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Infinite Proofs: The Effects of Mathematics on David Foster Wallace (2012)

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Re: Infinite Proofs: The Effects of Mathematics on David Foster Wallace (2012)

#4

Post by jawjay »

lordleft wrote: post #2

Here is the book on Infinity DFW penned: https://www.amazon.com/Everything-More-Compact-History-Infin...

Such a great book. Do you know if he there is any other DFW math-ish writings to be found? All my searches thus far have turned up naught.

Re: Infinite Proofs: The Effects of Mathematics on David Foster Wallace (2012)

#5

Post by JonathanMerklin »

lordleft wrote: post #2

Here is the book on Infinity DFW penned: https://www.amazon.com/Everything-More-Compact-History-Infin...

I want to note for the HN crowd that the book is in the "just technical enough to inform yet not scare off the layman, but not technical enough for the practitioner" nonfiction subgenre. Critically, there are a number of finer details that DFW gets wrong; if you're mathematically inclined and intend to read this, I suggest pairing it with a printed copy of Prabhakar Ragde's errata document hosted by the DFW fansite The Howling Fantods ([1]).

[1] https://www.thehowlingfantods.com/dfw/images/enmerrata.pdf

Re: Infinite Proofs: The Effects of Mathematics on David Foster Wallace (2012)

#6

Post by markgall »

lordleft wrote: post #2

Here is the book on Infinity DFW penned: https://www.amazon.com/Everything-More-Compact-History-Infin...

This should be read in parallel with the review by Michael Harris in the AMS Notices: "A Sometimes Funny Book Supposedly about Infinity" https://www.ams.org/notices/200406/rev-harris.pdf

As a DFW lover whose day job is as a mathematician... that book's a clunker.

Re: Infinite Proofs: The Effects of Mathematics on David Foster Wallace (2012)

#8

Post by markgall »

jawjay wrote: post #4
lordleft wrote: post #2

Here is the book on Infinity DFW penned: https://www.amazon.com/Everything-More-Compact-History-Infin...

Such a great book. Do you know if he there is any other DFW math-ish writings to be found? All my searches thus far have turned up naught.

I'm not aware of any, but maybe somebody else is. A more general question is are there any other DFW-ish math-ish writings to be found? Against The Day (Pynchon) is not really math-ish, but it does have a good bit of math (more than GR at least), and a DFW fan would probably like it. Stella Maris (McCarthy) is perhaps neither DFW-ish nor math-ish, but it is Serious Fiction centered on a mathematician and is probably the best work of fiction to feature Alexander Grothendieck. I have heard that Solenoid (Cartarescu) has some math in it, though I fear it's still sitting on my shelf. Every Arc Bends Its Radian (due in a couple months from Sergio De La Pava) has a math-ish title but I doubt it will actually contain much math.

Michael Harris -- a mathematician who wrote a review of the DFW Infinity book -- has a book called "Mathematics Without Apologies", which I liked, though it's non-fiction. There is also "Birth of a Theorem" by Fields medalist Cedric Villani which is an interesting read -- not fiction, but it is experimental in many respects and I would say worth a read.

Re: Infinite Proofs: The Effects of Mathematics on David Foster Wallace (2012)

#9

Post by citizen_friend »

JonathanMerklin wrote: post #5
lordleft wrote: post #2

Here is the book on Infinity DFW penned: https://www.amazon.com/Everything-More-Compact-History-Infin...

I want to note for the HN crowd that the book is in the "just technical enough to inform yet not scare off the layman, but not technical enough for the practitioner" nonfiction subgenre. Critically, there are a number of finer details that DFW gets wrong; if you're mathematically inclined and intend to read this, I suggest pairing it with a printed copy of Prabhakar Ragde's errata document hosted by the DFW fansite T…

This. He tries to do a few epsilon delta proofs and completely gets the concept wrong. I’m surprised an editor did not stop this.

If he can’t understand a limit it really puts a question mark on whether it’s worth reading his insight into the subject.

Re: Infinite Proofs: The Effects of Mathematics on David Foster Wallace (2012)

#10

Post by krelian »

markgall wrote: post #8
jawjay wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Such a great book. Do you know if he there is any other DFW math-ish writings to be found? All my searches thus far have turned up naught.

I'm not aware of any, but maybe somebody else is. A more general question is are there any other DFW-ish math-ish writings to be found? Against The Day (Pynchon) is not really math-ish, but it does have a good bit of math (more than GR at least), and a DFW fan would probably like it. Stella Maris (McCarthy) is perhaps neither DFW-ish nor math-ish, but it is Serious Fiction centered on a mathematician and is probably…

You'll probably enjoy When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamin Labatut.
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