Leighton mentions Cowan [ i ] only *once* in his website Friends of Tuva (inactive as of 2014), a site described as _the central clearing house of information and Tuva-related merchandise_ on the alt.culture.tuva newsgroup of Usenet, and [ ii ] *none at all* in the new site carrying Feynman's surname. Just as bad is Leighton's 2018 blog piece 'Searching for Tuva: Before the internet and now,' where the robust manifold participation of Cowan is pettily minimized as "we recruited a linguistic wizard named Glen Cowan to help." Oh, come on.
Quite more appalling in this respect has been Feynman himself in his speech for the opening of the USC's exhibition "Nomads of Eurasia" (as edited by Leighton in Appendix B of the book) and the video interview made for BBC TV Horizon "Feynman: The quest for Tannu Tuva (1988)," in both which the role of Cowan is never mentioned, despite it can reasonably be argued that without him the exhibition and subsequent invitation to visit Tuva would had hardly come to fruition, if at all. Besides the ingratitude, the video is inescapable proof that Feynman knew Cowan was involved in the Tuva campaign as it shows, at time 26:12 and 26:28, photos of Cowan, Feyman, and Leighton standing next to Leighton's car displaying a TOUVA license plate.
Given that this is a historical book sensu stricto, and Feynman mostly only pops in and out the story, it is important to contrast its narrative with what Feynman says about the story in the BBC video. That is not easy, as he nearly always uses a broad brush and Leighton often slips into pointillism. But it is clear that Leighton's narration in pp. 85-87 disagrees with Feynman's narration. Feynman ambiguously mentions as if it were coming from him and Leighton the idea to take a photo of him making it look like he is pushing the car (time 26:03 of the video, and p. 86 of the book) to send it to their friend Ondar in Tuva. Leighton's narrative, however, acknowledges it was Cowan's idea to take photos of them with Leighton's car plate to send to Tuva, and adds that: [ i ] Cowan advised against sending the false photo; [ ii ] it was the photo at 26:28 in the video, where all three are standing next to the car, the one that was sent to Tuva; and [ iii ] it was not sent to Ondar but --as originally planned by Cowan-- the Tuvinskaya Pravda newspaper in Kyzyl, along with a Lunar New Year greetings note written in Russian by Cowan that was published with the picture by the newspaper. That Cowan was a peer in the campaign is clearly established by the greeting note, a part of which can be seen in the photo at 26:28 saying in Russian: "We, residents of the state of California Ralph Leighton, doctor Richard Feynman and Glen Cowan [...]."
Though Leighton's narration sometimes suffers from irrelevant tangential skids, more often than not this is an entertaining book in that it highlights oddly byzantine Cold War policies and Soviet delusions (and hints of vestiges of seemingly McCarthyst pre-1992 fears of looking like a USSR sympathizer, as exemplified by unnecessarily defensive explanations of why someone would read Pravda or want to visit a place in Russia). Leighton and Cowan are the primary architects of the Tuva campaign edifice that consumed so much of their time, while Feynman has a sidekick role in a whimsical pursuit of secondary importance for him given the events in his life at the time, which conflicts with the commanding role he paints for himself in the 1988 BBC video.
Readers who worship Dick Feynman's anecdotes about himself will likely see the Chief's hand behind the actions of his associates and will enjoy the book. But readers who, despite admiring his creative scientific work and --in these days of experimentally unbound theoretical physics-- his insistence on the rigorous experimental testing of hypotheses, are not indiscriminate devotees of his anecdotes (especially those focused on emphasizing his own high opinion of his brilliance) might evaluate the book in a different light. Not recognizing people whose results of significance are useful to ourselves is tantamount to appropriating their work. And this is what occurred in Feynman's video and, in lesser degree, in Leighton's mentioned writings.
