"Yo sé de un laberinto griego que es una línea única, recta."
—Borges, "La Muerte y la Brújula"
"I know of one Greek labyrinth which is a single straight line."
—Borges, "Death and the Compass"
Monday, January 23, 2012
Labyrinth
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Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Labyrinth of the Line
“Yo sé de un laberinto griego que es una línea única, recta.”
—Borges, “La Muerte y la Brújula”
“I know of one Greek labyrinth which is a single straight line.”
—Borges, “Death and the Compass”
Another single-line labyrinth—
Robert A. Wilson on the projective line with 24 points
and its image in the Miracle Octad Generator (MOG)—
Related material —
The remarks of Scott Carnahan at Math Overflow on October 25th, 2010
and the remarks at Log24 on that same date.
A search in the latter for miracle octad is updated below.
This search (here in a customized version) provides some context for the
Benedictine University discussion described here on February 25th and for
the number 759 mentioned rather cryptically in last night’s “Ariadne’s Clue.”
Update of March 3— For some historical background from 1931, see The Mathieu Relativity Problem.
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Thursday, December 22, 2022
Thursday, May 12, 2022
Dark Ride Design
In memory of an actor who reportedly died on May 7 —
"Mr. Jenkin's play aspires to a Borgesian take on
American cultural rubble (pulp novels, films noir,
diner menus, pop songs, etc.), here assembled into
a labyrinthine, coincidence-driven and self-consciously
artificial plot." — Ben Brantley, New York Times ,1996
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Wednesday, February 24, 2021
Annals of Dim Antiquity
“Twenty-four glyphs, each one representing not a letter, not a word,
but a concept, arranged into four groups, written in Boris’s own hand,
an artifact that seemed to have resurrected him from the dead. It was
as if he were sitting across from Bourne now, in the dim antiquity of
the museum library.
This was what Bourne was staring at now, written on the unfolded
bit of onionskin.”
— The Bourne Enigma , published on June 21, 2016
Passing, on June 21, 2016, into a higher dimension —
For those who prefer Borges to Bourne —
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Saturday, November 24, 2012
Reappearing All Over Again
For the title, see the phrase "reappearing number" in this journal.
Some related mathematics—
the Greek labyrinth of Borges, as well as…
.
Note that "0" here stands for "23," while ∞ corresponds to today's date.
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Sunday, November 4, 2012
Shakespeare’s Rhyme
From Saturday Night Live last night—
Related material from the Log24 post "Now Lens"
(March 11, 2011)—
Errol Morris in The New York Times on March 9, 2011—
"If everything is incommensurable, then everything
is seen through the lens of the present, the lens of now ."
"Borges concluded by quoting Chesterton, 'there is nothing
more frightening than a labyrinth that has no center.' [72]"
See also Borges on Shakespeare, everything, and nothing
in a note from September 7, 2006.
Everything and nothing in Peter J. Cameron's weblog yesterday—
The existence of everything entails the existence of nothing;
indeed, the existence of anything (any set A) entails
the existence of the empty set (the set {x∈A:x≠x}).
But not the other way round.
Right, I had better put on my anorak and go out now …
Illustration added by m759—
How many miles to Babylon?*
Three score miles and ten.
Can I get there by candle-light?**
Yes, and back again.
* Suggested by the Pindar link in this journal yesterday.
** Quoted in the "Seven is Heaven" post on All Souls' Day.
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Thursday, March 15, 2012
The Head of Caesar
Remarks on Citizen Kane from The New York Times—
"… a kind of metaphysical detective story…. At the end we realize that the fragments are not governed by any secret unity: the detested Charles Foster Kane is a simulacrum, a chaos of appearances.” Borges concluded by quoting Chesterton, "there is nothing more frightening than a labyrinth that has no center." *
* The actual quote is from a Father Brown mystery, "The Head of Caesar," "'What we all dread most,' said the priest in a low voice, 'is a maze with no centre….'"
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Saturday, October 8, 2011
An Ordinary Evening in Hartford
From Rebecca Goldstein's Talks and Appearances page—
• "36 (Bad) Arguments for the Existence of God,"
Annual Meeting of the Freedom from Religion Foundation,
Marriot, Hartford, CT, Oct 7 [2011], 7 PM
From Wallace Stevens—
"Reality is the beginning not the end,
Naked Alpha, not the hierophant Omega,
of dense investiture, with luminous vassals."
— “An Ordinary Evening in New Haven” VI
For those who prefer greater depth on Yom Kippur, yesterday's cinematic link suggests…
"Yo sé de un laberinto griego que es una línea única, recta."
