Math(s) lessons.....Uh...post from the past I "lost" in Drafts foler

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Bipolar disorder is a recent name in psychiarty (DSM IV). Not many years ago "bipolar disorder" replaced manic depression as an ailment. Since the late 19th century, the illness was called manic depression, and it was classified as a psychosis. Typically, psychoses are considered to be on the wrong side of BRINK OF SANITY.  
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Mark Kohut 
  To: Richard Ryan 
  Cc: pynchon -l 
  Sent: Tuesday, November 27, 2007 9:55 AM
  Subject: Re: Math(s) lessons.....Uh...post from the past I "lost" in Drafts foler


  Thanks.  
  I can sympathize with him from a far---but finite--distance.

  I bet, again, TRP uses it as part of his overall meaning.


  ----- Original Message ----
  From: Richard Ryan <richardryannyc at yahoo.com>
  To: Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com>
  Cc: pynchon -l <pynchon-l at waste.org>
  Sent: Tuesday, November 27, 2007 12:45:00 PM
  Subject: Re: Math(s) lessons.....Uh...post from the past I "lost" in Drafts foler

  Having defended Cantor's "orthodoxy" I must also note
  that he was in and out of mental institutions for much
  of his adult life.  Most modern biographers regard his
  affliction as bipolar disorder, but the more
  intellectually romantic might speculate that his
  mediations on infinity drove him repeatedly to the
  (cue the theremin) BRINK OF SANITY........


  --- Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com> wrote:

  > Thanks. Yea, I did mean TRP called it--Cantor, other
  > aspects--
  > the Crisis........
  > 
  > I have had the additional belated thought that TRP
  > makes satirical
  > use of "imaginary" numbers (as a concept as
  > well).......
  > 
  > Specifically, he's agin 'em.....
  > 
  > ???
  > 
  > 
  > ----- Original Message ----
  > From: Richard Ryan <richardryannyc at yahoo.com>
  > To: Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com>; pynchon -l
  > <pynchon-l at waste.org>
  > Sent: Tuesday, November 27, 2007 12:16:53 PM
  > Subject: Re: Math(s) lessons.....Uh...post from the
  > past I "lost" in Drafts foler
  > 
  > I'm not sure its quite right to call Cantor's work a
  > source of crisis - rather it expanded the range and
  > tools that mathematicians had available to work with
  > infinite quantities.  The perception that certain
  > kinds of infinite sets could be manipulated
  > algorithmically, for instance, gave rise to any
  > number
  > of interesting results in topology and computational
  > theory.  However, it does seem to me that P., with
  > his
  > well known suspicions of various kind of technical
  > and
  > scientific knowledge and their alleged benefits to
  > humanity, might well regard effort to manipulate
  > infinite series with a certain existential dread....
  > 
  > 
  > --- Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com> wrote:
  > 
  > > Okay,
  > > To Discuss (especially by real mathematicians on
  > the
  > > p-list)....
  > >  
  > > [I am just trying to "get" some
  > > of TRP's themes, japes, metaphors........]
  > >  
  > > /The sources where I got my facile math education
  > > yesterday say:
  > >  
  > > The Crisis in Mathematics here in AtD was largely
  > > caused by
  > > Cantor--alluded to on p. 625---introducing the
  > > notion of infinity
  > > into math.......
  > >  
  > > I want to enfold this into these observations 
  > > 1) that Pynchon scored heavily against
  > > the promise of future timelessness a few chapters
  > > back......
  > > 2) that the Q-bomb 'was compressed
  > time............
  > > 3) that Byron the Bulb's
  > > "immortality" is one reason he isn't close to
  > > human.....
  > > 4) and now the notion of
  > > "infinity" is buried in this very anti-math
  > > section............
  > >  
  > > And, just relearned (from p. 111, I think) TRP
  > > saying that something
  > > cooking "had an element of time in tis recipe"...
  > >  
  > > I sugggest that TRP is very slyly, like Pynchon,
  > > letting us see and feel more of his
  > > vision of being human........That is, we live in
  > > time and we die. Playing with any kind
  > > of immortality....alienates us from living..... 
  > >  
  > > FYI:
  > >  
  > > On Russell's Paradox and the famous letter alluded
  > > to on page 633...
  > > http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/russell-paradox/
  > > 
  > > 
  > >      
  > >
  >
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  >      
  >
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