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Tesla
Alternate cover edition of B005ZWJJHI
Genius. Visionary. Madman.
Nikola Tesla (1856--1943) was the pioneering genius who invented the AC electrical system that powers our world to this day, as well as radio, remote control, the automobile speedometer, X-ray photography, the AND logic gate that drives all our computer systems, and countless other devices and precursors to devices such as cell phones, television, and the Internet that we so effortlessly use today.
Strikingly handsome and charismatic, fluent in half a dozen languages, mathematics savant and master machinist, a reed-thin perfectionist who quoted poetry like a Victorian rapper, Tesla became one of the most famous men of his day. Friend of tycoons like John Jacob Astor and Stanford White and celebrities like Mark Twain and Sarah Bernhardt.
Yet Tesla was an intensely driven and lonely man, beset by inner demons, and cursed with a protean inventive imagination a century ahead of his time. He died in obscurity and poverty and, to this day, his name is not widely known. How did that happen?
Blending historical fact with speculative imagination, Lisa Mason explores the secrets of the Inventor’s inner life and his obsession with Goethe’s Faust set against the backdrop of sweeping technological changes at the turn of the twentieth century that have forever changed the world.
A list of Sources follows the Screenplay, which was read by the producer of “Aliens” and “The Abyss.” Another producer is currently reading this.
From the author of Celestial Girl (A Lily Modjeska Mystery), The Garden of Abracadabra, Volume 1 of the Abracadabra Series, Summer of Love, A Time Travel (A Philip K. Dick Award Finalist and San Francisco Chronicle Recommended Book), The Gilded Age, A Time Travel (A New York Times Notable Book and New York Public Library Recommended Book), and Strange Ladies: 7 Stories.
Genius. Visionary. Madman.
Nikola Tesla (1856--1943) was the pioneering genius who invented the AC electrical system that powers our world to this day, as well as radio, remote control, the automobile speedometer, X-ray photography, the AND logic gate that drives all our computer systems, and countless other devices and precursors to devices such as cell phones, television, and the Internet that we so effortlessly use today.
Strikingly handsome and charismatic, fluent in half a dozen languages, mathematics savant and master machinist, a reed-thin perfectionist who quoted poetry like a Victorian rapper, Tesla became one of the most famous men of his day. Friend of tycoons like John Jacob Astor and Stanford White and celebrities like Mark Twain and Sarah Bernhardt.
Yet Tesla was an intensely driven and lonely man, beset by inner demons, and cursed with a protean inventive imagination a century ahead of his time. He died in obscurity and poverty and, to this day, his name is not widely known. How did that happen?
Blending historical fact with speculative imagination, Lisa Mason explores the secrets of the Inventor’s inner life and his obsession with Goethe’s Faust set against the backdrop of sweeping technological changes at the turn of the twentieth century that have forever changed the world.
A list of Sources follows the Screenplay, which was read by the producer of “Aliens” and “The Abyss.” Another producer is currently reading this.
From the author of Celestial Girl (A Lily Modjeska Mystery), The Garden of Abracadabra, Volume 1 of the Abracadabra Series, Summer of Love, A Time Travel (A Philip K. Dick Award Finalist and San Francisco Chronicle Recommended Book), The Gilded Age, A Time Travel (A New York Times Notable Book and New York Public Library Recommended Book), and Strange Ladies: 7 Stories.
316 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 1, 2011
9 people want to read
About the author
Lisa Mason
75 books72 followersStay safe and well in 2021! Please visit my website at http://www.lisamason.com for all my print books, ebooks, screenplays, Storybundles, interviews, blogs, my husband Tom Robinson's bespoke jewelry and artwork, cute cat pictures, and more!
My second collection, ODDITIES: 22 Stories, is available now as an ebook on Kindle worldwide and as a print book in seven countries, including the U.S. and the U.K. The collection includes stories previously published in OMNI, Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Full Spectrum 5, and others, plus six new stories. A Locus Magazine Notable Book.
I've got eight other books available as beautiful trade paperbacks (and ebooks): CHROME, Summer of Love, The Gilded Age, The Garden of Abracadabra, Arachne, Cyberweb, One Day in the Life of Alexa, and Strange Ladies: 7 Stories.
Summer of Love was a Philip K. Dick Award Finalist and San Francisco Chronicle Recommended Book, The Gilded Age was a New York Times Notable Book. My Omni story, "Tomorrow's Child," sold outright as a feature film to Universal Pictures and is in development.
