The Paradox Club

An Excerpt from An Insider’s History of the Paradox Club

An excerpt from

An Insider’s History of the Paradox Club

Several days later Mr. Parrish read in the Philadelphia Enquirer that Albert Einstein, freshly arrived in Princeton, would “give no interviews, issue no statements, and make no public appearances.” Such was Mr. Parrish’s influence that a week later he sat in the office of Dr. Einstein, who had, by that time, already examined the mysterious volume.

No transcript was made of this discussion, only brief notes in the diaries of Mr. Parrish and Dr. Einstein, from which the following reconstruction is created.

Parrish: You will admit, Dr. Einstein, that this book is odd?

Einstein: When I first encountered it, I thought it nothing more remarkable than a misprint or perhaps a forgery. But as you say, there are too many unusual aspects to this volume to be so easily dismissed.

Parrish: The bookplate designating it as a school prize is from a school that never existed.

Einstein: Yes, and the paragraph you discovered in chapter two is not the only textual aberration.

Parrish: I’m not surprised to hear that, though I am impressed by your knowledge of Dickens.

Einstein: And there are other, more technical issues with which I shall not bore you. [Ed.: These “issues” are enumerated in Einstein’s notes preserved in the club archive, but as the present study is intended for the general reader, I shall omit them here.]

Parrish: And your conclusion?

Einstein: That this book did not originate in our universe.

Parrish: My thought exactly. I’m happy to hear you confirm my thesis.

Einstein: There is a deeper question here, though, Mr. Parrish.

Parrish: And what is that?

Einstein: What do we do with this…this object? I hardly know what to call it.

Parrish: As it has become detached from its universe of origin, I suggest untethered foreign object. [Ed.: Later Einstein would claim to have originated this moniker, but the notes show clearly that the coinage was Parrish’s.]

Einstein: Very well, what are we to do with this “untethered foreign object”? Its value to science is immeasurable, but so too may be its danger to humanity.

Over the span of several conversations, Einstein and Parrish decided to quietly convene a select group of scientists and philosophers to wrestle with this problem.

They first met in a room of the Grolier Club, on East Sixtieth Street, of which Parrish was a member.

Two meetings over the course of a weekend concluded with the drafting of the charter of the Paradox Club and an agreement among those present that the primary purpose of the club would be the gathering and safeguarding of untethered foreign objects in such a way as to prevent their irresponsible use.