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Re: Einstein and Langevin
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Re: [NABOKV-L] Einstein and LangevinStan K-B: Wonderful leads...[...] involved in Einstein's "slick" formulae [...] Jansy mentioned ...that she ponders setting off in an "imaginary" space-ship in order to test the Einstein "rejuvenation" formula. In fact, Jansy, it definitely works for REAL space-ships[...]. One analogy might be VN's impatience with Edmund Wilson's criticism of VN's Russian grammar, lexis and prosody! [...]Imagine Wilson saying "While not knowing as much Russian as VN, I reject his slick translations of Onegin; but then one need not know theology to be an atheist."
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JM: Actually, Stan, I had something else in mind in lieu of rejuvenation ("rejuvenation" applies to a Faustian dream & not a "twin paradox").
I compared VN as a scientist and VN as an artist. As a scientist, VN might have kept "inertia" a constant whereas, as an artist, he flew on imaginary space-ships to undergo "intertia-breaks" and change his figures of speech. My intention might be better expounded through Jonatahn Swift's "A critical essay on the faculties of the mind" (1707) where his remarks on Euclid lead us smack into the question of a dominance of Nature over Art.
Unfortunately I don't have the original English. You'd have to find it in his collection of "Modest Proposals".
He wrote something similar in spirit ( I hope) to:
"But, to come back to our digression, I think it is as clear as any demonstration by Euclid that Nature never engenders anything in vain. Had we been capable to delve into Nature's most profound recesses we would discover that the minutest leaves of grass, or the most despicable herbs, have a specific usefulness. Nature is even more wonderful in its diminute products: the smallest and most negligible insects are those that better reveal Nature's Art - were such a designation possible - for Nature, that delights in variety, always triumphs over Art. As the poet has observed "Naturam expellas furca licet, usque recurret (Horatio)". In this special instance one need not know geometry to be a horatian, I suppose.
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JM: Actually, Stan, I had something else in mind in lieu of rejuvenation ("rejuvenation" applies to a Faustian dream & not a "twin paradox").
I compared VN as a scientist and VN as an artist. As a scientist, VN might have kept "inertia" a constant whereas, as an artist, he flew on imaginary space-ships to undergo "intertia-breaks" and change his figures of speech. My intention might be better expounded through Jonatahn Swift's "A critical essay on the faculties of the mind" (1707) where his remarks on Euclid lead us smack into the question of a dominance of Nature over Art.
Unfortunately I don't have the original English. You'd have to find it in his collection of "Modest Proposals".
He wrote something similar in spirit ( I hope) to:
"But, to come back to our digression, I think it is as clear as any demonstration by Euclid that Nature never engenders anything in vain. Had we been capable to delve into Nature's most profound recesses we would discover that the minutest leaves of grass, or the most despicable herbs, have a specific usefulness. Nature is even more wonderful in its diminute products: the smallest and most negligible insects are those that better reveal Nature's Art - were such a designation possible - for Nature, that delights in variety, always triumphs over Art. As the poet has observed "Naturam expellas furca licet, usque recurret (Horatio)". In this special instance one need not know geometry to be a horatian, I suppose.
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/