Saure Trauben der Mathematik

[Matthew Cissell]

And I thought i was the only one thinking along those lines.

ciao
mc


________________________________
 From: Kai Frederik Lorentzen <lorentzen at hotmail.de>
To: Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com>; pynchon -l <pynchon-l at waste.org> 
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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