Preface Quotes

“So long as there shall exist, by reason of law and custom, a social condemnation which, in the midst of civilization, artificially creates a hell on earth, and complicates with human fatality a destiny that is divine; so long as the three problems of the century - the degradation of man by the exploitation of his labour, the ruin of women by starvation and the atrophy of childhood by physical and spiritual night are not solved; so long as, in certain regions, social asphyxia shall be possible; in other words and from a still broader point of view, so long as ignorance and misery remain on earth, there should be a need for books such as this.”
― Victor Hugo, Les Misérables

“Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot.
BY ORDER OF THE AUTHOR
per
G.G., CHIEF OF ORDNANCE”
― Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

“So long as there shall exist, by reason of law and custom, a social condemnation, which, in the face of civilisation, artificially creates hells on earth, and complicates a destiny that is divine, with human fatality; so long as the three problems of the age — the degradation of man by poverty, the ruin of woman by starvation, and the dwarfing of childhood by physical and spiritual night — are not solved; so long as, in certain regions, social asphyxia shall be possible; in other words, and from a yet more extended point of view, so long as ignorance and misery remain on earth, books like this cannot be useless.”
― Victor Hugo, Les Misérables

“Everything can happen, everything is possible and probable. Time and place do not exist; on an insignificant basis of reality the imagination spins, weaving new patterns; a mixture of memories, experiences, free fancies, incongruities and improvisations.”
― August Strindberg, A Dream Play

“The truth sticks in our throats with all the sauces it is served with: it will never go down until we take it without any sauce at all.”
― George Bernard Shaw, Saint Joan

“Self-sacrifice enables us to sacrifice other people without blushing.”
― George Bernard Shaw , Man and Superman

“Death, like fiction, is brutal in its symmetry. Take this story and strip it down -all the way back- until you are left with two points. Two dots on a vast, blank canvas, separeted by a sea of white. Here, we have come to the first point, where the batj is drawn and the hand is reachinh for the razor blade. I will meet you at the next, by the axle of a screaming wheel, the revolution of a clock, the closing of an orbit.”
― Lang Leav, Sad Girls

“No one can say 'He jests at scars who never felt a wound' for I have never for one moment been in a state of mind to which even the imagination of serious pain was less than intolerable. If any man is safe from the danger of under-estimating this adversary, I am that man.”
― C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain

“Fortunate, most fortunate occurrence! — fortunate for the millions of his manacled brethren, yet panting for deliverance from their awful thralldom! — fortunate for the cause of negro emancipation, and of universal liberty! — fortunate for the land of his birth, which he has already done so much to save and bless! — fortunate for a large circle of friends and acquaintances, whose sympathy and affection he has strongly secured by the many sufferings he has endured, by his virtuous traits of character, by his ever-abiding remembrance of those who are in bonds, as being bound with them! — fortunate for the multitudes, in various parts of our republic, whose minds he has enlightened on the subject of slavery, and who have been melted to tears by his pathos, or roused to virtuous indignation by his stirring eloquence against the enslavers of men! — fortunate for himself, as it at once brought him into the field of public usefulness, "gave the world assurance of a MAN," quickened the slumbering energies of his soul, and consecrated him to the great work of breaking the rod of the oppressor, and letting the oppressed go free!”
― William Lloyd Garrison, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

“The artist is the creator of beautiful things.
To reveal art and conceal the artist is art’s aim.
The critic is he who can translate into another
manner or a new material his impression of
beautiful things.

The highest as the lowest form of criticism
is a mode of autobiography.
Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful
things are corrupt without being charming.
This is a fault.
Those who find beautiful meanings
in beautiful things are the cultivated.
For these there is hope.
They are the elect to whom beautiful things mean only Beauty.

There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book.
Books are well written, or badly written.
That is all.

The nineteenth century dislike of
Realism is the rage of Caliban
seeing his own face in a glass.
The nineteenth century dislike of
Romanticism is the rage of Caliban
not seeing his own face in a glass.
The moral life of man forms part of the
subject-matter of the artist, but the morality
of art consists in the perfect use of an im-
perfect medium.
No artist desires to prove anything. Even
things that are true can be proved.
No artist has ethical sympathies. An
ethical sympathy in an artist is an un-
pardonable mannerism of style.
No artist is ever morbid. The artist
can express everything.
Thought and language are to the artist
instruments of an art.
Vice and virtue are to the artist materials
for an art.

