When we get a mathematical Apology which includes lines like this:
"The Riemann hypothesis was difficult as a research objective since it was not proposed by faculty and received no encouragement. Academic freedom permitted research on the Riemann hypothesis without permitting the statement of purpose of the work. This apology describes exceptional circumstances which made the Riemann hypothesis natural as a research objective. The exceptional individuals who were my father and my mathematical mentor were influenced in similar ways, but with dissimilar effectiveness, by the cultural traditions of the eighteenth century. A war replaced my father by my mathematical mentor for the critical years of my education."
we know we are facing someone traveling an eccentric orbit.
And when we get lines like:
"They had three children, Louis born in 1932 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Elise born
in 1935, and Elleonore born in 1938. The first of these, Lilou, is the author of the present apology. My mathematical mentor entered my life at such an early time that memory fails to record it. I opened the door of my grandparents' home in Swarthmore to him and to his wife when I was two years old. Swarthmore is a suburb of Philadelphia comparable to Wayne and Bryn Mawr. The meeting is remembered by my mother because I was naked."
We know we are reading a sad and truly Debranged apology.
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13 comments:
Could we crop the beret or maybe put this through Blingee like Zakaria?
Be creative, JJ. Go for it.
wtf is this about?
DeBranges, le Duc d'Purdue.
DeBranges came to MIT about 10 years ago to lecture at the colloquium about "The Riemann Hypothesis" and
with a provocative title like that one would understand that the hall was packed. Instead of getting to the heart of the matter, DeBranges started extolling Nobert Wiener (and his role as the chief promulgator
of the theory of entire functions) and recasting him as
lone voice against a cacophony of MIT Pharisees. Despite Nobert's phariahom, DeBranges was nevertheless inculcated as an undergraduate with the seeds of this castigated approach which he later brought with him to Purdue. There, in the pale of Indiana country side, the theory of entire functions flourished and a host of graduate students honed their analytic skills while the decadent northeast piddled away in Grothendieckisms. But now Louis was back to reclaim the mantle of Wiener (if not David) himself. In the last fifteen minutes of his hour-long sermon he briefly explained about a possible approach to the Riemann hypothesis using
entire function theory methods. The question session was something out of Bach's Johannes Passion, jeers and all .... we have no king but caesar !
Now that must have been a memory worth having....
After his "proof" failed to convince the hosts of the skeptical, he had an earlier "apology" [2003?] which actually sought to justify his arguments. This recent version is a more..ahem.."classical" form of Apologia. If not one carrying the mantle of Wiener, at least one that would have made Augustine proud.
Does "phariahom" stand for "pariahdom", or is it a neologism?
Anonymous: I heard a talk by DeBranges at MIT about 10 years ago -- maybe it was the same one you mention. I knew of DeBranges because of his proof of the Bierberbach conjecture, so I was interested in what he had to say. But I don't recall him saying anything interesting, and the rest of the theatrics are gone from my memory.
AI! You're alive!
Sorry --- should have be pariahdom
with a "d". Please feel free, however,
to plum the font's interpretive depth.
Yes, AI, I'm pretty sure it was the same talk --- and probably I'm biblifying this story too much. After all, the true mathematical Pharisees are not the Grothendiecks but the Gelfandists.
Well, maybe the Gelfandists are the Sanhedrin, with the Grothendiecks being the Pharisees.
... and let the Pharisees and Sadducees
Give way to none.
But whosoever feels his pride
Humbled so deep
There is no corner he can hide
Even in sleep!
Anonymous, are those your lines? Lines from some Swift like auteur? They're nice.
No, not mine but you should ask JJ this question --- he should know !
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