Subject
SKB on symmetry and VN as "indivisible monist" and perhaps not
even "Nabokovian"
even "Nabokovian"
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Date
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> My personal view re the meaning of N's claim to be an 'indivisible
> monist is
> as follows:an idealist is a monist, because he /she reduces reality to
> the
> one principle; a materialist is similarly a monist because he/she
> reduces
> reality to the one principle - but N was an 'indivisible monist'
> because he
> synthesised the ideal and the material
Mick: Leaning towards the Stadlenovite tradition. I see 'indivisible
monist'
as typical Nabokovian** humour/satire on a par with 'Solipsists of the
World
Unite!' or (my own invention) 'Leibniz was an undivided monadologist.'
What seems to be emerging (or rather re-re-emerging) from the recent
debates
on 'symmetry' and 'spacetime' are the Snow-culture-gaps and the related
loose borrowings to-and-fro the LitCrit domains and the
Mathematical/Physical Sciences.
Someone sees a connection betweeen novels and symmetry based on the
UNshattering, UNhelpful observation that 'narratives take place in
time.'
Well, whether the stories unfold 'linearly' or via flash-backs/forwards
or
rotate endlessly (GOTO Start as the programmers say), 'real'
ol'-man-river
time for the writer and reader flows on according to the very Law that C
P
Snow singled out as the litmus test: Scientists unfamiliar with Pushkin,
say, are as crippled as Arties unfamilar with Entropy and the Second Law
of
Thermodynamics. (Go on: a quick Wikipeed will put you right!)
The patterns (whether deliberate or accidental) we note in VN's works
sometimes show signs of physical or temporal 'symmetry' and some readers
cry
'How grand; how compatible with VN's philosophy & scientific
background.'
They have picked up that 'symmetry' and 'supersymmetry' are key concepts
in
modern physics. When a lack of 'symmetry' is detected, the same readers
are
equally thrilled -- they have heard that 'anti-symmetry' and
'symmetry-breaking' are also key concepts in modern physics.
Now VN grew up during major revolutions -- the non-political ones being
more
important longterm! In Physics: Special & General Relativity; Quantum
Mechanics. In Mathematics: Cantorian Sets; non-Euclidean Geometry;
Goedel's
Incompleteness Theorems.
These had very little impact on VN's writings, although he picked up
some of
the 'jargon' such as 'surds' (quite old-fashioned, in fact), 'spacetime'
and
'continuum' without ever mastering or extolling or _extending_ the
beautiful
equations. Yet WHY on earth should we expect the 20th century's greatest
novelist, linguist supreme (and let's mention innovative lepidopterist
and
promising chess problemist) to ALSO excel at Pure & Applied Mathematics?
'Tis said that childhood sickness hindered his early arithmetical
promise.
But this may have been a blessing in disguise. VN the writer emerged as
a
giant on adjacent pantheon pedestals to Euler, Gauss, Riemann, Noether
Hilbert, Poincare (none of whom could craft a decent, catchy paragraph!)
--
how sad had VN merely grown up better at sums.
Something for those impatient non-mathematicians on the list:
1. Cayley's Theorem: Every Group of order n is a subgroup of the
Symmetric
Group Sn. That beats Dante's Comedia -- well, perhaps.
2. Emmy Noether, the great female mathematician (1882-1935, a tough time
for
women at Gottingen) established the connection between group Symmetries
and
Conservation Laws -- changing the history of Mathematical Physics. Not
as
sexy as ADA??
** Of course, some say that VN was not a Nabokovian*** -- others that he
was
the 'least-typical' Nabokovian, so great care is needed with such
labels.
*** Not the paradox it seems. Darwin is not considered a true Darwinian
in
some quarters. Eponymous predicates have a nasty habit of drifting away
from
the founder. The philosopher/LitCrit Stanley Fish has had a bad time,
too!
skb
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
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> monist is
> as follows:an idealist is a monist, because he /she reduces reality to
> the
> one principle; a materialist is similarly a monist because he/she
> reduces
> reality to the one principle - but N was an 'indivisible monist'
> because he
> synthesised the ideal and the material
Mick: Leaning towards the Stadlenovite tradition. I see 'indivisible
monist'
as typical Nabokovian** humour/satire on a par with 'Solipsists of the
World
Unite!' or (my own invention) 'Leibniz was an undivided monadologist.'
What seems to be emerging (or rather re-re-emerging) from the recent
debates
on 'symmetry' and 'spacetime' are the Snow-culture-gaps and the related
loose borrowings to-and-fro the LitCrit domains and the
Mathematical/Physical Sciences.
Someone sees a connection betweeen novels and symmetry based on the
UNshattering, UNhelpful observation that 'narratives take place in
time.'
Well, whether the stories unfold 'linearly' or via flash-backs/forwards
or
rotate endlessly (GOTO Start as the programmers say), 'real'
ol'-man-river
time for the writer and reader flows on according to the very Law that C
P
Snow singled out as the litmus test: Scientists unfamiliar with Pushkin,
say, are as crippled as Arties unfamilar with Entropy and the Second Law
of
Thermodynamics. (Go on: a quick Wikipeed will put you right!)
The patterns (whether deliberate or accidental) we note in VN's works
sometimes show signs of physical or temporal 'symmetry' and some readers
cry
'How grand; how compatible with VN's philosophy & scientific
background.'
They have picked up that 'symmetry' and 'supersymmetry' are key concepts
in
modern physics. When a lack of 'symmetry' is detected, the same readers
are
equally thrilled -- they have heard that 'anti-symmetry' and
'symmetry-breaking' are also key concepts in modern physics.
Now VN grew up during major revolutions -- the non-political ones being
more
important longterm! In Physics: Special & General Relativity; Quantum
Mechanics. In Mathematics: Cantorian Sets; non-Euclidean Geometry;
Goedel's
Incompleteness Theorems.
These had very little impact on VN's writings, although he picked up
some of
the 'jargon' such as 'surds' (quite old-fashioned, in fact), 'spacetime'
and
'continuum' without ever mastering or extolling or _extending_ the
beautiful
equations. Yet WHY on earth should we expect the 20th century's greatest
novelist, linguist supreme (and let's mention innovative lepidopterist
and
promising chess problemist) to ALSO excel at Pure & Applied Mathematics?
'Tis said that childhood sickness hindered his early arithmetical
promise.
But this may have been a blessing in disguise. VN the writer emerged as
a
giant on adjacent pantheon pedestals to Euler, Gauss, Riemann, Noether
Hilbert, Poincare (none of whom could craft a decent, catchy paragraph!)
--
how sad had VN merely grown up better at sums.
Something for those impatient non-mathematicians on the list:
1. Cayley's Theorem: Every Group of order n is a subgroup of the
Symmetric
Group Sn. That beats Dante's Comedia -- well, perhaps.
2. Emmy Noether, the great female mathematician (1882-1935, a tough time
for
women at Gottingen) established the connection between group Symmetries
and
Conservation Laws -- changing the history of Mathematical Physics. Not
as
sexy as ADA??
** Of course, some say that VN was not a Nabokovian*** -- others that he
was
the 'least-typical' Nabokovian, so great care is needed with such
labels.
*** Not the paradox it seems. Darwin is not considered a true Darwinian
in
some quarters. Eponymous predicates have a nasty habit of drifting away
from
the founder. The philosopher/LitCrit Stanley Fish has had a bad time,
too!
skb
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html
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