Read the excerpt from death by black hole.

albert einstein’s general theory of relativity, published in 1916, provides the insight to understand the bizarre structure of space and time in a high-gravity environment. later research by the american physicist john a. wheeler, and others, to formulate a vocabulary as well as the mathematical tools to describe and predict what a black hole will do to its surroundings.

read the excerpt from “man listening to disc.”

and i bow deeply to thelonious monk
for figuring out a way
to motorize—or whatever—his huge piano
so he could be with us today.

the central idea that both texts share is