Stan 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."
......................................
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.