Week Seven

NOTES ON READING:

Other than dipping into many books for research, my main focus has been Borges and Hofstadter this week. With regard to Borges, I have been reading transcripts of interviews with him, which I have found fascinating. From there I dip into poems and pieces of fiction that he mentions of his own work and of others. In one of the Morgan Lectures (interviews) he gave at Dickinson University, I found this question and answer that are particularly relevant to my work:

Question: Do you think that there is a kind of kinship between poets and mathematicians?

Borges: My mathematics is very slight. But I have read and reread Bertrand Russell. And I think there should be a kinship. And I suppose there is. There is a kinship between all things, especially between poets and mathematicians, and poets and philosophers, who are a measure of poets, I should say.

NOTES ON WRITING

Since sending on my introduction to you I have honed it further and have something I feel very good about. As I have been reading, I have begun to feel compelled to include an afterword too, one that really reinforces the introduction, so I have begun work on that. I have it entirely fleshed out if not entirely written, but it needs a lot of polishing. I am continuing to write quite globally on the chapters but am hoping to have chapter 2 on pattern in a form I feel I can send to you soon. That chapter feels rather belabored and plodding to me, and I've really struggled with making it lighter and smoother. I hope you will be able to help me with that.

Week Six

I'm still plugging along with writing and revising. My main focus right now is on the introduction and chapter two (Pattern). My bibliography continues to expand. I found a wonderful book today on Pascal's Triangle - a pretty significant treatment by A. W. F. Edwards Sc.D. of Cambridge. I'll be able to use very little of it in my book, but it is giving me a very deep background.





In other reading, I've been looking at Agnesi to Zeno by Sanderson Smith, Emily Dickinson and the Art of Belief by Roger Lundin, and Lives of the Modern Poets by Pritchard - among other works.

I also keep dipping into Hofstadter and Borges and am eager for Hofstadter's new book I am a Strange Loop to come out. Reviews I've read make it sound like it revisits GEB quite significantly.

Week Five

It was good to talk with you Friday and untagle some ideas. I sense some new possibilities particularly in thinking about "Empowered" rather than "Power." I also have some new ideas for the introduction rolling around in my head - given our talk of the challenge this is and the reasons it is a challenge.

I sent on chapter one, the bibliography so far, and end notes. I hope they came through (if not, let me know, and I'll resend), and I am eager to hear your comments.

If you did not read Frank and Ernest for today (Sunday, March 18, 2007), please do and keep it in mind as you read my first chapter. I found it an interesting paradox coincidence!

Week Four

QUESTION FOR TOM: I'm looking for an Einstein quote you mentioned during winter term about Einstein not caring if the test of the bending of light supported Relativity Theory or not - that the theory was still right. I had heard something like this years ago - that Einstein said, "If Relativity Theory is wrong, that's too bad for God." The closest thing I can find is the general quote: "If the facts don't fit the theory, change the facts," but I can't find a legitimate source for it. Do you remember where you came across what you shared along these lines in class?

UPDATE: I find that my writing has become a strange attractor. As I read, nearly every paragraph sends me back to my laptop to add to my writing, which sends me out to research, which brings me back to writing. I think before I plow all the way through any more books I need to just sit down and come to grips with this manuscript in full. I don't think I will be released from the grip of the pull of this strange attractor until I at least have a rough draft of the entire manuscript.

At this point I have a fully complete rough draft of chapter 2 (Pattern) -- tedious figures and all -- which needs a LOT of polishing yet. I have also been working more globally on the rest of the manuscript rather than trying to write from start to finish as I had been doing.

I end chapter 2 (Pattern) with fractals, the grand finale being the M-set. I begin chapter 3 (Power) also with the M-set, expressing that all this beauty and complexity can be generated with a mathematical statement of only 6 characters. Part of the power of mathematical language is its brevity.

Week Three

GENERAL UPDATE:

The rest of the week (since my mid-week post) has felt rather unproductive - not for lack of time or effort - have been up until 1 or 2 in the morning working at this.

I've gotten some new ideas and added to chapter 1 (Playfulness) and polished it. I've fully outlined chapter 2 (Pattern) and have more than a third of it written. What is bogging me down is creating images, of which there are many in this chapter.

I've worked with the drawing program on Word as well as the "paint" program on my computer with little success. I'm embarrassed to admit it, but I created the Pascal's Triangle Modulo 2 above by copying hexagonal graph paper and coloring the first 16 rows by hand, scanning it, uploading it, shrinking it, printing 3 copies, cutting and taping, scanning, uploading, shrinking, printing 3 copies, cutting and taping, scanning, uploading and shrinking.

That's totally PATHETIC and feels like a waste of time; after all that work it also came out crooked, but I don't have access to a better method for creating my own images(not that I know of anyway). For the second half of the week, my readings have consisted of my browsing (side bar) and my research of details for the chapters and checking out the links you sent on.

I appreciate your email and have enjoyed the links you suggested. I'm intrigued by L. E. J. Brouwer. I also especially enjoyed the book review from the New Yorker! What fun! On the poetry site I was not able to find what I was looking for . . . will try again.

When (if?!) things settle down for both of us, I'd like to talk about the non-endpoints in the Cantor set. I've had some new insights in the last couple weeks but need to wrestle with it more, but I guess this is getting ahead of the game as it is supposed to be my next study that is on fractal geometry.