"Contemporary
literary theory did not emerge in an
intellectual and cultural vacuum. The subordination of art to
argument and ideas has been a long time in the works. In The Painted Word, a
rumination on the state of American painting in the 1970s, Tom Wolfe
described an epiphany he had one Sunday morning while reading an
article in the New York Times on an exhibit at Yale University. To appreciate
contemporary art-- the paintings of Jackson Pollock and still
more so his followers-- which to the naked eye appeared
indistinguishable from kindergarten splatterings and which provided
little immediate pleasure or illumination, it was
'crucial,' Wolfe realized, to have a 'persuasive
theory,' a prefabricated conceptual lens to make sense of the
work and bring into focus the artist's point. From there it
was just a short step to the belief that the critic who supplies
the theories is the equal, if not the superior, of the artist who
creates the painting."

-- Peter Berkowitz, "Literature in Theory"

Cover art by Rea Irvin

Now Lens

	murphy plant, murphy grow, a maryamyria-		10
	meliamurphies, in the lazily eye of his lapis,		11
			12
			13
			14
Uteralterance or	Vieus Von DVbLIn, 'twas one of dozedeams		15
the Interplay of	a darkies ding in dewood) the Turnpike under		16
Bones in the	the Great Ulm (with Mearingstone in Fore		17
Womb.	ground). 1 Given now ann linch you take enn		18
	all. Allow me! And, heaving alljawbreakical		19
	expressions out of old Sare Isaac's 2 universal		20
The Vortex.	of specious aristmystic unsaid, A is for Anna		21
Spring of Sprung	like L is for liv. Aha hahah, Ante Ann you're		22
Verse. The Ver-	apt to ape aunty annalive! Dawn gives rise.		23
tex.	Lo, lo, lives love! Eve takes fall. La, la, laugh		24
	leaves alass! Aiaiaiai, Antiann, we're last to		25
	the lost, Loulou! Tis perfect. Now (lens		26

-- Finnegans Wake, Book II,
    Episode 2, page 293

    Related material:
    Fours and 1132

New Site

(revised on May 21, 2006)


The new site for my math files is
finitegeometry.org/sc/index.html:

	Finite Geometry of the Square and Cube by Steven H. Cullinane
This site is about the Geometry of the 4x4x4 Cube (the mathematical structure,  not the mechanical puzzle) and related simpler structures.

As time goes on, I'll be changing links on the Web to my math pages,
which are now scattered at various Web addresses, to refer to this new
site.

Incidentally, this is the 20th anniversary of my note, "The relativity problem in finite geometry."

The Past Revisited

From Log24 a year ago on this date, a quote from Many Dimensions (1931), by Charles Williams:

"Lord Arglay had a suspicion that the Stone would be purely
logical.  Yes, he thought, but what, in that sense, were the rules
of its pure logic?"

For the rest of the story, see the downloadable version at Project Gutenberg of Australia.

But seriously...

The Dirty Thirty

From James A. Michener's The Source:

"Trouble started in a quarter that neither Uriel nor Zadok could have
foreseen.  For many generations the wiser men of Zadok's clan had
worshipped El-Shaddai with the understanding that whereas Canaanites
and Egyptians could see their gods directly, El-Shaddai was invisible
and inhabited no specific place.  Unequivocally the Hebrew
patriarchs had preached this concept and the sager men of the clans
accepted it, but to the average Hebrew who was not a philosopher the
theory of a god who lived nowhere, who did not even exist in corporeal
form, was not easy to comprehend.  Such people were willing to
agree with Zadok that their god did not live on this mountain-- the one
directly ahead-- but they suspected that he did live on some mountain
nearby, and when they said this they pictured an elderly man with a
white beard who lived in a proper tent and whom they might one day see
and touch.  If questioned, they would have said that they expected
El-Shaddai to look much like their father Zadok, but with a longer
beard, a stronger voice, and more penetrating eyes.

Now, as these simpler-minded Hebrews settled down outside the walls of
Makor, they began to see Canaanite processions leave the main gate and
climb the mountain to the north, seeking the high place where Baal
lived, and they witnessed the joy which men experienced when visiting
their god, and the Hebrews began in subtle ways and easy steps to
evolve the idea that Baal, who obviously lived in a mountain, and
El-Shaddai, who was reported to do so, must have much in common. 
Furtively at first, and then openly, they began to climb the footpath
to the place of Baal, where they found a monolith rising from the
highest point of rock.  Here was a tangible thing they could
comprehend, and after much searching along the face of the mountain, a
group of Hebrew men found a straight rock of size equal to the one
accorded Baal, and with much effort they dragged it one starless night
to the mountain top, where they installed it not far from the home of
Baal...."

Rabbi Chitrik died on
Valentine's Day, 2006,
having had a heart attack
on Feb. 8, 2006--

Grammy Night.

The above monolith is perhaps more
closely related to El-Shaddai than to
Madonna, Grammy Night, and Baal.
It reflects my own interests
(Mathematics and Narrative)
and those of Martin Buber
(Jews on Fiction):
 

"Among Buber's early philosophical influences were Kant's
Prolegomena, which he read at the age of fourteen, and
Nietzsche's Zarathustra.  Whereas Kant had a calming influence
on the young mind troubled by the aporia of infinite versus
finite time, Nietzsche's doctrine of 'the eternal recurrence of
the same' constituted a powerful negative seduction.  By the time
Buber graduated from Gymnasium he felt he had overcome this seduction,
but Nietzsche's prophetic tone and aphoristic style are evident in
Buber's subsequent writings."

-- Plato.stanford.edu

Martin Buber

Rabbi Chitrik