Little do we know whether Mr Larry Crooks of Richmond means to complement or contradict the claim of James here.
Mr. James chooses to live his life as he would have it reviewing distortions. Distortions all well and good, and London seems a comfortable enough distance even by Mr. Crooks' scientific measure from which to gaze on them as they come galloping by on their way out from New York City, if its distortions you're after. We wouldn't doubt there's a living to be made at it. In the bog, admittedly, distinctions are tangible only on the subtlest review. What may seem clearly a distortion from a distance is just more of the muck up close.
San Francisco Chronicle, August 17, 2003, pg. M6
LETTERS TO BOOK REVIEW
Physics of Criticism
Editor — Kenneth Baker's review of Clive James' "As of This Writing: The Essential Essays, 1968–2002" (Aug. 10) quotes James' comment that he lives in London rather than New York because "the center of the magnetic field is the wrong place to see the distortions it creates."
I have designed MRI scanners since 1976, and we always do the image at the center of the magnet because that is the most uniform part of the field However, if there is no nearby iron (or permanent magnets), the subtle non-unformities at the center completely specify the remote distortions. Conversely, knowing all the remote distortions tells you what the center is. At any rate, it's a cute analogy when you don't know the real physics.
The sensitivity needed at the center for MRI is in parts per million, while the remote distortion can be 10 percent. If you work at the center, you have to be very observant.
LARRY CROOKS
Richmond