The Great Wednesday Compare #3- Noam Chomsky VERSUS Vladimir Nabokov

The winner of last week's Great Wednesday Compare (Stephen Hawking Vs. Noam Chomsky) with a final score of 5-3 was Noam Chomsky.

Science versus politics? With the minds of last week's two contenders, it's difficult to reduce it to that, but certainly judging on literary merits alone would be a near impossible task.

This week Hawking leaves the Compare. I've read a couple of his books, and I was amazed at how interesting those were. He's able to make science accessible and that's not to be confused with making it easy. Can I explain wormholes and the expansion of the universe? Absolutely not, but while reading through A Brief History of Time and Black Holes and Baby Universes, I was momentarily convinced that I could. I used to be critical of such books, thinking it was folly to try and condense all of that knowledge into a single volume and simply hand it over to the average Joe and expect him to comprehend it. But, I think such books help make laymen become believers in their science and the possibility of the their theories, and that's more important than turning us all into amateur physicists.

But it's time to get back to literature.

Remember, vote simply by adding your comment below, base it on whatever merit you choose, voting does not end until Tuesday at 11:59 p.m. (Dec. 2nd, 2008), and if you want your author to get more votes, feel free to promote them here or on your blog!

Who's better?

Noam Chomsky or Vladimir Nabokov

***And if you're not too tired of voting, head over to Bybee's to vote on a new term. First there was "w00t!" Now there's "meh." Who knows? With your help maybe a brand new term will be coined...