My second collection, ODDITIES: 22 Stories, is available now as an ebook on Kindle worldwide and as a print book in seven countries, including the U.S. and the U.K. The collection includes stories previously published in OMNI, Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Full Spectrum 5, and others, plus six new stories. A Locus Magazine Notable Book.
I've got eight other books available as beautiful trade paperbacks (and ebooks): CHROME, Summer of Love, The Gilded Age, The Garden of Abracadabra, Arachne, Cyberweb, One Day in the Life of Alexa, and Strange Ladies: 7 Stories.
Summer of Love was a Philip K. Dick Award Finalist and San Francisco Chronicle Recommended Book, The Gilded Age was a New York Times Notable Book. My Omni story, "Tomorrow's Child," sold outright as a feature film to Universal Pictures and is in development.
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March 4, 2013I’m not rating/reviewing my own work--that's up to you, the reader--but I do have some things to say. I was presented with the gigantic task of writing a cradle-to-grave biopic of the genius inventor Nicola Tesla. The logline is “A Beautiful Mind meets Gandhi.” I was astounded to learn about the man and his work and his place in history. I’d never heard of him before.
After plowing through mountainous research, I discovered three visual/dramatic images that leapt out and could be employed as recurring themes. One--wheels spinning. From Tesla’s childhood water wheel (mentioned in one short sentence in his autobiography along with trying to fly with an umbrella) to his famous migraine-induced vision of the AC generator to the speedometer, spinning wheels characterize his work (in stark contrast to the straight-line, square thinking of most science).
Two--imaginary companions. In his autobiography, Tesla refers briefly to “my spirits.” In Margaret Cheney’s monumental biography, she mentions that Tesla’s devoted secretaries overheard him having arguments in voices while alone in his office. He was the quintessential mad scientist willing to experiment on himself, confront mortal danger, and work endless hours alone through the night so I didn’t think it too much of a speculative leap that he had imaginary companions. (Spoiler alert.) One is the devil out Goethe’s Faust, which Tesla was obsessed with, who offers him revelations in exchange for his soul. The other is the bullying older brother who died when Tesla was a boy. To me, this internalization accounts for Tesla’s self-destructive behavior, his propensity to challenge society’s bullies, like J.P. Morgan, against whom he just can’t win, and his lifelong bitter rivalry with a bullying Thomas Edison.
And three—a courtroom. Tesla devoted many hours to appearing as an expert witness, a plaintiff, and a defendant. The research makes clear the onerous impact of patent litigation on inventors. Some, like Edwin Armstrong, a Tesla admirer who invented television technology, committed suicide. I thought Tesla’s defense of himself in the Court of Life made an interesting framing image. So there you have it. I hope more readers will give the screenplay a try and write a review. Learning is my lifelong quest.
After plowing through mountainous research, I discovered three visual/dramatic images that leapt out and could be employed as recurring themes. One--wheels spinning. From Tesla’s childhood water wheel (mentioned in one short sentence in his autobiography along with trying to fly with an umbrella) to his famous migraine-induced vision of the AC generator to the speedometer, spinning wheels characterize his work (in stark contrast to the straight-line, square thinking of most science).
Two--imaginary companions. In his autobiography, Tesla refers briefly to “my spirits.” In Margaret Cheney’s monumental biography, she mentions that Tesla’s devoted secretaries overheard him having arguments in voices while alone in his office. He was the quintessential mad scientist willing to experiment on himself, confront mortal danger, and work endless hours alone through the night so I didn’t think it too much of a speculative leap that he had imaginary companions. (Spoiler alert.) One is the devil out Goethe’s Faust, which Tesla was obsessed with, who offers him revelations in exchange for his soul. The other is the bullying older brother who died when Tesla was a boy. To me, this internalization accounts for Tesla’s self-destructive behavior, his propensity to challenge society’s bullies, like J.P. Morgan, against whom he just can’t win, and his lifelong bitter rivalry with a bullying Thomas Edison.
And three—a courtroom. Tesla devoted many hours to appearing as an expert witness, a plaintiff, and a defendant. The research makes clear the onerous impact of patent litigation on inventors. Some, like Edwin Armstrong, a Tesla admirer who invented television technology, committed suicide. I thought Tesla’s defense of himself in the Court of Life made an interesting framing image. So there you have it. I hope more readers will give the screenplay a try and write a review. Learning is my lifelong quest.
December 20, 2015
Romanticized but informative account of the life of the semi-legendary genius.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews