Saure Trauben der Mathematik

[Prashant Kumar]

My attraction to Pynchon is his Baedeker-ism. His delight for me is his
masterful charlatanry. What he seems to have is an ability to see
relations, connections, rather than things-in-themselves. And to echo
Monte, the Mathis in AtD is nontrivial; his understanding of the
mathematical foundations of the Riemann conjecture is shown by the way he
presents Yashmeen's approach. Some deep connections there: the eigenvalues
of a random matrix are beautiful things. They even relate to the energy
levels of certain quantum systems...

On Saturday, 4 August 2012, Mark Kohut wrote:

> I am taken in my reading emphasis how that GR line 'about a Victorian kid
> of Brain War' which does use some real but rare intellectual history is
> reprised at greater length in AtD where the comparison to religous wars
> now becomes overt.......
>
>
>
>
> From: Monte Davis <montedavis at verizon.net <javascript:;>>
> To: 'Paul Mackin' <mackin.paul at verizon.net <javascript:;>>;
> pynchon-l at waste.org <javascript:;>
> Sent: Tuesday, July 31, 2012 12:41 PM
> Subject: RE: Saure Trauben der Mathematik
>
>
> More than that, there’s simply too much knowledge and understanding of
> science and math woven into the books to be credibly ascribed to “they
> wouldn’t have me, so I’ll show the world what a sick crew of Poklers and
> Pointsmen they are.”
>
> That line in GR about a “Victorian kind of Brain War, as between
> quaternions and vector analysis in the 1880s,” is a neat distillation of
> some real and important if arcane intellectual history. It’s as far from
> the mostly superficial set-dressing of physics in The Big Bang Theory as
> it’s possible to get. And it reveals a fascinated interest, not just snark.
> (Of course Pynchon’s genius for Baedeker research – making us feel he knows
> a place and time deeply with well-chosen, idiosyncratic details, even if he
> then asserts as in  Slow Learner that he was handwaving it all – is at work
> in his science, too.)
>
> How far would one get around here saying “Webb Traverse reveals Pynchon’s
> hostility and suspicion towards the labor movement and popular insurgency”
> or “Frenesi shows us that Pynchon agrees with Plath that every woman adores
> a fascist,” or “Slab indicates Pynchon’s disdain for post-impressionist
> visual art”..? Yet quite similar inferences are frequently drawn about his
> view of science and technology, to sage nods all around.
> From:owner-pynchon-l at waste.org <javascript:;> [mailto:
> owner-pynchon-l at waste.org <javascript:;>] On Behalf Of Paul Mackin
> Sent: Tuesday, July 31, 2012 11:46 AM
> To: pynchon-l at waste.org <javascript:;>
> Subject: Re: Saure Trauben der Mathematik
>
> On 7/31/2012 11:17 AM, Matthew Cissell wrote:
> And I thought i was the only one thinking along those lines.
>
> The theory does have a certain something going for it, but does it really
> make sense that his early and continuous success as a novelist was
> insufficiently-ego-building as to render him seriously affected by a
> relatively petty rejection.  Can't imagine the actual acceptees wouldn't
> have been tickled pink to exchange places with the Pyncher.
>
> To me it just don't hold water.
>
> P
>
>
>
>
> ciao
> mc
>
> From:Kai Frederik Lorentzen mailto:lorentzen at hotmail.de <javascript:;>
> To: Mark Kohut mailto:markekohut at yahoo.com <javascript:;>; pynchon -l
> mailto:pynchon-l at waste.org <javascript:;>
> Sent: Tuesday, July 31, 2012 12:09 PM
> Subject: Saure Trauben der Mathematik
>
>
>
> Me thinks there's an autobiographical dimension in this. After the
> publication of V Pynchon wanted to add a math degree to his literature BA.
> But in 1964 "Pynchon tells friends he has recently been denied admission to
> an undergraduate program in mathematics at the University of California at
> Berkeley", as it says in the Chronology of the Cambridge Companion. So the
> making fun of math plus the fact that "P has math given up by main
> characters in order to live" in AtD are oozing an aroma of sour grapes.
>
>
> On 31.07.2012 00:47, Mark Kohut wrote:
>   From imaginary numbers on in AtD, mathematics is another trope
> >about our self-alienating distance from the physical world, certain
> values to live by, other human relationships' meanings and more, I submit.
> >
> >
> >I know no one else is rereading at the moment but from memory or when you
> do, make the case for higher-level math in ATD that is
> >not part of the ridicule?  I can't see it.
> >
> >
> >It is no accident, as Ian observed and as the verbal footfall of a
> finished argument, that P has math given up by main characters in
> >order to live...Yashmeen so clearly it is almost heavy-handed, imho, yet
> in his way, TRP encodes tons of nuance (as usual) entertaining us
> >with his theme.....
> >
> >
>
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