From the point of view of form, the type of all
the arts is the art of the musician. From the
point of view of feeling, the actor’s craft is the
Type.

All art is at once surface and symbol.
Those who go beneath the surface do so at
their peril.
Those who read the symbol do so at
their peril.
It is the spectator, and not life, that art really
Mirrors.
Diversity of opinion about a work of art
shows that the work is new, complex, and vital.
When critics disagree, the artist is in accord
with himself.

We can forgive a man for making a useful
thing as long as he does not admire it. The
only excuse for making a useless thing is that
one admires it intensely.
All art is quite useless.”
― Oscar Wilde., The Picture of Dorian Gray

“There's a kind of passion particular to the written word which stays fresh long after the ink or even the writer's veins are dry. You could call it the sacred duty of the reader to keep that spark alive.”
― M. L. Rio, If We Were Villains

“Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming.
This is a fault.
Those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things are the cultivated.
For these there is hope.
They are the elect to whom beautiful things mean only Beauty.”
― Oscar Wilde., The Picture of Dorian Gray

“We can forgive a man for making a useful thing as long as he does not admire it.
The only excuse for making a useless thing is that one admires it intensely.
All art is quite useless.”
― Oscar Wilde., The Picture of Dorian Gray

“Where he has no pleasure he has no knowledge.”
― William Wordsworth, Preface to the Lyrical Ballads

“make art, make mistakes, and have no regrets. It would a shame to waste such brief mortality.”
― M. L. Rio, If We Were Villains

“My [early] tales were strangely enough 'society' tales; strangely enough, because I know about as much of 'society' as of the Great Horned Owl.”
― Arthur Machen, Collected Fiction Volume 1: 1888-1895

“I thought I'd witnessed the darkest realms of human kind, but there I was, surprised again by the cruelty some people were capable of.”
― Caroline Peckham, V Games: Fresh From the Grave

“Chet Zar will be the first person to tell you that he does not know what Dy5topia is. He also does not know where it is, how it came to be, or why it exists. At first glance, this may seem like an odd introduction to a field guide, yet perhaps it is the most apropos. This is exactly where Chet and I began, and so it seems fitting that you should also begin in the same place.”
― Mike Correll, DY5TOPIA: A Field Guide to the Dark Universe of Chet Zar

“There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book.
Books are well written, or badly written.
That is all.”
― Oscar Wilde.

“Ah, summer! The season when worry steps aside, delight takes over, and every day is as good as the amount of time spent outdoors.
It's a chance to swim past the breakers, take outdoor showers, hold court from a pool float, or rely on nothing but your wits, a pineapple, rum, and a blender to make the most of an afternoon. When the only imperative is to unwind, unplug, and open up to a day of possibilities, you know you're going to have fun.”
― Marnie Hanel, Summer: A Cookbook: Inspired Recipes for Lazy Days and Magical Nights

“The fact that one person imagines a "well-behaved" present and the other a predetermined future does not mean that they therefore fold their arms and become spectators (the former expecting that the present will continue, the latter waiting for the already "known" future to come to pass). On the contrary, closing themselves into "circles of certainty" from which they cannot escape, these individuals "make" their own truth. It is not the truth of men and women who struggle to build the future, running the risks involved in this very construction. Nor is it the truth of men and women who fight side by side and learn together how to build this future—which is not something given to be received by people, but is rather something to be created by them. Both types of sectarian, treating history in an equally proprietary fashion, end up without the people—which is another way of being against them.”
― Donaldo Macedo

“... one map cannot tell the whole story, and healthy skepticism is essential because map authors who don't understand or otherwise ignore cartographic principles can commit misleading blunders.”
― Mark Monmonier, How to Lie with Maps

