MDDM Ch. 10 "Celestial Trigonometry" and "Vectors of Desire"

[jbor]

on 23/10/01 10:35 PM, Otto at o.sell at telda.net wrote:

> Cherrycoke explains how the astronomers determine "the value of the Solar
> Parallax" (95.34), which is the "size of the Earth, in seconds of Arc, as
> seen by an observer upon the surface of the sun" (96.1-2) by recording the
> exact time of when "this Passage begins and ends" (95.32) from as many
> points on earth as possible, preferably near the poles. We have had
> geometry, analysis and statistics in GR, here we get "the magick of
> Celestial Trigonometry" (96.7) which makes it unnecessary to burn our feet
> to get the "Vector of Desire" (96.12), as cousin De Pugh Le Spark calls it.
> Cherrycoke says a little silent prayer for him for being good at
> mathematics. Why? This isn't the time of Galileo, whose risks are mentioned
> later in the chapter (98.23-27).

The description of how astrophysics calculations work reminds me a little of
the bit in _V._: "If you look from the side at a planet swinging around in
its orbit, split the sun and imagine a string, it all looks like a yoyo".
(35) It's much better explained here, however. The cosmic juxtapositions in
the two scenes which open the chapter are beautifully poised: the way that
Dr. Nessel has hand-painted the intricate and fanciful "Mappemondes" on the
surface of Neptune in all the mechanical orreries, the lines and swirls
enough to set the kids off into flights of imagination bringing a fantastic
new world into being, and then the way that something as awesome as an
actual planetary eclipse is being used by scientists to plot longitudes and
latitudes and soulless lines of control onto a map of our own earth.

I imagined Wicks is praying for DePugh's soul, his joke about the "Vector of
Desire" having overtones of lewdness to the good Rev.d's ears I suppose.

best