—Borges, "La Muerte y la Brújula " ("Death and the Compass")
See also Alpha and Omega (Sept. 18, 2011) and some context from 1931.
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Monday, May 9, 2011
Queen’s Gambit*
From March 9 four years ago—
* See this journal and the novel.
Update of 10 AM May 9—
Midrash for Gnostics —
A post linked to under "this journal" (above) has a brief discussion of theology and Wallace Stevens—
"Professor Eucalyptus in 'Ordinary Evening' XIV, for example, 'seeks/ God in the object itself '…."
I have more confidence that God is to be found in the Ping Pong balls of the New York Lottery.
This suggests a check of yesterday's NY numbers. They were… Midday 780, Evening 302.
A search for 780 in this journal yields a post quoting The Scotsman 's reporter Rhiannon Edward.
Related material:
Rhiannon's Scotsman story of May 6—
Rapist gets 20 years after justice system finally believes his victims
Published Date: 06 May 2011
By Rhiannon Edward
A SCOTTISH care home worker who groomed and raped teenage girls for more than a decade has been jailed for 20 years.
James Boyes abused a string of underage girls at Frant Court care home in Frant, East Sussex, during the 1980s and 1990s, leaving one so traumatised she is still being treated in a secure mental hospital….
See also this journal on May 7 —
For yesterday's NY evening 302, see the "780" post involving Rhiannon—
Glenn Ford as a playboy from Argentina —
— and "302" interpreted as "3/02," which yields…
"Yo sé de un laberinto griego que es una línea única, recta."
—Borges, "La Muerte y la Brújula"
"I know of one Greek labyrinth which is a single straight line."
—Borges, "Death and the Compass"
For some background music, click here.
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Friday, March 11, 2011
Now Lens
A Story in Pictures
Errol Morris in The New York Times on March 9—
"If everything is incommensurable, then everything is seen through the lens of the present, the lens of now ."
"Borges concluded by quoting Chesterton, 'there is nothing more frightening than a labyrinth that has no center.' [72]"
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Thursday, March 8, 2007
Thursday March 8, 2007
Dia de la
Mujer Trabajadora
Mujer Trabajadora
“Yo es que nací un 8 de marzo,
Día de la Mujer Trabajadora,
y no he hecho más que
trabajar toda mi vida.”
For background on Aldecoa,
see a paper (pdf) by
Sara Brenneis:
“Josefina Aldecoa intertwines
history, collective memory
and individual testimony in her
historical memory trilogy…”
History:
The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire in New York City on March 25, 1911, was the largest industrial disaster in the history of the city of New York, causing the death of 146 garment workers who either died in the fire or jumped to their deaths.
Propaganda, March 1977:
“On March 8, 1908, after the death of 128 women trapped in a fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York City, 15,000 women workers from the garment and textile industry marched echoing the demands of their sisters 50 years earlier…”
Propaganda, March 2006:
“First of all, on March 8th, 1857, a large number of factory workers in the United States took to the streets to demand their economic and political rights. The owners called the police who arrived immediately and opened fire, engaging in blind repression… Later on, in 1908, the same date of March 8th was once again a memorable date of struggle. On this day, capitalist bosses in Chicago set fire to a textile factory where over a thousand women worked. A very large number was terribly burnt. 120 died!”
Propaganda disguised as news, March 2007:
From today’s top story in 24 HoursTM, a commuter daily in Vancouver published by Sun Media Corporation:
Fight still on for equality
By Robyn Stubbs and Carly Krug
“International Women’s Day commemorates a march by female garment workers protesting low wages, 12-hour workdays and bad working conditions in New York City on March 8, 1857.
Then in 1908, after 128 women were trapped and killed in a fire at a New York City garment and textile factory, 15,000 women workers again took their protests to the street.”
Related historical fiction:
A version of the
I Ching’s Hexagram 19:
— Katherine Neville, The Eight
|
“What does this have to do with why we’re here?”
“I saw it in a chess book Mordecai showed me. The most ancient chess service ever discovered was found at the palace of King Minos on Crete– the place where the famous Labyrinth was built, named after this sacred axe. The chess service dates to 2000 B.C. It was made of gold and silver and jewels…. And in the center was carved a labrys.” … “But I thought chess wasn’t even invented until six or seven hundred A.D.,” I added. “They always say it came from Persia or India. How could this Minoan chess service be so old?” “Mordecai’s written a lot himself on the history of chess,” said Lily…. “He thinks that chess set in Crete was designed by the same guy who built the Labyrinth– the sculptor Daedalus….” Now things were beginning to click into place…. “Why was this axe carved on the chessboard?” I asked Lily, knowing the answer in my heart before she spoke. “What did Mordecai say was the connection?”…. “That’s what it’s all about,” she said quietly. “To kill the King.” The sacred axe was used to kill the King. The ritual had been the same since the beginning of time. The game of chess was merely a reenactment. Why hadn’t I recognized it before? |
Perhaps at the center of
Aldecoa’s labyrinth lurk the
capitalist bosses from Chicago
who, some say, set fire
to a textile factory
on this date in 1908.
