Noble Numbers, Subtle Words: The Art of Mathematics in the Science of StorytellingFairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1997 - 168 pages This study approaches the use of mathematics in fiction in an entirely new way, as a potent instrument of language. Following Wittgenstein's description of mathematical constructs as a component of ordinary language, Fisher shows how number, geometric figuration, algebraic coding, and transcendent abstractions have been made to function as practical narrative tools. Far from rehearsing the various paradigms of numerology, whether Pythagorean, Elizabethan, or Cabalistic, this book explores the tactical deployment of mathematical objects as shaping and framing agents. It reveals how mathematical objects may be subordinated to the storyteller's art. |
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Page 23
... Figure " of the title introduces a wonderfully complex piece of verbal machinery . As a rhetorical " figure of speech , " it announces the " howling " fire truck , the trope of the " unheeded " quintessential entity , and the poem , the ...
... Figure " of the title introduces a wonderfully complex piece of verbal machinery . As a rhetorical " figure of speech , " it announces the " howling " fire truck , the trope of the " unheeded " quintessential entity , and the poem , the ...
Page 26
... figure , " how- ever , that functions as the richest conceptual nexus . " Figure " combines not only numerical and rhetorical senses , as one finds in the William Carlos Williams poem discussed earlier , but conveys explicitly visual ...
... figure , " how- ever , that functions as the richest conceptual nexus . " Figure " combines not only numerical and rhetorical senses , as one finds in the William Carlos Williams poem discussed earlier , but conveys explicitly visual ...
Page 27
... figure " remains characteristically con- crete , like the integer or numeral it denotes . The substantive ( as " the figure five " ) gives an unchanging , stable , utterly fixed quantitative sym- bol , while the verbal " to figure ...
... figure " remains characteristically con- crete , like the integer or numeral it denotes . The substantive ( as " the figure five " ) gives an unchanging , stable , utterly fixed quantitative sym- bol , while the verbal " to figure ...
Contents
Acknowledgments 7 | 7 |
The Telltale Figure | 19 |
Zero Reason Infinite Need | 34 |
Copyright | |
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Noble Numbers, Subtle Words: The Art of Mathematics in the Science of ... Barbara M. Fisher No preview available - 1997 |
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abstract Aleph aleph null algebra alphabet arithmetic Beatriz Book of Sand Borges's Boyer Bronzino Cabala Cambridge Cantor Cantorian cardinal number chapter character circle color context Danieri Dauben Densher digits doctrine drama edited elements ematics emblem essay fiction figure G. E. M. Anscombe G. H. von Wright Galileo geometry Georg Cantor Greek Henry James History of Mathematics Ibid identity infinite infinity Italian Hours James's John Milton Jorge Luis Borges Kate King Lear language Lear's letter literary logic Lord Mark Ludwig Wittgenstein Matcham mathematician meaning Milly Milly's Monegal mystical narrative notion novel Number Symbols number words numerology Oxford Paradise Lost passage Paul Peirce Philosophical physical poem poet poetry Pythagorean reader reading Regan Satan's scene sense Sethe Shakespeare square story structure suggests tells term tion trans transfinite number University Press Venice vision William Wings Words and Number York zero