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Both Flesh and Not: Essays
by David Foster Wallace

Both Flesh and Not: Essays
by David Foster Wallace

Both Flesh and Not: Essays
by David Foster Wallace

209

Rhetoric and the Math Melodrama

7
terms
0
notes

about how math has found its way into popular culture and entertainment (see: Good Will Hunting, A Beautiful Mind, etc). reviews two math genre books: The Wild Numbers by Philibert Schogt (apparently awful) and Uncles Petros & Goldbach's Conjecture by Apostolos Doxiadis (apparently less awful). both, however, have a problem with defining their audience (i.e., it's unclear for whom the books are written: people who love math? people who know nothing about math?). mostly just DFW showing off how much he knows about math, but not terrible.

Foster Wallace, D. (2012). Rhetoric and the Math Melodrama. In Foster Wallace, D. Both Flesh and Not: Essays. Little, Brown and Company, pp. 209-242

encomium (en)

a speech or piece of writing that praises someone or something highly (plural: encomia). as the adjective encomiastic, means bestowing praise, eulogistic, laudatory

213

these novels' lofty, encomiastic view of pure math

—p.213 by David Foster Wallace
uncertain
6 years, 11 months ago

these novels' lofty, encomiastic view of pure math

—p.213 by David Foster Wallace
uncertain
6 years, 11 months ago

belles-lettres (en)

a category of writing derived from the French phrase meaning "beautiful" or "fine" writing; includes all literary works—especially fiction, poetry, drama, or essays—valued for their aesthetic qualities and originality of style and tone

216

books like these are belles lettres, literature, for which the audience is, again, usually small and rather specialized

—p.216 by David Foster Wallace
notable
6 years, 11 months ago

books like these are belles lettres, literature, for which the audience is, again, usually small and rather specialized

—p.216 by David Foster Wallace
notable
6 years, 11 months ago

florid (en)

(adjective) very flowery in style; ornate / tinged with red; ruddy / marked by emotional or sexual fervor / elaborately or excessively intricate or complicated

217

whose florid life story

—p.217 by David Foster Wallace
confirm
6 years, 11 months ago

whose florid life story

—p.217 by David Foster Wallace
confirm
6 years, 11 months ago

bathos (en)

(noun) a literary term coined by Alexander Pope to describe to describe amusingly failed attempts at sublimity (an effect of anticlimax created by an unintentional lapse in mood from the sublime to the trivial or ridiculous); adj is "bathetic"

223

Also vague and kind of bathetic is the novel's depiction of actual mathematical work

—p.223 by David Foster Wallace
notable
6 years, 11 months ago

Also vague and kind of bathetic is the novel's depiction of actual mathematical work

—p.223 by David Foster Wallace
notable
6 years, 11 months ago

schlemiel (ji)

a stupid, awkward, or unlucky person

224

the neurotic schlemiel

—p.224 by David Foster Wallace
confirm
6 years, 11 months ago

the neurotic schlemiel

—p.224 by David Foster Wallace
confirm
6 years, 11 months ago

solecism (en)

a grammatical mistake in speech or writing

225

riddled with ESL-ish solecisms

—p.225 by David Foster Wallace
notable
6 years, 11 months ago

riddled with ESL-ish solecisms

—p.225 by David Foster Wallace
notable
6 years, 11 months ago

propitiate (en)

(verb) to gain or regain the favor or goodwill of; appease

234

the Minotaur, a hideous teratoid monster who has to be secreted in a special labyrinth and propitiated with human flesh

footnote 30

—p.234 by David Foster Wallace
notable
6 years, 11 months ago

the Minotaur, a hideous teratoid monster who has to be secreted in a special labyrinth and propitiated with human flesh

footnote 30

—p.234 by David Foster Wallace
notable
6 years, 11 months ago