For a Freudian perspective
on the above passage,
see yesterday’s entry
In the Labyrinth of Time,
with its link to
John Irwin‘s essay
“The False Artaxerxes:
Borges and the
Dream of Chess.”
Symbols
S. H. Cullinane
March 7, 2007
Today, by the way, is the
feast of a chess saint.
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Wednesday, March 7, 2007
Wednesday March 7, 2007
In the Labyrinth
of Time:
8:24:48
AM EST
Related material–
Symbols:
of Time:
8:24:48
AM EST
Related material–
Symbols:
and
“The False Artaxerxes:
Borges and the
Dream of Chess“
This entry was inspired by
Xanga footprints yesterday
from Virginia:
| 1. Virginia Weblog ART WARS: Time and the Grid |
3/6/2007 9:48 AM |
| 2. Virginia Weblog Sequel |
3/6/2007 11:38 AM |
| 3. Virginia Weblog Games and Truth |
3/6/2007 1:25 PM |
| 4. Virginia /item.aspx?user=m759&ta… The Transcendent Signified |
3/6/2007 5:15 PM |
| 5. Virginia /item.aspx?user=m759&ta… Zen and Language Games |
3/6/2007 5:16 PM |
| 6. Virginia /item.aspx?user=m759&ta… Balanchine’s Birthday |
3/6/2007 6:12 PM |
| 7. Virginia /item.aspx?user=m759&ta… The Agony and the Ya-Ya |
3/6/2007 6:12 PM |
| 8. Virginia /item.aspx?user=m759&ta… Directions Out |
3/6/2007 6:13 PM |
| 9. Virginia /item.aspx?user=m759&ta… The Four Last Things |
3/6/2007 6:13 PM |
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Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Wednesday January 31, 2007
Ontotheology
“At times, bullshit can only be
countered with superior bullshit.”
— Norman Mailer
“It may be that universal history is the
history of the different intonations
given a handful of metaphors.”
— Jorge Luis Borges (1951),
“The Fearful Sphere of Pascal,”
in Labyrinths, New Directions, 1962
“Before introducing algebraic semiotics and structural blending, it is good to be clear about their philosophical orientation. The reason for taking special care with this is that, in Western culture, mathematical formalisms are often given a status beyond what they deserve. For example, Euclid wrote, ‘The laws of nature are but the mathematical thoughts of God.'”
— Joseph A. Goguen, “Ontology, Society, and Ontotheology” (pdf)
Goguen does not give a source for this alleged “thoughts of God” statement.
A Web search for the source leads only to A Mathematical Journey, by Stanley Gudder, who apparently also attributes the saying to Euclid.
Neither Goguen nor Gudder seems to have had any interest in the accuracy of the Euclid attribution.
Talk of “nature” and “God” seems unlikely from Euclid, a pre-Christian Greek whose pure mathematics has (as G. H. Hardy might be happy to point out) little to do with either.
Loose talk about God’s thoughts has also been attributed to Kepler and Einstein… and we all know about Stephen Hawking.
Gudder may have been misquoting some other author’s blather about Kepler. Another possible source of the “thoughts of God” phrase is Hans Christian Oersted. The following is from Oersted’s The Soul in Nature—
“Sophia. Nothing of importance; though indeed I had one question on my lips when the conversion took the last turn. When you alluded to the idea, that the Reason manifested in Nature is infallible, while ours is fallible, should you not rather have said, that our Reason accords with that of Nature, as that in the voice of Nature with ours?
Alfred. Each of these interpretations may be justified by the idea to which it applies, whether we start from ourselves or external nature. There are yet other ways of expressing it; for instance, the laws of Nature are the thoughts of Nature.
Sophia. Then these thoughts of Nature are also thoughts of God.
Alfred. Undoubtedly so, but however valuable the expression may be, I would rather that we should not make use of it till we are convinced that our investigation leads to a view of Nature, which is also the contemplation of God. We shall then feel justified by a different and more perfect knowledge to call the thoughts of Nature those of God; I therefore beg you will not proceed to [sic] fast.”
Oersted also allegedly said that “The Universe is a manifestation of an Infinite Reason and the laws of Nature are the thoughts of God.” This remark was found (via Google book search) in an obscure journal that does not give a precise source for the words it attributes to Oersted.
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