Kaleidoscope of Mathematics

Almost seven years ago the first thing that I fell in love with on watching the movie A Beautiful Mind for the first time was the opening theme known as Kaleidoscope of Mathematics. Another movie that I watched for the first time around the same time was Bicentennial Man, directed by Chris Columbus. It was only when I watched it again a few years later that it dawned on me that the opening score of Bicentennial Man was pretty much the same as that of A Beautiful Mind. Music for both films was scored by James Horner, but I'm not sure if I knew this ahead of my discovery. Surfing around in YouTube I came to know that Horner had apparently used the same piece of music in an earlier film - Searching for Bobby Fischer, released in 1993 - as well. Of course, I cannot vouch for the truth of this assertion because I've neither watched the movie nor heard its score.

The fact that Horner has used the same theme in at least two different movies has led to some predictable criticism. This ranges from sane calls for a bit more of originality from the composer to insane assertions of plagiarism. I on the other hand, find nothing at all to criticize the composer about. For me, the fact that he used the same musical theme in the opening scores of both Bicentennial Man and A Beautiful Mind indicates his understanding of the deeper intellectual themes that underlie these two movies. While the Bicentennial Man is about a robot who strives to become human, A Beautiful Mind traces the life of a schizophrenic mathematician. So essentially, the former follows the evolution of a beautiful mind while the latter is concerned with the consequences of the existence of a beautiful mind. It's nothing short of amazing for me that James Horner not only understood this, but was able to translate it into a beautiful piece of music. One last point that I want to make is that even though the musical theme is the same, the style of orchestration in terms of the instruments used, the aural ambience and the tempo are vastly different between the two movies and Horner makes sure that the music for each movie is its own. Bravo James Horner!

Jason and The Devil

What follows is a dialogue that I dreamt up a few years ago, inspired by a line from Umberto Eco's novel Foucault's Pendulum and Arthur Porges's short story The Devil and Simon Flagg. Of course I know about Porges's story only because Simon Singh refers to it in Fermat's Last Theorem !

Jason: It sure is a lovely day!

The Devil: I would certainly agree, but in a darker sense of the word.

Jason turns around and almost jumps out of his skin.

Jason: Holy Smokes! Who're you?

The Devil: Never mind! But isn't speaking of the word lovely in a darker sense something of a... what would you humans call it?

Jason: A contradiction?

The Devil: Yes! I suppose you can call it that... but then you see, I'm The Devil and Darkness is quite Lovely for me and therefore I concur with your initial appreciative diagnosis. Today is indeed a lovely day. Quite lovely in fact for pursuing unguarded humans like you!

Jason: Why would your highness, The Supreme Ruler of the infernal depths be sneaking up behind innocent humans like me?

The Devil: I believe you're under the mistaken impression that the supreme ruler of the infernal world cannot appreciate sharply satirical human speech. Now I shall demonstrate to you the extent of my appreciation.

The Devil makes a fluid gesture with both his arms. The opening bars of Beethoven's Fifth can be heard thundering. With an abrupt movement The Master of Infernal Special Effects conjures up a slew of MGM style visual effects with a touch of Devilish ingenuity that would have given goosebumps to even a hardened fan of horror movies and put Industrial Lights and Magic out of business. Lightning and Fire seem to strike at Jason from infinitely many directions and The Devil himself seemed to have grown to the size of a multi-dimensional Godzilla! But as abruptly as it had begun it was over. The face of The Devil was contorted in a Devilish imitation of smugness.

Jason looks dazed and awestruck but gathers his wits around pretty quickly.

Jason: Phew! Wow! That was frightening! I'm quite certain that a lot of people would go bankrupt if you manage to make your way to Hollywood.

The Devil is unable to hide his surprise and looks really annoyed.

The Devil: You think you're quick witted, don't you?

Jason: Yeah! Sure...

The Devil: Then let me match my anti-divine wit against your super quick human brain.

Jason: I don't really prefer matching wits against nonexistent creatures.

The Devil: How dare you... never mind! Prove to me that I don't exist.

Jason: That's quite simple. I don't believe that the Devil exists. Therefore you don't exist!

The Devil: But I do exist as you can see!

Jason: My Belief is firm.

The Devil: So is my existence.

Jason: Then I'll have to prove it your way. You exist. This Implies that God exists, right?

The Devil smirks.

The Devil: Him! Yes He does.

Jason: Then that proves you don't exist!

Before The Devil manages to react, Jason makes the sign of the Cross. Instantaneously The Devil vanishes in a puff of nonexistent smoke (courtesy Infernal Lights and Magic).

It's a Tale

I guess most people would be able to figure out that the title of this blog is inspired by (actually, it is in fact exactly the same as) Umberto Eco's foreword to The Name of the Rose. But the title that I really had in mind was It's a Tale, which in turn was inspired (this one was really inspired!) by John Crowley's Little, Big. In the end I just decided to go with Naturally, a Manuscript because I thought it possessed the virtue of greater recognizability. In fact, it immediately brings to mind a world of books, manuscripts, narratives, tales, signs, words, intertextuality, the relationship of the written word to the world that it encapsulates and sheer postmodernist intellectual playfulness. This is exactly what I want to talk (write, type, think, silently converse...) about. I really want to believe that an underlying, unifying theme of this blog would be how life itself is in some way a narrative, a never ending tale that is continuously being told, written, imagined...this is in part the theme of Little, Big as well. Though I really want to believe this, I feel that when I look back on this blog a few years hence it would be as varied in its themes as the narrative of life itself and as idiosyncratic, opinionated, intellectually playful, downright crazy and verbose as I myself am and my varied interests are.