Saure Trauben der Mathematik

[Erik T. Burns]

related and fun. read the essay linked:
http://www.maa.org/devlin/devlin_03_08.html


On Tue, Jul 31, 2012 at 5:46 PM, alice wellintown <alicewellintown at gmail.com
> wrote:

> more like with sweet grapes or Grace, P turns, water into sweet grapes
> on the vine land. he is an author of american fiction, not a character
> on the big bang, or in one of his novels. Jeez, I am a bit
> disappointed that the P-list does not recognize that the characters
> are obsessed with these kinds of things, winning nobels and the like,
> and that P shows how such stupidity  can drain one of sweetness.
>
> On Tue, Jul 31, 2012 at 12:46 PM, Paul Mackin <mackin.paul at verizon.net>
> wrote:
> > 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.....
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
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