The idea for the visit came from a challenge made by Feynman to the thirty-year younger Leighton, then a high-school teacher, about this country that Feynman knew from his stamp-collecting days as Tannu Tuva. Somehow both were quite surprised in finding that its capital's name was Kyzyl. To Leighton it was "crazy" that it did not have "a legitimate vowel anywhere" -- quite an ignorant remark by a teacher whose native language includes words like SYZYGY, flyby, gynny, glycyl, pygmy, nymphly, slyly, shyly, spryly, thymy, besides a hundred odd words with only a Y as the single vowel. To Feynman, agreeing with his wife's suggestion that they had go there, a place spelled that way had to be interesting. (The city, built between 1914 and 1917 on a spot called Vilany by Russians and Khem Beldyr by Tuvans, was originally named Belotsarsk, in honor of the tsar. In 1920 it was renamed Krasny Gorod [Red City] by the bolshevik partisans and this name, Kyzyl in Tuvan --which means red as in other South Siberian Turkic languages, just as kizil means red in Turkish--, became official in 1922.)
Their various attempts to implement this whimsical goal, commonly described as examples of impulsive adventurous spirit, are the story Leighton narrates. Here Feynman quite often only pops in and out the chapters, playing a secondary role in the activities in spite of being annoyingly referred to as "the Chief" in a nearly constant manner by Leighton. Some descriptions seem contemporaneous notes. Otherwise it makes no sense, say, for Leighton to use quotes in speaking of a _"space shuttle"_ about the first flight of Challenger [p. 87], at a time the shuttle program had been in actual operation effectively for just two years, but abandon the quotes for the same _shuttle_ when it exploded four years later [p. 132]. The book lacks updated information about some significant milestones of the story, which by 1990 would had been available from Tuvan visitors. An example is the obelisk claimed to mark the center of Asia, inscribed in Russian, Tuvan, and English, which he called their Holy Grail after seeing its photo in 1980 [pp. 35-36]. That obelisk was the third generation making such claim, and the first generation actually located in the gardens on a quay of Kyzyl, where the Great and Little Yenisei tributaries join forming the Yenisei river. Built in 1964 and refaced with granite in 1984, that obelisk is now gone, replaced by another with Scythian motifs in 2014.
A number of people helped in greater or lesser degree in this quasi stereotypical California '80s dream adventure. No-one surpasses Glen Cowan in that help. Fluent in Russian, he was finishing his B.S. in Physics at UCLA in 1981 when he shows up in chapter 3, and continues to appear in the remaining chapters playing an active role. In the narrative, the campaign takes a greater impulse after he joined it while pursuing a Ph.D. at Berkeley (he is now professor of Particle Physics at RHUL, and contributor to the ATLAS experiment [Higgs boson] at the Large Hadron Collider of CERN). Cowan provided the indispensable capability to read and write in Russian that the campaign lacked; contributed with ideas and suggestions; went with Leighton on trips to Russia and Sweden; and was one of the members of the group (with Feynman, Leighton and their wives) twice scheduled to travel to Tuva in trips that ended up being cancelled. A criticizable aspect of the narrative is the petty treatment that Prof. Cowan ultimately received from the people he had helped.
Despite that he could not but mention Cowan frequently in the book, Leighton is rarely as enthusiastic in recognizing the help as would be reasonably expected towards a doctoral student giving pro bono assistance. Except for a minimal in-passing mention, Cowan vanishes in the fourteen-page epilogue and 'Reflections 2000' addendum -- Leighton apparently considered more relevant to gossip about the French rabbit-fur coat a member of the Russian delegation got for his wife.
I consider deplorable that Leighton mentions Cowan [ i ] only *once* in his website Friends of Tuva (inactive as of 2014), a site described as _the central clearing house of information and Tuva-related merchandise_ on the alt.culture.tuva newsgroup of Usenet, and [ ii ] *none at all* in the new site carrying Feynman's surname. Just as bad is Leighton's 2018 blog piece 'Searching for Tuva: Before the internet and now,' where the robust manifold participation of Cowan is pettily minimized as "we recruited a linguistic wizard named Glen Cowan to help." Oh, come on.
