Claude Bragdon: Drawings of the Fourth Dimension (2022)

Something about this feels like a comedy of manners about a recent fad for some section of mathematics instead of, say, learning Hungarian, blazing like smallpox through a set of the gentry ... combined with a touch of the Lovecraftian horror of revelation of subjects too large for a brain only recently post-simian, more tuned to hurling rocks than visualization of the perambulations of higher-order Platonics through a more understandable, lesser membrane. One might imagine the Thirteenth Duke of Wybourne, having commissioned from an artisan a fine set of Hinton cubes and, upon their reception, ensconced them in some parlour corner bit of cabinetry, only for a succession of his niece's acquaintances to fall victim to some palsy, seizure, or neurasthenic disorder purely because her companions were typically relegated to a particular chair near the offending objects of uncanny intellectual curiosity. Why do all of her friends fare so poorly?

Re: Claude Bragdon: Drawings of the Fourth Dimension (2022)

#6

Post by dang » Sat, Dec 30, 2023, 10:16 PM UTC

zuluonezero wrote: post #4

Just lost half an hour on this site, Well done and thank you.

Not many previous threads but I found two from the site:

Isometric Geological Diagrams - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37898223 - Oct 2023 (4 comments)

Walls as Rooms (2012) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19144031 - Feb 2019 (2 comments)

Re: Claude Bragdon: Drawings of the Fourth Dimension (2022)

#7

Post by diaphanous » Sat, Dec 30, 2023, 10:17 PM UTC

swayvil wrote: post #3

I look at his work and feel love. What a great guy. Such depth, breadth and sensitivity. Forget collecting art. I think I'd rather collect artists. And he was a theosophist!

I believe he was also the person who first got P.D. Ouspensky published in English.

Edit: yes - he produced the first English translation of Ouspensky as early as 1919. Ouspensky was a refugee in Constantinople, had no idea the translation had come out, and Bradgon had no idea where he was. Eventually he found him and sent him a royalty check and this led to Ouspensky's emigrating to England.

Re: Claude Bragdon: Drawings of the Fourth Dimension (2022)

#8

Post by hnthrowaway0328 » Sat, Dec 30, 2023, 10:49 PM UTC

at_a_remove wrote: post #5

Something about this feels like a comedy of manners about a recent fad for some section of mathematics instead of, say, learning Hungarian, blazing like smallpox through a set of the gentry ... combined with a touch of the Lovecraftian horror of revelation of subjects too large for a brain only recently post-simian, more tuned to hurling rocks than visualization of the perambulations of higher-order Platonics through…

I have to say I don't understand much of your reply except for the Lovecraftian part, but I found it particularly geeky.

Re: Claude Bragdon: Drawings of the Fourth Dimension (2022)

#9

Post by tomcam » Sat, Dec 30, 2023, 11:40 PM UTC

hnthrowaway0328 wrote: post #8

at_a_remove wrote: post #5

Something about this feels like a comedy of manners about a recent fad for some section of mathematics instead of, say, learning Hungarian, blazing like smallpox through a set of the gentry ... combined with a touch of the Lovecraftian horror of revelation of subjects too large for a brain only recently post-simian, more tuned to hurling rocks than visualization of the perambulations of higher-order Platonics through…

I have to say I don't understand much of your reply except for the Lovecraftian part, but I found it particularly geeky.

With a touch of Lord Dunsany

Re: Claude Bragdon: Drawings of the Fourth Dimension (2022)

#10

Post by NKosmatos » Sun, Dec 31, 2023, 12:18 AM UTC

The handwritten font (hmm does such a phrase even exist?) in his drawings is great, not very readable, but great.