June 22, 2007

Comics, Physics, and Poetry

By RICHARD BYRNE

Rhymers aren't supposed to relate to relativity. Why else is the quintessential gut course for humanities majors dubbed "Physics for Poets"?

But A. Van Jordan, a poet and an assistant professor of English at the University of Texas at Austin, has been attracted, not repelled, by the concepts and the language of physics in his forthcoming book, Quantum Lyrics (W.W. Norton, July).

"Physicists talk in metaphor all the time," says Mr. Jordan, 41, who weaves theories and theorems