Subject
THOUGHTS: SKB re manifold multiples of a Mobius band
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From: Stan Kelly-Bootle
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Sent: Tuesday, August 05, 2008 10:51 AM
Subject: Re: manifold multiples of a Moebius band...
On 05/08/2008 03:33, "jansymello" <jansy@AETERN.US> wrote:
Manifold...there we are...
Jansy's pictures of coiled tapes recall Sebastian Knight's final (?)
novel The Last Asphodel (by VN?), from which TRLOSK's narrator V (is he
also VN?) quotes this tantalizing snippet:
"The hardest knot is but a meandering string; tough to the finger nails,
but really a matter of lazy and graceful loopings. The eye undoes it,
while clumsy fingers bleed. He (the dying man) was that knot, and he
would be untied at once, if he could manage to see and follow the
thread." (p. 149, 2001 Penguin Classics edition)
The arcane branch of Topology called Knot Theory* is in some ways a
vindication of SK's mixed metaphors. The "eye" in the guise of
topological insights (often aided by computer algorithms) can indeed
classify and untangle the most complex knots. But many of these
mathematical knots are far from "lazy and graceful," and indeed the
interesting ones have no direct representations in the "real" world of
shoelaces and convoluted string! Knot Theory occasionally makes it into
the popular press (e.g., in connection with DNA), and I hope to check
(or see if others have checked) for clues as to whether VN encountered
and showed interest in any such reports.
The above TRLOSK citation, btw, is followed by the oft-chewed musings:
" ... And not only himself, everything would be unravelled -- everything
that he might imagine in our childish terms of space and time, both
being riddles invented by man as riddles, and thus coming back to us:
the boomerangs of nonsense ..."
I seek help here. Do we need to analyze the above statements, two
teasing "narrative levels" removed from VN qua VN, as VN's own
deeply-held world-view as a _scientist_? We can _invent_ all kinds of
theories/speculations about the structure (or lack of) of space and
time, but there _is_ something uninvented to which these terms seriously
(adultly!) apply and amidst which we "move and have our being." As Jesus
said: "FIRST catch your hare!" Contrary to Sapir-Whorf, all Natural
Languages have spatial and temporal markers.
skb
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To:
Sent: Tuesday, August 05, 2008 10:51 AM
Subject: Re: manifold multiples of a Moebius band...
On 05/08/2008 03:33, "jansymello" <jansy@AETERN.US> wrote:
Manifold...there we are...
Jansy's pictures of coiled tapes recall Sebastian Knight's final (?)
novel The Last Asphodel (by VN?), from which TRLOSK's narrator V (is he
also VN?) quotes this tantalizing snippet:
"The hardest knot is but a meandering string; tough to the finger nails,
but really a matter of lazy and graceful loopings. The eye undoes it,
while clumsy fingers bleed. He (the dying man) was that knot, and he
would be untied at once, if he could manage to see and follow the
thread." (p. 149, 2001 Penguin Classics edition)
The arcane branch of Topology called Knot Theory* is in some ways a
vindication of SK's mixed metaphors. The "eye" in the guise of
topological insights (often aided by computer algorithms) can indeed
classify and untangle the most complex knots. But many of these
mathematical knots are far from "lazy and graceful," and indeed the
interesting ones have no direct representations in the "real" world of
shoelaces and convoluted string! Knot Theory occasionally makes it into
the popular press (e.g., in connection with DNA), and I hope to check
(or see if others have checked) for clues as to whether VN encountered
and showed interest in any such reports.
The above TRLOSK citation, btw, is followed by the oft-chewed musings:
" ... And not only himself, everything would be unravelled -- everything
that he might imagine in our childish terms of space and time, both
being riddles invented by man as riddles, and thus coming back to us:
the boomerangs of nonsense ..."
I seek help here. Do we need to analyze the above statements, two
teasing "narrative levels" removed from VN qua VN, as VN's own
deeply-held world-view as a _scientist_? We can _invent_ all kinds of
theories/speculations about the structure (or lack of) of space and
time, but there _is_ something uninvented to which these terms seriously
(adultly!) apply and amidst which we "move and have our being." As Jesus
said: "FIRST catch your hare!" Contrary to Sapir-Whorf, all Natural
Languages have spatial and temporal markers.
skb
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/