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Carolyn: I'll also put out feelers to obtain Geduld's book (Alibris
maybe?). His credentials are gilt-edged and I'll take his views
seriously.
I have sympathy over your overt rejection of "logic" (see your reply
to my IF/THEN options) but remind you that behind the scenes, as it
were, your brain continues to protect your life and sweet-brown,
tempting Pasadeen limbs [Keep to your point - ED] by quietly applying
Boolean Algebra to your neuronal-synaptical network, in order to
direct your every thought and action as safely & rationally as
possible (see any of the many Darwin-birthday books on cognitive
evolution).
Ah! But "logic" does peek through when you write "EITHER continuations
OR re-writes of Jekyll and Hyde." Logicians need to distinguish
inclusive from exclusive ORs (the 'wh' is silent). Furthermore, Shade
himself resorts to syllogistic reasoning on several (in)famous
occasions. Prends garde a toi!
I interrupt this email with breaking news that could delight you and
all ANTI-logicians. It's a rather technical row emerging between rival
groups of the leading mathematico-physico-logicians but in the
everyday words of John Conway & Simon Kochen (I can't begin to tell
you how super-bright & esteemed these two are) as they introduce
their
coup
http://arxiv.org/pdf/quant-ph/0604079v1
"Do we really have free will, or, as a few determined folk maintain, is
it all
an illusion? We don’t know, but will PROVE in this paper that if indeed
there
exist any experimenters with a modicum of freewill, then elementary
particles
must have their own share of this valuable commodity."
Before you rush in and speculate on the implications for Nabokov's
comic-cosmos,
note that refined con- and pro- arguments have been circulating since
the original 2006 paper (its roots go back earlier to the EPR
thought-experiments of the 1930s).
PS: Carolyn: many prefer Cilla Black's version of my Liverpool
Lullaby. Unlike Judy Collins, Cilla has the native-born Scouse accent.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mwPuardvZU
PPS: Can I point out an error in Mary McCarthy's Bolt from the Blue
essay on PF?
She says of the 'solus rex' problem, "a king and 2 knights cannot mate
a lone king." Not so! The correct formulation is "a king and 2 knights
cannot, in general, FORCE-mate a lone king."
CTaH