Important news comes from the world of Victorian literature.
"What would Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland be without the Cheshire Cat, the trial, the Duchess's baby or the Mad Hatter's tea party? Look at the original story that the author told Alice Liddell and her two sisters one day during a boat trip near Oxford, though, and you'll find that these famous characters and scenes are missing from the text. As I embarked on my DPhil investigating Victorian literature, I wanted to know what inspired these later additions. The critical literature focused mainly on Freudian interpretations of the book as a wild descent into the dark world of the subconscious. There was no detailed analysis of the added scenes, but from the mass of literary papers, one stood out: in 1984 Helema Pycior of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee had linked the trial of the Knave of Hearts with a Victorian book on algebra. Given the author's day job, it was somewhat surprising to find few other reviews of his work from a mathematical perspective. Carroll was a pseudonym: his real name was Charles Dodgson, and he was a mathematician at Christ Church College, Oxford." A virus problem seems to have occured on the link. See Comments.
"What would Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland be without the Cheshire Cat, the trial, the Duchess's baby or the Mad Hatter's tea party? Look at the original story that the author told Alice Liddell and her two sisters one day during a boat trip near Oxford, though, and you'll find that these famous characters and scenes are missing from the text. As I embarked on my DPhil investigating Victorian literature, I wanted to know what inspired these later additions. The critical literature focused mainly on Freudian interpretations of the book as a wild descent into the dark world of the subconscious. There was no detailed analysis of the added scenes, but from the mass of literary papers, one stood out: in 1984 Helema Pycior of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee had linked the trial of the Knave of Hearts with a Victorian book on algebra. Given the author's day job, it was somewhat surprising to find few other reviews of his work from a mathematical perspective. Carroll was a pseudonym: his real name was Charles Dodgson, and he was a mathematician at Christ Church College, Oxford." A virus problem seems to have occured on the link. See Comments.
"Godel, Escher, Bach" is a pulitzer prize winning book on the very subject, startling to see such a famous work go unnoticed in what otherwise seems a well researched article (although lord knows I've been guilty of the same)
ReplyDeleteDamn. I'd forgotten all about "Godel, Escher, and Bach."
ReplyDeleteGlad I could help. Hell of a thick read, but since I just aced Pre-calc, I figure I'll try and pick it up again sometime. The bits I could digest as a teen were immeasurably rewarding.
ReplyDeleteReading for pleasure is such a fond and distant memory...sigh...
Link unfortunately now virus-ridden - click at one's own risk!
ReplyDelete