mathematical styles in fictions...mathematical styles in fictions madjid mirzavaziri an odd-even...

MathematicalStyles inFictions

MadjidMirzavaziri

An Odd-EvenMethod

A Path-BasedStory

A Non-SymmetricPalindromicWriting

Mathematical Styles in Fictions

Madjid Mirzavaziri

January 2014

Madjid Mirzavaziri Mathematical Styles in Fictions


MadjidMirzavaziri

An Odd-EvenMethod

A Path-BasedStory


Abstract

A mathematical story may refer to a story aboutmathematicians or mathematical topics and concepts. Though,this is an attractive method for people who are interested inmathematics, this is not a suitable approach fornon-mathematician readers. There are some other styles for amathematical approach to writing a story which avoidmathematics. Here, we talk about three of them: an odd-evenmethod, a path-based story and a non-symmetric palindromicwriting.



MadjidMirzavaziri

An Odd-EvenMethod

A Path-BasedStory


Table of contents

1 An Odd-Even Method

2 A Path-Based Story

3 A Non-Symmetric Palindromic Writing



MadjidMirzavaziri

An Odd-EvenMethod

A Path-BasedStory


Triangle

I have published a story titled Triangle. This is the story of agirl who is a math teacher. When she sleeps she dreams thatshe is a designer boy. This creates difficulties for her when shehas a related series of dreams. The story is about twosituations: a math teacher (written in normal fonts) and adesigner (written in bold face). Therefore, we have twoparallel stories.



MadjidMirzavaziri

An Odd-EvenMethod

A Path-BasedStory


Moreover, depending on how you read the book, there arethree different stories; one consistent and complete story whenyou read the odd pages, another story when you read the evenpages and a complete new story when you read all pages.



MadjidMirzavaziri

An Odd-EvenMethod

A Path-BasedStory


Now, adding the normal and bold fonts, we have a total of 9different stories: bold lines in odd pages, bold lines in evenpages, bold lines in all pages, normal lines in odd pages, normallines in even pages, normal lines in all pages, all lines in oddpages, all lines in even pages and the whole book!



MadjidMirzavaziri

An Odd-EvenMethod

A Path-BasedStory


The odd story has three characters, the even story has threeother characters and when you read the whole book you findout that the story is about just three persons. This is wherethe title of the book Triangle comes from.



MadjidMirzavaziri

An Odd-EvenMethod

A Path-BasedStory


Writing a book in this way is difficult, since you should careabout the number of words in each page; especially when thereis one single paragraph in a page (as it happens in page 52 ofthe book). Moreover, the difficulty arises when you have anunfinished sentence at the bottom of a page (this happens inmost pages).



MadjidMirzavaziri

An Odd-EvenMethod

A Path-BasedStory


Because of these difficulties, it is almost impossible to translatethis kind of book. I used many Persian words with two or threedifferent meanings in my book. This adds another level ofdifficulty for translation.



MadjidMirzavaziri

An Odd-EvenMethod

A Path-BasedStory


Twenty dimensional week

I have written another book titled Twenty dimensional week.The book has 16 chapters and is written in cells of a 4× 4square.



MadjidMirzavaziri

An Odd-EvenMethod

A Path-BasedStory


You can choose a path consisting of 7 cells starting from thesouth-west cell and ending at the north-east cell. Thus youhave 7 days of a person’s life. Depending on whether your pathis below or above the square’s diameter, the person has bad orgood life events in his or her life. Therefore there are 20different stories, since there are a total of 20 paths connectingsouth-west to north-east cells.



MadjidMirzavaziri

An Odd-EvenMethod

A Path-BasedStory


The main character’s sex is determined by the chosen path.Moreover, there are many sentences with two oppositemeanings in the story depending whether the path is up ordown diagonal.



MadjidMirzavaziri

An Odd-EvenMethod

A Path-BasedStory


Mistake of a railroad switchman

I have published another story titled Mistake of a railroadswitchman. The story is about a man in a train. The train isstopped in the wrong direction - which would have head oncollision with the train coming from the other side. Thesituation results from a mistake made by a switchman. Anothertrain is coming head on from the opposite direction.Passengers are very concerned about what is going to happen.



MadjidMirzavaziri

An Odd-EvenMethod

A Path-BasedStory


The book is written in such a way that if you read all sentencesconsecutively in an ordinary direction, then you have a sadstory. On the other hand, if you read all sentences in reversedirection then you have a complete pleasant different story.



MadjidMirzavaziri

An Odd-EvenMethod

A Path-BasedStory


If you want to have two identical stories in two directions, thenyou can write some independent events. This is not difficult atall. You can write

I am in a garden• I am walking• I am in a street•



MadjidMirzavaziri

An Odd-EvenMethod

A Path-BasedStory


But if you want to have different stories in two directions, thenyou should write some ordered events. You can write

I woke up• I cut my finger• I slept•

Note that you do not have an unpleasant situation in thereverse direction: you cut your finger in your dream.



MadjidMirzavaziri

An Odd-EvenMethod

A Path-BasedStory


In this kind of writing, you teach the reader that not only inmathematics, but also in ordinary situations, the direction of aseries of sentences is very important. Moreover, this is a goodexample of a minimal story: a minimal story is not a story withthe minimum number of sentences, but a story which cannotbe written in a fewer number of sentences.



MadjidMirzavaziri

An Odd-EvenMethod

A Path-BasedStory


My book consists of three chapters whose titles are palindromicPersian words. The train accident happens in the heart of themiddle chapter. This kind of writing is difficult, because youshould enter characters in the moment t of the first story,which is the moment 1− t of the reverse story. So, when canyou define a new character in your story?



MadjidMirzavaziri

An Odd-EvenMethod

A Path-BasedStory


Furthermore, if you want to have a train accident during yourstory, then you should have a calm scene before the accidentand a tumultuous situation after that. How can you manage it?



MadjidMirzavaziri

An Odd-EvenMethod

A Path-BasedStory


Writing about a phone conversation is difficult, since you havea hello at the beginning and a bye at the end of theconversation. Think about the reverse direction! I forcedmyself to have such a scene in my story.



MadjidMirzavaziri

An Odd-EvenMethod

A Path-BasedStory


The book can be written on a Mobius strip in which the heartof the middle chapter (the train accident) is on the joint pointof the strip. This can be a good example for non-orientableevents in life.



MadjidMirzavaziri

An Odd-EvenMethod

A Path-BasedStory


References

M. Mirzavaziri, Mistake of a railroad switchman, Ahange Ghalam, 2008.M. Mirzavaziri, Triangle, Sokhan Gostar, 2006.

M. Mirzavaziri, Twenty dimensional week, to appear.


mathematical styles in fictions...mathematical styles in fictions madjid mirzavaziri an odd-even...

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