“Shakespeare, with his wisdom and creative ability, enhanced by his brilliant rhetoric, created works truly full of aphorisms and memorable phrases capable of distilling profound insights into human nature, ethics, politics, love, suffering, in practice, into the whole existence.”
― Carl William Brown, William Shakespeare Aphoristic Dictionary: With essays by Carl William Brown

“To conclude this preface I would just like to add that certainly aphoristic literature, although of extreme philosophical, artistic, and often even scientific value, is not loved by the general public, less and less accustomed to reading, meditating and thinking, perhaps because they realize, even following the advice of certain pseudo intellectuals, that to be happy and carefree you must not make your brain work too much, however I remain of the opposite opinion, precisely to safeguard our humanity, and therefore I agree with the following concept expressed by John Stuart Mill and for this reason I continue to strive to promote the aphoristic genre, here is the pearl of the great English philosopher: "It is better to be a discontented man than a satisfied pig, to be Socrates unhappy than a contented imbecile, and if the imbecile and the pig are of a different opinion it is because they see only one side of the question.”
― Carl William Brown, William Shakespeare Aphoristic Dictionary: With essays by Carl William Brown

“Elinizdeki bu metin, akademik yapının içkin çelişkilerine ve çağdaş fiziğin sınırlarına yönelik bir sorgulama yürütürken; doğaya ilişkin özgün önermelerle birlikte, sinirbilim, topoloji ve fiziği matematiksel çözüm uzaylarında kesiştiren cüretkâr bir postulat öne sürmekte ve bu yönüyle aynı zamanda bir akademik isyan manifestosu işlevi görmektedir.
Bu kitaptaki önermelerin ve çıkarımların ortaya çıkışı ve şekillenişi, yükseköğrenim dönemlerimden itibaren yıllar içinde birleşerek bütünleşik bir manifesto oluşumuna gebe olmuştur. Almanya’daki iki ucu keskin akademik fizik ve astrofizik ekollerinin bireysel ve sınır tanımaz zihinlere uyguladığı görünmez, ancak işin ruhuna dokunan işkence; beni, çağdaş fiziğin sınırlarını da sorgulama cüretine götüren çeşitli bilimkurgu hikâyeleriyle dışavurumunu göstermişti.
Her ne kadar varlık veya bilgi felsefesi üzerine yeni bir şeyler söyleme amacı gütmese de gerçeğe ulaşmanın farklı yolları da olabileceği, bu farklı yolların mitos ile logos’un etkileşimli cümbüşünün doruk noktasında olduğu yerlerde yeni bir şeylerin filizlenebileceği düşüncesi, daha sistematik bir söylem yaratma arzusunu doğurmuştur.”
― Burak Cem Coşkun, Doğa Üzerine ve Yönteme Karşı

“The text you now hold undertakes a critical interrogation of the inherent contradictions within the academic structure and the limitations of contemporary physics. At the same time, it proposes an audacious postulate that brings neuroscience, topology, and physics together within mathematical solution spaces. In doing so, it functions as a manifesto of academic dissent.
The emergence and development of the propositions and inferences presented in this book have gradually matured into a coherent manifesto over the years, beginning in my early years of higher education. The double-edged nature of the academic traditions in physics and astrophysics in Germany, subtly yet profoundly tormenting independent and unbounded minds, found its expression in me through various science-fiction narratives. These narratives, in turn, gave rise to the courage to question the boundaries of modern physics itself.
Although the work does not aim to offer a novel thesis in metaphysics or epistemology, it is rooted in the conviction that there may be alternative routes to truth. These routes might emerge in places where mythos and logos engage in a dynamic interplay, giving rise to the possibility of something new. This conviction has led to the desire to construct a more systematic discourse.”
― Burak Cem Coşkun, Doğa Üzerine ve Yönteme Karşı

“Süreçler içindeki büyük karanlıkta boğulmakta olan ve ilerleyişi topyekûn durma noktasına gelme tehlikesi yaşayan bilim; antik İyon düşünürlerinin doğaya dair yaklaşımlarını ve bu yaklaşımların içselleştirilmesini yeniden miras kabul edecek zihinler tarafından kurtarılabilir.
Thales’in suyuna, manyetizmasına; Anaksimenes’in nefesine; Anaksimandros’un apeironuna; Anaksagoras’ın her şeyi düzenleyen zihnine ve İzmirli Ksenophanes’in karşıt-farkındalığına, söylencelerine, şiirselliğine...
Şimdilerde her zamankinden daha çok ihtiyaç vardır.”
― Burak Cem Coşkun, Doğa Üzerine ve Yönteme Karşı

