ATDTDA (18): 496-498: Faiths and Proofs

[John BAILEY]

"The terms went gliding" - love it. Time passing smoothly; signifiers
(terms) not catching on anything; mathematical terms, too, perhaps,
offering the sheen of the unreal?
 
Lent, Easter, into the Long Vacation of summer.
 
Yashmeen returns to the T.W.I.T. HQ in Chunxton Cres, where she spends
the holiday exploring Riemann's Zeta function - a way to escape the
increasingly intrusive surveillance of the TWITs and other interested
espionage-related parties abroad, on the one hand, and the mindless
social functions she so hates on the other.
 
Nigel and Neville spend the season hunting opium, and Cyprian returns
home to a wary family home that gave up on him long ago, after a trip to
Paris with his uncle resulted in an all-too-eager embrace of
homosexuality. He soon departs for Berlin and a period of excess, though
particulars are left to our imaginations.
 
THEN everyone reconnects in autumn.
 
Cyprian is surprised to find in the foibles and futility of collegiate
life - "self-important careerists and heirarchy-obsessed functionaries"
- a glimmer of proof that Christ might be a possibility, and a way of
defeating death might not be a vain hope. This is a strange section, but
is the seed of Cyprian's future, I think. It's this hope that probably
sets him up for his spy career and all the stuff that ensues.
 
Yashmeen, too, is finding some hope of transcendence in the impossible
zeta function. I don't really get the math, so feel free to help me out
(I know we've covered it a fair bit but I'm not even Cyprian; I can't
even do the cricket averages).
 
But Yashmeen finds tantalising a possibility just out of reach, raised
by Riemann's assertion that "One would of course like to have a rigorous
proof of this, but I have put aside the search ... after some fleeting
vain attempts because it is not necessary for the immediate objective of
my investigation."
 
What's the tantalising possibility implied here, though?
 
Is it:
 
That one might not need "proof" for it to be true? (a religious
assertion)
There is another, less immediate objective to Riemann's investigation?
(what?)
Riemann put aside the search for a proof but only temporarily?
 
This latter notion is considered in the next para by Yashmeen, who
imagines Riemann as haunted by his ghostly proof as his followers.
 
Her growing obsession is, itself, kind of proven by the fact that it's
all she's thinking about during sexual dalliances with classmates.
 
As an aside, blondeness is a major hobby horse for Yashmeen in this
chapter - in these last few paragraphs alone she shuns the "blonde"
light that filters through the windows of Hall, and treats
contemptuously her blonde-haired lovergirl, too. Whole lotta blondeness
going on.

The information contained in this e-mail message and any accompanying files is or may be confidential. If you are not the intended recipient, any use, dissemination, reliance, forwarding, printing or copying of this e-mail or any attached files is unauthorised. This e-mail is subject to copyright. No part of it should be reproduced, adapted or communicated without the written consent of the copyright owner. If you have received this e-mail in error please advise the sender immediately by return e-mail or telephone and delete all copies. Fairfax does not guarantee the accuracy or completeness of any information contained in this e-mail or attached files. Internet communications are not secure, therefore Fairfax does not accept legal responsibility for the contents of this message or attached files.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://waste.org/pipermail/pynchon-l/attachments/20070926/798dadf3/attachment.html>