Daily Orange: What made you choose quantum physics?

Adam Felber: I found quantum physics very interesting. My freshman year, I was an engineer and took physics. Later when I was an English major and doing my philosophy minor, it actually came up a lot … all these arcane extrapolations that don’t make any sense.

D.O.: If Schrdinger was alive (or alive and dead), what would he say?

A.F.: I think he’d think it was very funny. Schrdinger went on later in life to say he wished he’d never met that cat because people are getting it all wrong. My book gets it wrong on purpose, so I think he’d love it. The cat fascinated me. When I started writing the book I didn’t have a cat.

Editor’s note: Felber’s cat’s name is Horatio; the fictional cat’s name is Werner, after Schrdinger’s arch-nemesis, Werner Heisenberg.

D.O.: Was it harder learning the physics or unlearning it?

A.F.: People have used Schrdinger’s cat endlessly (in philosophy). It’s the universal loophole for explaining everything from free will to religion. Everyone getting it wrong motivated me to get it really wrong. My knowledge of physics is just enough to know what I don’t know.

D.O.: If you could have a character or historical figure narrate your life, who?

A.F.: Sam Elliot, just because I like the Big Lebowski. Who wouldn’t want that guy to narrate his life?

D.O.: Was this an easy write?

A.F.: It was just kind of a joyful write … I really just kind of wrote it to amuse myself. If you had asked me when I was 15 what I wanted to do with my life, publishing a novel and performing on a late-night talk show would have been up there. I don’t even feel bad for myself when I complain about it because it’s awesome.

Like Felber? Get more:

– Fanatical Apathy, a political satire blog: felbers.net

– ‘Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me,’ NPR

– ‘Talk Show with Spike Feresten,’ FOX, Saturdays at midnight

Published on October 16, 2006 at 12:00 pm