“Science, drowning in the great darkness of its own processes and now in danger of coming to a complete halt, can only be redeemed by minds willing to reclaim and internalize the approaches of the ancient Ionian thinkers, those who turned to nature itself.
To Thales’ water and magnetism.
To Anaximenes’ breath.
To Anaximander’s apeiron.
To Anaxagoras’ ordering mind.
And to Xenophanes of Ionia, his critical awareness, his mythology, his poetry.
Today, we need them more than ever.”
― Burak Cem Coşkun, Doğa Üzerine ve Yönteme Karşı

“Martinson’un yönteminden ilham aldığımız ve bir uzay operasına
evrilme potansiyeli olan bu anlatımızda; evreni ve zamanı
anlama çabasıyla yetiştirdiği zihinlere sonsuz nimetler
sunan Anadolu toprakları, uzay-zaman sürekliliğinde de kendisine
yer buldu. Binlerce âleme, hiç bitmeyen hikâyeleri anlatacak
olan ışık getirenlere selam olsun.”
― Burak Cem Coşkun, Işık Getiren

“Kusur bir şeyler anlatmaya çalışıyor. Kime, niye ve nasıl anlatmaya
çalıştığı ise okuyucunun hayal gücüne ve doğayı anlamlandırma
çabasına bırakılmıştır. Kimi zaman spekülatif, kimi
zaman ise sağlam bilimsel temellere oturtulmuş olaylar, öyküsel
olarak kurgusallaştırılarak, bilimsel yöntemin algılanmasında
insanlara bir seçenek sunmaktadır. Aslında bu bilim kurgu türünün
en temel problemlerinden biri. Düşünülenin aksine çoğu
zaman bilim kurgunun insan odaklı olduğunu görürüz. Bilimin,
sosyolojik ve felsefi çıkarımlara ulaşmada bir araç olarak kullanıldığı
ise bir gerçektir fakat her zaman böyle olmak zorunda da
değildir. Bu kısa öyküde kurgu ile bilim arasındaki etkileşimden
yola çıkılmıştır. Nobel ödüllü haylaz fizikçi Richard Feynman
kurgunun bilimdeki rolü üzerine çok önemli tespitlerde bulunmaktadır.
Fizikte dahi teorilerimizi kurarken daha anlaşılır olabilmesi
ve en basit açıklamaya ulaşmak adına bazı küçük hileler
kullanırız, bu hileler analojilerdir. Analojilerden de esinlenerek
bir örgü ağ üzerinde düğümlerimizi sıklaştırırız. Son zamanlarda
kurgunun bilimdeki yeri ile ilgili en açık örnek Christopher
Nolan ile Kip Thorne’un Interstellar filmindeki iş birliği olsa
gerek. Hollywood ve Nolan sağ olsun, arşivimize nur topu gibi
kütleçekimsel merceklenme (Gravitational Lensing) alanında
iki makale girmiş, bazı astrofiziksel objeler üzerinde yeni fikirler
test edilmiş ve bilimsel yöntemler de kullanılarak bir araştırma
oluşturulmuştur. Kusur, anlatmaya çabaladığı şeyi daha uzun ve
kapsamlı olarak da anlatabilirdi ancak uzun bilimsel diyaloglar ile okuyucuyu sıkıp, dikkatini dağıtmak istemedik. Bu nedenle
olay örgüsünün durmaksızın, dengeli bir tempo ile okuyucuyu
gerçekliğin nihai doğasına doğru çekmesi amaçlanmıştır. Bu
yolculuk bizlere zaman kavramı hakkında da ipuçları verir. Peki
bu kavrama kusursuz bir yolculukla ulaşmak mümkün müdür?

Burak Cem Coşkun
Bonn, 2019”
― Burak Cem Coşkun, Kusur