91É«ÇéƬ

Kafka and Einstein met in Prague to talk philosophy and literature. A film or play of those encounters at Berta Fanta’s cultural evenings upstairs at the Unicorn pharmacy will surely be written one of these days. Meanwhile, enjoy Peter Pesic’s Seeing Double (MIT Press, £9.95/$14.95). He mentions the salon as he explores what it is to be individual, and why no one and nothing truly is. His illuminating and entertaining discussion chases notions of individuality from philosophy to physics, people to electrons as he considers the bald truth of chemistry and most physics: that un-individuality is basic.