Quite more appalling in this respect has been Feynman himself in his speech for the opening of the USC's exhibition "Nomads of Eurasia" (as edited by Leighton in Appendix B of the book) and the video interview made for BBC TV Horizon "Feynman: The quest for Tannu Tuva (1988)," in both which the role of Cowan is never mentioned, despite it can reasonably be argued that without him the exhibition and subsequent invitation to visit Tuva would had hardly come to fruition, if at all. Besides the ingratitude, the video is inescapable proof that Feynman knew Cowan was involved in the Tuva campaign as it shows, at time 26:12 and 26:28, photos of Cowan, Feyman, and Leighton standing next to Leighton's car displaying a TOUVA license plate.
Given that this is a historical book sensu stricto, and Feynman mostly only pops in and out the story, it is important to contrast its narrative with what Feynman says about the story in the BBC video. That is not easy, as he nearly always uses a broad brush and Leighton often slips into pointillism. But it is clear that Leighton's narration in pp. 85-87 disagrees with Feynman's narration. Feynman ambiguously mentions as if it were coming from him and Leighton the idea to take a photo of him making it look like he is pushing the car (time 26:03 of the video, and p. 86 of the book) to send it to their friend Ondar in Tuva. Leighton's narrative, however, acknowledges it was Cowan's idea to take photos of them with Leighton's car plate to send to Tuva, and adds that: [ i ] Cowan advised against sending the false photo; [ ii ] it was the photo at 26:28 in the video, where all three are standing next to the car, the one that was sent to Tuva; and [ iii ] it was not sent to Ondar but --as originally planned by Cowan-- the Tuvinskaya Pravda newspaper in Kyzyl, along with a Lunar New Year greetings note written in Russian by Cowan that was published with the picture by the newspaper. That Cowan was a peer in the campaign is clearly established by the greeting note, a part of which can be seen in the photo at 26:28 saying in Russian: "We, residents of the state of California Ralph Leighton, doctor Richard Feynman and Glen Cowan [...]."
Though Leighton's narration sometimes suffers from irrelevant tangential skids, more often than not this is an entertaining book in that it highlights oddly byzantine Cold War policies and Soviet delusions (and hints of vestiges of seemingly McCarthyst pre-1992 fears of looking like a USSR sympathizer, as exemplified by unnecessarily defensive explanations of why someone would read Pravda or want to visit a place in Russia). Leighton and Cowan are the primary architects of the Tuva campaign edifice that consumed so much of their time, while Feynman has a sidekick role in a whimsical pursuit of secondary importance for him given the events in his life at the time, which conflicts with the commanding role he paints for himself in the 1988 BBC video.
Readers who worship Dick Feynman's anecdotes about himself will likely see the Chief's hand behind the actions of his associates and will enjoy the book. But readers who, despite admiring his creative scientific work and --in these days of experimentally unbound theoretical physics-- his insistence on the rigorous experimental testing of hypotheses, are not indiscriminate devotees of his anecdotes (especially those focused on emphasizing his own high opinion of his brilliance) might evaluate the book in a different light. Not recognizing people whose results of significance are useful to ourselves is tantamount to appropriating their work. And this is what occurred in Feynman's video and, in lesser degree, in Leighton's mentioned writings.
August 3, 2022
Obviously, a bit dated and point in time story, Leighton tells the tale of Richard Feynman’s last years and their goal of trying to get to the Soviet republic of Tuva (which was a country in the early 20th century).
A fun read but probably should have been a magazine article rather than a book. The details of attempting to convince Soviet officials in the 1980s to get a visa to Tuva got old fast.
A fun read but probably should have been a magazine article rather than a book. The details of attempting to convince Soviet officials in the 1980s to get a visa to Tuva got old fast.
November 23, 2018
As a travel narrative, this is a bit of an unusual book, in that it is mostly about trying to get to a particular place, but doesn't really provide a narrative of actually traveling there. As with much else in Richard Feynman's life, this all began with a whimsical bit of silliness. Feynman knew of Tannu Tuva from his childhood stamp collecting, and used that trivia to stump his friend Ralph Leighton. In the process, he triggered a quest to visit this remote place, which was nominally independent only for a brief period in the first half of the twentieth century before it joined the Soviet Union (it is now part of the Russian Federation).
