Saure Trauben der Mathematik / Trial Ballon

[Joseph Tracy]

He doesn't have to be a brilliant scientist to use math in an informed and even precise way, does he? Mere competence in rocket science would put him at a level far above the average reader.  
On Aug 3, 2012, at 8:24 AM, alice wellintown wrote:

> We have quite a lot from the author, in fictions, in essays, in an
> introduction to his early efforts, in which he explicitly rejects the
> critical characterization of his authorship as scientific-esoteric, in
> his introductions to the works of other authors, and in the limited
> biographical sketch and letters released, to conclude that P is an
> American novelist who fits suugly into the American tradition, and not
> a scientist or mathematician, or frustrated sour grapes sucking
> reluctant author who settled for a career as author of fiction, but
> would much prefer a role on the big bang theory, probably dr. sheldon
> cooper. We have, moreover, critical examinations of the fictions and
> prose, some with pin-point scientific focus, and these do not attempt,
> nor is there support for such an edeavor, to argue that P is a
> brilliant scientist or mathematician. As Grant, in his useful
> companion, in the very valuable introduction, argues, P knows a lot,
> but critics have opened every cul-de-sac, widened every street,
> broadened every field to include an extensive knowledge of every topic
> touched by His encyclopeadic Hand.
> 
> That said, P writes about careers and college. His buddy Farina wrote
> a college novel that P introduced; P wrote TSI, a tale about school
> and the corruption of youth thru education and books. He used The
> Education of Adams long after V., where it is the most important
> source; he wrote VL, a novel about the girl who goes to college after
> her mother, a first gen feminist, and a gypsy roofer who has no
> career. so on...AGTD is much on these topics, career and education.
> But, as P sez, who can specialize, who can be a renaissance man, in a
> world where the mechanical reproduction of art has changed an aura and
> a cult into a face book and a my face.