scientists find evidence of mathematical structures in classic books - james joyce e a matemática

7/25/2019 Scientists Find Evidence of Mathematical Structures in Classic Books - James Joyce e a Matemtica

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Scientists find evidence ofmathematical structures in classic

booksResearchers at Polands Institute of Nuclear Physics found complex fractalpatterning of sentences in literature, particularly in ames oyces !innegans

"ake, #hich resemble ideal maths seen in nature

$apturing scientists imaginations %%% ames oyce in Paris in &'()%Photograph* osef +reitenbachP-

Alison Flood

Wednesday 27 January 2016 16.45 GMTLast modified on Wednesday

27 January 201616.54 GMT

ames oyces !innegans "ake has been described as many things,from a masterpiece to unreadable nonsense% +ut it is also, according toscientists at the Institute of Nuclear Physics in Poland, almostindistinguishable in its structure from a purelymathematical multifractal%

.he academics put more than &// #orks of #orld literature, by authorsfrom $harles 0ickens to Shakespeare, -lexandre 0umas, .homas

1ann, 2mberto 3co and Samuel +eckett, through a detailed statistical
http://www.theguardian.com/profile/alisonfloodhttp://www.ifj.edu.pl/?lang=enhttp://imagej.nih.gov/ij/plugins/fraclac/FLHelp/Multifractals.htmhttp://www.theguardian.com/profile/alisonfloodhttp://www.ifj.edu.pl/?lang=enhttp://imagej.nih.gov/ij/plugins/fraclac/FLHelp/Multifractals.htm


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analysis% 4ooking at sentence lengths and ho# they varied, they foundthat in an 5over#helming ma6ority7 of the studied texts, thecorrelations in variations of sentence length #ere governed by thedynamics of a cascade 8 meaning that their construction is a fractal* a

mathematical ob6ect in #hich each fragment, #hen expanded, has astructure resembling the #hole%

!ractals are used in science to model structures that contain re9occurring patterns, including sno#flakes and galaxies%

5-ll of the examined #orks sho#ed self9similarity in terms oforganisation of the lengths of sentences% Some #ere more expressive 8here .he -mbassadors by :enry ames stood out 8 others to far less ofan extreme, as in the case of the !rench &)th9centuryromance-rtamene ou le ;rand $yrus% :o#ever, correlations #ereevident, and therefore these texts #ere the construction of a fractal,7said 0r Pa#e< =>#i?cimka from the Institute of Nuclear Physics of thePolish -cademy of Sciences, one of the authors of the ne# paper@uantifying =rigin and $haracter of 4ong9range $orrelations inNarrative .exts%

Some #orks, ho#ever, #ere more mathematically complex than others,#ith stream9of9consciousness narratives the most complex,comparable to multifractals, or fractals of fractals% !innegans "ake,the scientists found, #as the most complex of all%

I am really one of the greatest engineers, if not the greatest, in the #orldJames Joyce

5.he absolute record in terms of multifractality turned out to be

!innegans "ake by ames oyce% .he results of our analysis of this textare virtually indistinguishable from ideal, purely mathematicalmultifractals,7 said Professor Stanis


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Multifractal analysis of Finnegans Wake by James Joyce: the graph shape is virtuallyindistinguishable from the results for purely mathematical multifractals The hori!ontal

a"is represents the degree of singularity# while the vertical a"is shows the spectrum of

singularity Photograph: $FJ P%&

oyce himself, reported to have said he #rote !innegans "ake 5to keepthe critics busy for (// years7, might have predicted this% In a letterabout the novel, "ork in Progess as he then kne# it, he told :arriet

"eaver* 5I am really one of the greatest engineers, if not the greatest,in the #orld besides being a musicmaker, philosophist and heaps ofother things% -ll the engines I kno# are #rong% Simplicity% I am makingan engine #ith only one #heel% No spokes of course% .he #heel is aperfect sBuare% Cou see #hat Im driving at, dont youD I am a#fullysolemn about it, mind you, so you must not think it is a silly storyabout the mouse and the grapes% No, its a #heel, I tell the

#orld%Andits all square%7

.he academics #rite in their paper that* 5Studying characteristics of

the sentence9length variability in a large corpus of #orld famousliterary texts sho#s that an appealing and aesthetic optimum E
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involves self9similar, cascade9like alternations of various lengths ofsentences%7

5-n over#helming ma6ority of the studied texts simply obey such

fractal attributes but especially spectacular in this respect arehypertext9like, stream9of9consciousness novels% In addition, theyappear to develop structures characteristic of irreducibly inter#ovensets of fractals called multifractals%7

'e(uences of sentence lengths )as measured by number of words* in four books#representative of various degrees of cascading character Photograph: $FJ P%&

.he other #orks most comparable to multifractals, the academicsfound, #ere - :eartbreaking "ork of Staggering ;enius by 0ave3ggers, :opscotch by ulio $ortaFar, .he 2S- trilogy by ohn 0osPassos, .he "aves by Girginia "oolf, H by Roberto +olaJo andoyces 2lysses% 1arcel Prousts K la recherche du temps perdu sho#ed5little correlation7 to multifractality, ho#everL nor did -yn Rands -tlas

Shrugged%


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.he academics note that 5fractality of a literary text #ill in practicenever be as perfect as in the #orld of mathematics7, because amathematical fractal can be magnified to infinite, #hile the number ofsentences in a book are finite%

5It is not entirely clear #hether stream9of9consciousness #ritingactually reveals the deeper Bualities of our consciousness, or rather theimagination of the #riters% It is hardly surprising that ascribing a #orkto a particular genre is, for #hatever reason, sometimes sub6ective,7said 0roAdA, suggesting that the scientists #ork 5may someday help ina more ob6ective assignment of books to one genre or another7%

0roAdA suggested today that the findings could also be used to positthat #riters 5uncovered fractals and even multifractals in nature long

before scientists7% 53vidently, they Mlike oyce had a kind of intuition,as it happens to great artists, that such a narrative mode best reflectsho# nature #orks and they properly encoded this into their texts,7 hesaid% 5Nature evolves through cascades and thus arranges fractally, andimprints of this #e find in the sentence9length variability%7

3imear 1c+ride, #hose multiple a#ard9#inning debut novel - ;irl is a

:alf9!ormed .hing is #ritten in a stream9of9consciousness style, saidshe #asnt taken aback by the results%

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5It doesnt surprise me that #orks described as 5stream ofconsciousness7 appear to be the most fractal% +y its nature, such

#riting is concerned not only #ith the usual load9bearing aspects oflanguage 8 content, meaning, aesthetics, etc 8 but engages #ithlanguage as the ob6ect in itself, using the re9forming of its rules to givethe reader a more prismatic understanding of the sub6ect at hand%;iven the long9established connection bet#een beauty and symmetry,finding #orks of literature fractally Buantifiable seems perfectlyreasonable%7

+ut she added that she couldnt 5help being some#hat disappointed bythe idea that the main upshot of this research may be to make the

assigning of genre more straightfor#ard7%
http://www.theguardian.com/books/eimear-mcbridehttp://www.theguardian.com/books/eimear-mcbride


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5Surely there are more interesting Buestions about the ho# and #hy of#riters brains arriving at these complex, but seemingly instinctive,fractalsD7 she said% 5-nd, given Professor 0roAdAs pretty inarguablecontention that it remains unclear #hether or not stream9of9

consciousness #riting does indeed reveal a deeper layer ofconsciousness, #hat distance this research may go to explain #hy somereaders believe themselves to be experiencing exactly that #hile othershave the opposite reactionD7

scientists find evidence of mathematical structures in classic books - james joyce e a matemática

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