This is a bit of a time capsule, highlighting the tensions between the Soviet Union and the United States during the 1980s. These relations form the backdrop to the story of the friends' efforts to travel to Tuva, and played a large role in the struggles they encountered. Not only is Tuva exceptionally remote (located between Siberia and Mongolia), but the Soviet red tape made travel there by outsiders exceedingly difficult.
While the efforts to reach Tuva mostly failed to come to fruition, the story of the effort highlights the personalities of those involved, and show how individuals can bridge cultural and political differences to form friendships. And that is perhaps the most inspiring part of this story...that ordinary people can reach across enormous barriers of distance and culture and find commonality with those on the other side.
This is a bit of a time capsule, highlighting the tensions between the Soviet Union and the United States during the 1980s. These relations form the backdrop to the story of the friends' efforts to travel to Tuva, and played a large role in the struggles they encountered. Not only is Tuva exceptionally remote (located between Siberia and Mongolia), but the Soviet red tape made travel there by outsiders exceedingly difficult.
While the efforts to reach Tuva mostly failed to come to fruition, the story of the effort highlights the personalities of those involved, and show how individuals can bridge cultural and political differences to form friendships. And that is perhaps the most inspiring part of this story...that ordinary people can reach across enormous barriers of distance and culture and find commonality with those on the other side.
August 29, 2015
I hadn't realized before that the author, Ralph Leighton, is the guy responsible for Feynman's books of autobiographical stories: Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!: Adventures of a Curious Character and What Do You Care What Other People Think?. Those weren't penned by Feynman directly -- Ralph wrote them down after hearing these stories told during drum circle sessions.
Here Ralph steps out into the spotlight and tells about his quest (together with Feynman) to visit, on a whim, the Soviet republic of Tuva, basically in the center of Asia and as far as you can get from an ocean. There are a few nice Feynman anecdotes, but mostly we have curious glimpses of him as a preoccupied, aging, cancer-afflicted sidekick figure rather than the main instigator.
The writer and his friends are very much hippie Californians: "Hey, man, those swell chicks really dig our drum circle!" ... not to mention "Let's offer them massages at the nudist beach!" and other stuff that's meant harmlessly, but comes across a bit sleazy now a few decades later.
But I do really like his description of an early trip to Moscow and other parts of the USSR. Plenty of interesting insight into life there & then, as well as how US tourists would be shepherded around on such a trip in that era.
I also never knew how much ridiculous diplomatic negotiation, not to mention hard planning and effort, goes into arranging international museum exhibitions.
Bonus: my used copy comes with an attached plastic-sheet-disc thing that apparently could be played on a turntable, if I had one. I didn't know you could record music on something so flimsy and floppy (it's not a stiff vinyl record).
Here Ralph steps out into the spotlight and tells about his quest (together with Feynman) to visit, on a whim, the Soviet republic of Tuva, basically in the center of Asia and as far as you can get from an ocean. There are a few nice Feynman anecdotes, but mostly we have curious glimpses of him as a preoccupied, aging, cancer-afflicted sidekick figure rather than the main instigator.
The writer and his friends are very much hippie Californians: "Hey, man, those swell chicks really dig our drum circle!" ... not to mention "Let's offer them massages at the nudist beach!" and other stuff that's meant harmlessly, but comes across a bit sleazy now a few decades later.
But I do really like his description of an early trip to Moscow and other parts of the USSR. Plenty of interesting insight into life there & then, as well as how US tourists would be shepherded around on such a trip in that era.
I also never knew how much ridiculous diplomatic negotiation, not to mention hard planning and effort, goes into arranging international museum exhibitions.
Bonus: my used copy comes with an attached plastic-sheet-disc thing that apparently could be played on a turntable, if I had one. I didn't know you could record music on something so flimsy and floppy (it's not a stiff vinyl record).
January 24, 2015
This is a memoir by Ralph Leighton of his Cold War-era struggle to learn as much as he can about Tuva, a little place in the USSR, and go there with Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman.
