Sep 5, 2007 18:34
17 yrs ago
English term
The Aleph (()) undermined
English
Science
History
BORGES
33:27 timestamp. I have no idea what should I put here.
EVELYN FISHBURN: ... I think, one has to read Borges always with the idea-- with a scepticism in mind, with irony in mind. To mention just "The Aleph", 33:27 (()) undermined--
MELVYN BRAGG: The Aleph being--
EVELYN FISHBURN: The Aleph being, in the story, a small coin, a microcosm, of course, in which is reflected the whole of the universe. ((That)) he has this fantastic experience of seeing the Aleph, and he comes out of this-- and a Borges-like character comes out of the centre and commits the-- an act of absolute petty vindictiveness. And then the Aleph is deconstructed by saying that there are many Alephs either here, there and everywhere. And there he has that fantastic passage, I saw … I saw … and everything that he sees in the Aleph with total vision. But this total vision doesn’t lead to anything other than vindictiveness, and to long list of other mirrors in literature, which mirror the universe , and the Aleph itself, which is in Cantors theory of the Mengenlehre, where any number can be symbolic of any number . So, in a way, he doesn’t trivialised, but he dilutes the experience by showing that actually it is everywhere and available everywhere.
You can listen to the programme here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/inourtime/inourtime_comm...
EVELYN FISHBURN: ... I think, one has to read Borges always with the idea-- with a scepticism in mind, with irony in mind. To mention just "The Aleph", 33:27 (()) undermined--
MELVYN BRAGG: The Aleph being--
EVELYN FISHBURN: The Aleph being, in the story, a small coin, a microcosm, of course, in which is reflected the whole of the universe. ((That)) he has this fantastic experience of seeing the Aleph, and he comes out of this-- and a Borges-like character comes out of the centre and commits the-- an act of absolute petty vindictiveness. And then the Aleph is deconstructed by saying that there are many Alephs either here, there and everywhere. And there he has that fantastic passage, I saw … I saw … and everything that he sees in the Aleph with total vision. But this total vision doesn’t lead to anything other than vindictiveness, and to long list of other mirrors in literature, which mirror the universe , and the Aleph itself, which is in Cantors theory of the Mengenlehre, where any number can be symbolic of any number . So, in a way, he doesn’t trivialised, but he dilutes the experience by showing that actually it is everywhere and available everywhere.
You can listen to the programme here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/inourtime/inourtime_comm...
Responses
| 3 | the aleph comes to mind |
David Knowles
|
Responses
1 hr
David Knowles
Native in English
&
English
Specialist in Civil Law & Contracts
Native in: English
Works in: Russian to English, English, Ukrainian to English
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7
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the aleph comes to mind
Difficult, because she's being interrupted, but I think this makes a bit more sense. It's also "his scepticism". As a mathematician, I'm a bit sceptical about her explanation of aleph below, which Cantor introduced as a notation for a range of infinities, starting with aleph-zero.
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Note added at 11 hrs (2007-09-06 06:28:34 GMT)
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Your quote from Borges, that "any [infinite] part is as great as the whole" makes sense in terms of Cantor's set theory and aleph-zero, but the commentator's reading that "any number can be symbolic of any number" is far less clear.
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Note added at 11 hrs (2007-09-06 06:28:34 GMT)
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Your quote from Borges, that "any [infinite] part is as great as the whole" makes sense in terms of Cantor's set theory and aleph-zero, but the commentator's reading that "any number can be symbolic of any number" is far less clear.
Note from asker:
| The Aleph by Jorge Luis Borges: "... for Cantor's Mengenlehre, it is the symbol of transfinite numbers, of which any part is as great as the whole.” |
| The Aleph by Jorge Luis Borges: explanation of aleph: "I want to add two final observations: one, on the nature of the Aleph; the other, on its name. As is well known, the Aleph is the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Its use for the strange sphere in my story may not be accidental. For the Kabbala, the letter stands for the En Soph, the pure and boundless godhead; it is also said that it takes the shape of a man pointing to both heaven and earth, in order to show that the lower world is the map and mirror of the higher ... " |
| Logic speaks for you, but I won't bet my life on it |
3 KudoZ points awarded for this answer.
Comment: "Thank you"
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