FIVE AND ME (ANTONIO OREJUDO) AND THE ARISTOCRACY OF SCIECE

 Quintin always believed he was a genius who was going to renovate Maths. His fathers´ dream was that he studied aeronautic engineering.  That’s why,  his resolution to study Pure Maths disappointed his father. He asked him why did he do it and Quentin answered that applied sciences was for weak people; Pure Maths were the aristocracy of Science

In the last post we talked about the reciprocal misgivings between Science and Arts. In this post Arts are not even involved. As a chemist, I have to admit that the difficulty of  an university degree is directly proportional to the contents of Math in it.  Although we are not only told about difficulty here, but the plebeian aspect in the fact of looking for an application in everything you learn.  The romantic vision of Knowledge for its own sake is not actually exclusive of teoric or pure Mathematics because degrees as classical philology for example,  share this vision.

THE KINGDOM (JO NESBO), WE WERE THE MULVANEYS (JOYCE CAROL OATES) AND BEAUTY

 'Symmetry,’ she said at last. ‘The golden ratio. Shapes that imitate nature. Complementary colours. Harmonising notes.’

I nodded, relieved that the conversation was back on the rails again but knowing I’d have a hard time forgiving myself for that slip.

‘Or in architecture, where you have functional shapes,’ she went on. ‘Which are actually the same as shapes that imitate nature. The hexagonal cells in a beehive. The beaver’s regulatory dam. The fox’s network of tunnels. The woodpecker’s hole of a nest which becomes a home for other birds. None of these are built to be beautiful, and yet they are. A house that’s good to live in is beautiful. It’s actually as simple as that.’

Symmetry, which is a geometric concept, is essential to define Beauty. Therefore, Beauty would be something objective, outward and superior to human beings. Pure Maths are  this way somehow .  This is something you can withhold from  Nesbo´s text. All the attempts of breaking this harmony in Music, Painting,  can’t help being   a naughty childish behaviour.  Not only is there the famous Golden Ratio named in the text but  also there is another proportion in the Alhanmbra ,called Arabian  by some people , which appears in most of the rectangles of this monument. Or, maybe, it´s just the opposite, who knows,  and so  Beauty is the quality most affected by  subjectivity and full of prejudices , as it is said in this passage  We were the Mulvaneys, by  Joyce Carol Oates:

Of course, he knew beauty doesn't exist. He hadn't known then but he knew now. Beauty is a matter of perspective, subjectivity. Cultural prejudice. You require a human eye, a human brain, a human vocabulary. In nature, there's nothing. 

Still, beauty gives comfort. Who knows why?