Tuva is near the intersection of Russia, China, Mongolia and Kazakhstan, in the middle of Asia, and on the far side of the Iron Curtain from Leighton's native California. It was briefly independent in the early twentieth century, a period during which it issued its own postage stamps, striking the fancy of many a geography geek around the world.
It also struck the fancy of Feynman, a brilliant, idiosyncratic, whimsical man I was first introduced to through his funny semi-autobiographical book 'Surely You're Joking, Mr Feynman!' Leighton is the son of one of Feynman's colleagues, and the two bond over a shared love of drum circles and a shared obsession with Tuva and the spelling of the name of its capital city, Kyzyl.
In the book, Leighton expends huge amounts of effort learning the most basic facts about Tuva, a process that's scarcely believable now, in the age of the Internet and Wikipedia. He works even harder to get himself and Feynman permission from the Soviet government to travel to Tuva, which is also hard to imagine in an age when it's possible to just get a tourist visa and book a flight online.
The book was a charming window into our divided Cold War past, pre-Information-Age searches for information involving searching libraries and writing letters, and the lives of a couple of curious guys trying to have a little fun in an overly serious world that does not properly appreciate clown-diving competitions and fanciful obsessions with faraway places.
Tuva is near the intersection of Russia, China, Mongolia and Kazakhstan, in the middle of Asia, and on the far side of the Iron Curtain from Leighton's native California. It was briefly independent in the early twentieth century, a period during which it issued its own postage stamps, striking the fancy of many a geography geek around the world.
It also struck the fancy of Feynman, a brilliant, idiosyncratic, whimsical man I was first introduced to through his funny semi-autobiographical book 'Surely You're Joking, Mr Feynman!' Leighton is the son of one of Feynman's colleagues, and the two bond over a shared love of drum circles and a shared obsession with Tuva and the spelling of the name of its capital city, Kyzyl.
In the book, Leighton expends huge amounts of effort learning the most basic facts about Tuva, a process that's scarcely believable now, in the age of the Internet and Wikipedia. He works even harder to get himself and Feynman permission from the Soviet government to travel to Tuva, which is also hard to imagine in an age when it's possible to just get a tourist visa and book a flight online.
The book was a charming window into our divided Cold War past, pre-Information-Age searches for information involving searching libraries and writing letters, and the lives of a couple of curious guys trying to have a little fun in an overly serious world that does not properly appreciate clown-diving competitions and fanciful obsessions with faraway places.
October 6, 2022
- This book is about the briefly-independent country of Tannu Tuva (part of the Soviet Union at the time the book was written), and is one of the books representing Asia on my list “Seven Continents of Books 2022” -
What a unique find and highly entertaining read : ) I happened to stumble on this gem at a used book store and got hooked on it immediately. It’s the story of how famous physicist Richard Feynman and his friend Ralph Leighton became fascinated by Tannu Tuva and the lengths they went to, to find a way to visit it. It’s a mix of all kinds of elements- I learned about Tuva, and along the way, enjoyed the “time capsule” quality of the story. It’s a snapshot of 80’s Cold War politics as well as just of what research and communication used to be like, not that long ago. No internet searches were available to find out about Tuva, and the process they went through just to find the basic starting information was painstaking and involved many visits to research libraries. No e-mails were sent but plenty of telegrams and slow-paced letters. It was the thrill of the hunt that kept them going, one piece of information at a time, over the course of about ten years.
Very much recommended!
What a unique find and highly entertaining read : ) I happened to stumble on this gem at a used book store and got hooked on it immediately. It’s the story of how famous physicist Richard Feynman and his friend Ralph Leighton became fascinated by Tannu Tuva and the lengths they went to, to find a way to visit it. It’s a mix of all kinds of elements- I learned about Tuva, and along the way, enjoyed the “time capsule” quality of the story. It’s a snapshot of 80’s Cold War politics as well as just of what research and communication used to be like, not that long ago. No internet searches were available to find out about Tuva, and the process they went through just to find the basic starting information was painstaking and involved many visits to research libraries. No e-mails were sent but plenty of telegrams and slow-paced letters. It was the thrill of the hunt that kept them going, one piece of information at a time, over the course of about ten years.
