The ending of Pi

Yeah I know, rapid fire...

I do have another thing to talk about though. I was talking to my roommate about Pi and he had some interesting thoughts about the ending. At the end when Max is on the bench, he's looking up at the sun again. It's like he wants to get his insights back and he's still thinking about his quest for understanding. That might suggest that it wasn't just the math that was leading him to his insanity, but something more 'fundamental' inside him. I'm not exactly sure what else to say about this. Perhaps it kind of illustrates the fact that this quest for understanding is fundamental to people and independent of whatever form it takes, be it mathematical or religious in the case of the Jews in the film.

Axioms and Religion

I was thinking more recently about the role of religion in some of the depictions of mathematicians that we've been looking at. They would seem to suggest that mathematicians would rather turn to a logical system for meaning than one based on faith. However, there is an interesting parallel with religion in this approach that I think is illustrated in Pi. In Max's search for meaning, the first thing he has to do is accept his initial assumptions, namely that everything can be described with mathematics and that there are patterns everywhere in nature. In all of the study of mathematics one has to accept an initial set of axioms such as these, which are not proven, and then proceed from there. This is not always similar to faith however, since they are usually simple enough to be verified adequately by everyday experience. Max's axioms, on the other hand, such as meaningful patterns existing everywhere, are deeper than most common axioms in math and thus perhaps more closely related to the idea of a faith.

small talk

my roommate (i'll call her k) and i were talking about one of her professors, who is a sexist pig and believes women are made to serve men and he believes in the theory of evolution and survival of the fittest. he claims that adam and eve were not the first human beings and that adam even had a wife previous to eve named lillith. this leads into a discussion about religion and i realized that all my classes are connected to each other. in this class, we're reading vas and, well, you all know what that's about. in my astronomy class, we've learned about the big bang theory and how earth was created and that there's probably life on other planets in the universe. my women's gender studies class is taking us through history and showing the places where women had a big impact. i'm learning about the evolution of women and the role they play in or according to society, which has tremendously changed and evolved over the last hundred years. i'm also taking a religious studies class where my professor is basically doing her best to convert the class to her religion (this is all still part of the conversation with my roommate). k and i have different religious backgrounds and we both realized that even though we heard all the big bang theory and evolution talk when we were younger, our family's religious practices and beliefs never really allowed us to take these other views into consideration. i don't feel like i had a choice between believing in god or accepting Darwin's theory. i was placed into this family who instilled their beliefs in me from the moment i was born. i was baptized when i was only a couple months old, and i wonder, how did my parents make that decision for me before i could even speak? i'm not saying that i want to change my beliefs, but would these still be the beliefs i would choose if i had the option of any beliefs that are available today? obviously i'll never know but i thought this tied in nicely to the concept in vas of genetic screening. if you can be given information that will help you understand what kind of life you and your child might lead, i think you should take advantage of that. you're going to know eventually, so why not start preparing yourself as soon as possible. sorry if this blog is all over the place.

Biblical Allusions in We

I know we talked about this in class on Thursday, but today I want to write a little more about Zamyatin’s use of religion, particularly biblical allusions in We. I think the beginning of this novel can be seen as a story of Adam and Eve. At first, we are told that the One State is set up to be perfection on Earth, just like the Garden of Eden. With the Benefactor as God, he created a society intended to promote happiness and comfort free of pain, envy and worry. At some point before we met her, I-330, as Eve, was introduced to the “forbidden fruits” of the ancient world. These are the things that the One State wanted to keep from the numbers such as alcohol, lust and appreciation of ancient music. Just as Adam and Eve, I-330 shared her forbidden knowledge with D-503. In the Bible, it is understood that this was intended to happen as part of God’s plan for humanity. I believe this idea of Adam’s predestination is paralleled by D-503. D discovers that his mother was from beyond the Green Wall so perhaps he was predisposed to have a “soul.” The social hierarchy in We also emulates a divine hierarchy. The Guardians are in place to keep the numbers from straying from the way of the One State and to serve as liaisons between the Benefactor and the masses. This concept is similar to the idea of guardian angels. I wonder why Zamyatin chooses to illustrate his dystopia as a parallel to a Christian society. Is he mimicking faith? Is he simply creating a society we can understand, by introducing the One State just as the Earth is introduced in the Bible? Or is the One State a satirical criticism of impending communism in his own country?

Religion and culture

Here’s a clip from South Park on the subject of religion’s role in society. I think there are some interesting similarities between the view of Richard Dawkins (as expressed in the show) and that of the One State and D-503.

(Warning: the clip contains some salty language and probably isn’t safe for work.)