Saure Trauben der Mathematik

[Paul Mackin]

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 <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.....
>>
>
>
>

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://waste.org/pipermail/pynchon-l/attachments/20120731/e30e6963/attachment.html>