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Query: John Nash and Pale Fire (fwd)
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From: Cary Henson <cphenson@execpc.com>
I have been reading a fascinating biography of the
mathematician John Nash and am struck by certain
parallels to Kinbote.
Nash's competetive game theory won him a Nobel Prize
in Economics in 1994, but only after he had a 30-year
bout with paranoid schizophrenia.
In 1959, at the height of his career and on the verge of receiving
tenure at MIT, Nash began claiming that powers from outer space
and/or foreign governments were communicating with him through
the New York Times. He started sending bizarre letters to the state
department and to foreign embassies, and even asserted that he
was going to become the Emperor of Antarctica.
The details of Nash's illness were probably not
public knowledge, but news of his breakdown and
subsequent schizophrenia seem likely to have circulated
throughout academia on the East Coast.
Could there be a connection here?
Perhaps it is coincidence (and one that VN would likely have
enjoyed), but the timing and similarities in behavior are intriguing.
Cary Henson
Dept. of English, UW Oshkosh
cphenson@execpc.com <mailto:cphenson@execpc.com>
http://www.execpc.com/~cphenson/index.html
I have been reading a fascinating biography of the
mathematician John Nash and am struck by certain
parallels to Kinbote.
Nash's competetive game theory won him a Nobel Prize
in Economics in 1994, but only after he had a 30-year
bout with paranoid schizophrenia.
In 1959, at the height of his career and on the verge of receiving
tenure at MIT, Nash began claiming that powers from outer space
and/or foreign governments were communicating with him through
the New York Times. He started sending bizarre letters to the state
department and to foreign embassies, and even asserted that he
was going to become the Emperor of Antarctica.
The details of Nash's illness were probably not
public knowledge, but news of his breakdown and
subsequent schizophrenia seem likely to have circulated
throughout academia on the East Coast.
Could there be a connection here?
Perhaps it is coincidence (and one that VN would likely have
enjoyed), but the timing and similarities in behavior are intriguing.
Cary Henson
Dept. of English, UW Oshkosh
cphenson@execpc.com <mailto:cphenson@execpc.com>
http://www.execpc.com/~cphenson/index.html