Oppenheimer’s Reading List
Below are five works pulled from a long list of books Oppenheimer claimed everyone should read. Well-read in both classical and modern literature, it’s easy to see how these works shaped Oppenheimer’s deep and complicated perception of the world.
1. The Waste Land
“Under the brown fog of a winter dawn,
A crowd flowed over London Bridge, so many,
I had not thought death had undone so many.”
As one of the greatest poems of all time, The Waste Land is a meditation on the human condition in the face of violence, meaninglessness, and despair. Written after the first world war, part of what T.S. Eliot expresses in this poem is the absurd scale of death that modern weapons produce. Oppenheimer, as the chief architect of the most powerful weapon of all time, understood this absurdity all too well as he reflected on the Manhattan Project years after its completion.
2. The Divine Comedy
“If I thought that my reply would be
To anyone who would ever return to Earth,
Then this flame would remain without further movement,
But as no one has ever emerged alive from this abyss,
If what I hear is true, then I can answer you with no fear of infamy.”
The Divine Comedy is so much more than an epic poem in the Christian mythos: it’s a reflection on the nature of evil and the possibility of redemption. As the story leads readers through the depths of hell to the ultimate ascension into heaven, one might easily see how The Divine Comedy can take on a representation of human psychology: from our neurotic, self-destructive tendencies to our capacity for atonement and fulfillment.
3. The Bhagavad Gita
“If the radiance of a thousand suns
Were to burst at once into the sky,
That would be like the splendor
Of the Mighty One…
I am become death,
The destroyer of worlds.”
This is probably the most famous work on Oppenheimer’s reading list, as he famously cited it at the Trinity detonation. The Bhagavad Gita, although certainly esoteric at times, is a book that provides answers to some of the most important questions that humans ask themselves, the most prominent of which being: how should I live? Covering a range of issues, from moral to existential, The Bhagavad Gita tells the reader how they should approach the choices they face.
4. Hamlet
“And then it started like a guilty thing
Upon a fearful summons.”
Shakespeare’s most famous play, Hamlet, is a classic that’s influenced many other works throughout the recent history of western literature. Without spoiling too much, part of what this play asks us is: what is the price we pay for our hesitation? To what extent does our inability to just make a choice lead to our destruction?
5. Theaetetus
“But it is not possible that evil should be destroyed — for there must always be something opposed to the good; nor is it possible that it should have its seat in heaven. But it must inevitably haunt human life, and prowl about this earth.”
As the only nonfiction work on this list, it’s important to note that Theaetetus is a book that’s dense with probing philosophical inquiries. As the quote above suggests, one of those questions is: what role does evil play in our existence? Can evil ever be truly expunged from the societies we create? Although it’s thousands of years old, Theaetetus offers some truly insightful distinctions and potential answers to these kinds of questions.