Very much recommended!
April 23, 2012
Tuva or Bust! tells the story of the late Nobel-winning physicist Richard Feynman and his sidekick Ralph Leighton as they plotted (in the later days of the Cold War) to visit the forbidden central Asian Soviet city of Tuva, simply to see if they could do it. The narrative is at first hilarious, full of their creative hijinks and harmless machinations, inspiring me to think, “These guys really know how to live!” By that I mean their endless curiosity and wit in turning setbacks into further opportunities to meet people, learn odd languages, and twist arms. As time goes on, though, Feynman’s recurring cancer adds a poignant tone to their ongoing battles with bureaucracies. Leighton also is responsible for two volumes of Feynman’s memoirs, Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman! and What Do You Care What Other People Think? These other books show the physicist’s extra-curricular skills in safe-cracking and bongo-drumming, among other pursuits. Read these if you want a dose of life lived fully.
February 4, 2012
It all started in thre mid-1970's with an animated dinner-table discussion between friends about obscure geographic locations.
When Richard Feynman produced a postage stamp that had been part of his childhood stamp collection from a country called Tuva, the two friends at once became interested in finding out more. When they discovered that the capital of Tuva is calldd Kyzyl thdy became nearly obsessed with the idea of visiting Tuva.
Unfortunately, getting to Tuva would not be easy. It lay deep in a remote corner of what was then the Soviet Union, and in the mid-70's, the Cold War raged on. Meanwhile, Feynman was also battling cancer.
This story, while poignant, is told with great humor and wit. I felt I got to know a bit about who Feynman was. In the process, I also learned about a place I'd never heard of before. Throat-singing? Who knew?
I definitely enjoyed this book, and I plan to read some of Feynman's work in the future.
When Richard Feynman produced a postage stamp that had been part of his childhood stamp collection from a country called Tuva, the two friends at once became interested in finding out more. When they discovered that the capital of Tuva is calldd Kyzyl thdy became nearly obsessed with the idea of visiting Tuva.
Unfortunately, getting to Tuva would not be easy. It lay deep in a remote corner of what was then the Soviet Union, and in the mid-70's, the Cold War raged on. Meanwhile, Feynman was also battling cancer.
This story, while poignant, is told with great humor and wit. I felt I got to know a bit about who Feynman was. In the process, I also learned about a place I'd never heard of before. Throat-singing? Who knew?
I definitely enjoyed this book, and I plan to read some of Feynman's work in the future.
September 29, 2009
Two friends become enamored with the idea of visiting Tuva, a formerly independent member of the USSR. One of them just happens to be Nobel laureate Richard Feynman. This then is a memoir, not just of a travel adventure, but of the thirst for knowledge of a great man. The attempts to get through the Soviet red tape are humorous, and the book is mostly light-hearted and lightweight. Feynman is a fascinating character, and it is interesting to read about the allure of a city with no proper vowels (Kyzyl, the capital). Tuva or Bust was a pleasant afternoon's read, but the travel portions are outdated (USSR, what?), and the difficulties encountered while researching Tuva seem strange now that we have the interwebs for that. There are better books by and about Mr. Feynman. Read Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman instead.
January 10, 2010
I once saw a TV show on Ricnhard Feynman, his wife and his friends (mr/Mrs Ralph Leighton) coforresponding with the government of Tuva, a tiny country near Mongolia --or part of Mongolia?
They wrote as "friendly ambassadors from the USA", trying to establish good relations with this unknown country (home of the "throat singers"), and get invited as government guests. It was hilarious.
After Feynman died, they wrote up the story of their eventual actual visit, accompanied by a blind New Orleans musician who lit up the TV special and led me to learn more about his life and music.
The whole thing--the original Feynman plot/good humored joke, the actual visit, the blind N.O. musician (who has since died)--filled me with joy. I bought the DVD as well!
They wrote as "friendly ambassadors from the USA", trying to establish good relations with this unknown country (home of the "throat singers"), and get invited as government guests. It was hilarious.
