3rd post p. 836 (after break on page)..Paint It Black

[grladams at teleport.com]

Well I just happen to have a copy of the Millennium Problems, and here's a
little introduction about new geometries:

p. 166 "The nineteenth century, on the other hand, saw the appearance of a
host of new kinds of objects and patterns that were definitely not part of
everyday experience--or, more accurately, were not recognized as such.
(Since most of them came froma careful analysis of existing mathematics,
arguably they were part of everyday life, but a hidden, skeletal part,).
Among the new objects and patterns studied by matematicians over the last
hundred and fifty years are geometries in which parallel lines meet (called
non-Euclidean geometries"), geometries of four and more dimensions,
geometries of infinitely many dimensions, algebra where the symbols stand
for symmetries in figures (called "group theory"), algebra where the
symbols stand for logical thoughts ("propositional logic"), and algebra
where the symbols stand for motions in two- or three-dimensional space
("vector algebra").
  
    The development of topology was part of this proliferation of new
abstractions. The idea was to develop a "geometry" that studies  properties
of figures that are not destroyed by continuous deformation, and thus do
not depend on notions such as straight lines, circules, cubes, and so on,
or on measurement of lenths, areas, volumes, or angles."

Continuous deformation! This sound like more anarchy to me.
Jill

Laura says
Date: Wed, 9 Apr 2008 16:11:28 -0400 (GMT-04:00)
To: pynchon-l at waste.org
Subject: Re: 3rd post p. 836 (after break on page)..Paint It Black
snip

3.  Question:  does anyone have any thoughts on whether C and D's trip
through the the Balkans (and Cyprian's, Yashmeen's and Reef's later trip)
has mathematical overtones?  Is it a representation of some sort of
equation or description of non-Euclidian space (pardon my innumeracy)?

4.  Another question:  does the Cyprian and Danilo flight through the
mountains remind anyone of Kinbote's flight through the mountains of Zembla
in Nabokov's Pale Fire?

Laura



-----Original Message-----
>From: Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com>

>836, (after break on page..) "nameless black mountainside'.....unlike most
earthly mountains....blackness is being accented by OBA in this
section....'blackness at the heart of all color" a few pages back....(what
can that mean?, since the color black is not at the heart of ANY color
).....'all converged to black, black unmitigated by candleflame or
woodsmoke)......
>  
>Notice that 'black mountainside is also nameless", as was the sea
earlier.....
>   
>  Speculations: black is death herein, a common trope, natural death,
reinforced by that figure watching Danilo and Cyprian...(like Bergman's
Death or who else might the figure be?)
>   
>  'black mountainside' is as nameless, as tacit as all being, like the
sea? Black at the heart of all color may be P's metaphor of the notion that
Life, all its 'color', only has that color because of our mortality...??? 
'Nother oft-expressed notion by some thinkers.......
>   
>  in this primal basic world,---back in the last century (as is said in
the text--- which would mean early 18th, largely before the industrial
revolution, before electic lights, trains, etc.)---death (black) was what
life converged to, despite community (candleflame and woodsmoke)...?
>   
>  It all reminds me of that line about the pampas and basic existence,
including basic fear, dread and death [from GR, I think and I paraphrase, I
hope closely enough]  that Monte, I believe, posted to show OBAs
unsentimentality/ non-reductiveness about 'natural' life......
>   
>  I might argue, full of that pretension Dave has informed us is so
pervasive, that this section is a major part of TRps vision of
"deliverance"......deliverance from the modern age to a more primal
time........(not that he wants us to go back there, but that that is where
we were and ocasionally can esperience again.)...?
>   
>
>  

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