Sarfatti et al

[Daniel Wolf]

While Sarfatti could very well be a model for a minor character in Pynchon,
I doubt whether Sarfatti is aware of how much in the crackpot fringe of his
discipline he works, while Pynchon shows constant awareness of of the
extent and limits of orthodox science. Sarfatti could not have written John
Nefastis, but sure does a pretty good Nefastis impression.   

If anyone _ought_ to be Pynchon then my nominee is the Berlin-born
French-Jewish mathematician Alexander Groethendieck. He is a serious
figure, perhaps the greatest mathematician of his age, but also a man of
highest moral character. One description of the encyclopaedic nature of his
work has it that while most mathematicians, when asked to cross a valley,
will build themselves a bridge, Groethendieck will instead fill in the
valley. He abandoned his prestigious post because of connections in funding
to the arms industry and has lived in privacy since then. The occasional
manuscripts that he has since released show an unusual literary gift. Among
them, _Sowing and Reaping_ (in French, a Russian translation is available
on-line) is at once autobiography and mathematical treatise.