After Feynman died, they wrote up the story of their eventual actual visit, accompanied by a blind New Orleans musician who lit up the TV special and led me to learn more about his life and music.
The whole thing--the original Feynman plot/good humored joke, the actual visit, the blind N.O. musician (who has since died)--filled me with joy. I bought the DVD as well!
February 2, 2015
Flashback to 2005, I was somewhere in the final northern portion of the Appalachian Trail and arrive at a shelter with a telephone. After ordering pizza with friends and settling in for the night, I see a bumper sticker high on the wall: "Tuva or Bust!" At the time, I had no idea what this phrase meant but it would bounce in and out of my consciousness for years until I finally Googled it and learned that it's the title of a book. I was only peripherally aware of who Richard Feynman was, but the book seemed interesting enough to pick up. I enjoyed this title, though it is a bit dated and the humor within will appeal to only a select few, probably the same who really liked the "RDRR" joke in the early The Simpsons episode, "Bart the Genius."
August 10, 2016
Not a fan of travel writing in the first place, but a good friend recommended it because of my interest in Tuvan "throat singing" and in physics. I categorize this work as biography/hagiography because Leighton attempts to beatify his friend and colleague Richard Feynman as he delineates their attempts to reach Tuva. Lots of dead spots in the "narrative" and way too much kissing-up to The Chief for my taste. And if you're going to talk about the last days of a great man, i'd rather have something intimate rather than this safe hero worship.
February 6, 2008
This is nonfiction novel following Richard Feynman (a famous physicist who worked on the A-bomb) and Ralph Leighton (Feynman's friend the geography teacher) as they try to find a way to Tannu Tuva, an obscure province of Russia that used to be an independent country. The reason the two want to journey to Tuva is because of the spelling of the country's capital: Kyzyl. Is that a great reason or what? Anyway, their efforts take place smack dab in the middle of the Cold War, when Soviet-American relations are the stiffest. It took ten years for them to finally get to Tuva and it became Richard Feynman's last journey.
January 22, 2009
Pretty interesting account of Ralph Leighton, Richard Feynman, and a few others' very determined stab at traveling to the remote territory of Tuva in the USSR. Pretty interesting and inspiring to see the hoops they'll jump through and the clever tactics they employ to gain access to Tuva. Overall, although inspiration it's written more as a log/account than something that's created to be interesting to a general audience. Of course, if you pick up this book in the first place or have even heard of Tuva, you're probably not a general audience.
(If you are interested in this book, I recommend you watch the documentary Genghis Blues).
(If you are interested in this book, I recommend you watch the documentary Genghis Blues).
January 5, 2016
Richard Feynman is one interesting person! Because he had a stamp from his childhood collection with the name "Tuva" on it he decided to take a trip there. Wherever "there" was! It took ten years of extensive research to try and get to this Outer Mongolian country. The author, his friend, was as determined as Feynman to make this journey. The book gets a bit bogged down with details but the reader pulls for these guys to get to their destination. I certainly learned a lot about Tuva and one has to be impressed when going online to hear the Throat Singing practiced there. An odd little book that's not only educational but lots of fun and who doesn't like Feynman! A most fascinating man.
July 10, 2016
Richard Feynman's adventures are endlessly entertaining, and this book is no exception. Although lacking Feynman's distinctive voice, it provides a fitting tribute to a man obsessed with visiting a remote part of the world.
Rich in details of the strangeness that ensued while pursuing that obsession, the tale is as idiosyncratic as the man himself. It is charming, if uneven in spots.
As a geography geek I found Feynman et al.'s relentless pursuit and many tangents fascinating and even inspirational. Their story also serves as an important reminder that the journey is often more rewarding than the destination.
Rich in details of the strangeness that ensued while pursuing that obsession, the tale is as idiosyncratic as the man himself. It is charming, if uneven in spots.
As a geography geek I found Feynman et al.'s relentless pursuit and many tangents fascinating and even inspirational. Their story also serves as an important reminder that the journey is often more rewarding than the destination.
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