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Reality Conditions
Where can you hear an old man in a nursing home tell of how he disproved Goldbach's Conjecture as part of an undergraduate research project? Get inside the mind of James Clerk Maxwell as he discovers electro-magnetic waves? Witness the 19th century's greatest mathematician finally get the credit she was denied by sexism and murder?
In Reality Conditions, a collection of short stories spanning a variety of genres, you can share in these and other fictional mathematical experiences. Each story is a mathematical journey designed to entertain, educate and tantalize. There is something here for everyone: humor, drama, the little details to the big picture, science fiction to true histories. Through these stories, those with little mathematical background will encounter some of the most interesting parts of the field of mathematics for the first time. Even professional mathematicians will be captivated by ideas that take us to the limits of knowledge, addressing the questions of how mathematics is related to the human mind and how it is related to reality. The book is perfect for leisure reading. Join one of the leading experts in the area of mathematical fiction as he takes us on a whirlwind tour of mathematics, both real and imaginary.
In Reality Conditions, a collection of short stories spanning a variety of genres, you can share in these and other fictional mathematical experiences. Each story is a mathematical journey designed to entertain, educate and tantalize. There is something here for everyone: humor, drama, the little details to the big picture, science fiction to true histories. Through these stories, those with little mathematical background will encounter some of the most interesting parts of the field of mathematics for the first time. Even professional mathematicians will be captivated by ideas that take us to the limits of knowledge, addressing the questions of how mathematics is related to the human mind and how it is related to reality. The book is perfect for leisure reading. Join one of the leading experts in the area of mathematical fiction as he takes us on a whirlwind tour of mathematics, both real and imaginary.
- GenresFictionMathematics
247 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2005
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
August 28, 2010
With the exception of a rapidly shrinking handful of humans and one cat, there is nothing I love in this world more than words and numbers. And of the two, numbers are much better behaved. But most people don't use them very well, and the few who do have a disturbing tendency to use words like blunt and rusty instruments, and hold them the wrong way too. So it was an unexpected delight to stumble upon this marvelous little book. A collection of stories that greatly stimulated my interest in a wide range of mathematical topics, some familiar, some esoteric, but every one of them expressed in the context of a damn good story. Who could ever have anticipated that? Seriously, I've had a few math teachers in my time who were utterly incapable of assembling a coherent sentence and just hurled a fusillade of words at the class in the vain hopes that they would spontaneously assemble themselves into phrases and clauses. They would become hopelessly enmeshed in their tangled web of words and numbers, as the class would wriggle helplessly and elucidation flitted away, never to be seen again. And yet here is one who not only knows how to use words, but to actually spin a yarn.
I dabble with mathematical fiction myself, but when I ran the premise of my second (math-heavy) novel by the publisher of my first, she could hardly contain her lack of enthusiasm. "People who read fiction don't like math," she opined. "People who like math don't read fiction." She then made a little Venn diagram, just to make sure her point was not lost upon me, what with the imprecise tools, words, with which she customarily expresses herself. It showed the intersection of the two sets to contain a single element, me. I now know that there is at least one other element in that set! It is not a singleton set! Woohoo!
I suspect there may be others, but the one other confirmed element of the set has proven to be nearly as skilled with words as he is with numbers. Or so I suspect, as his mathematical expertise is so far beyond my own that not only do I not really understand it, I can not even make pithy jokes about it, and I have thus far found very little about which I will not try to crack wise. Sumerian funereal rites, amoebic dysentery, Cantorian set theory, hell there's just a treasure trove of potential risible brilliance here. But even if I could find something humorous about permanent localized disturbances in non-linear waves, or Grassmannian manifolds and associated functions which satisfy nonlinear partial differential equations, nobody would get it.
(Aside: I am hereby offering a prize to anyone out there who can make a funny joke on the above subjects and explain it to me. Extra credit will be given for an explanation incorporating cusp catastrophe models. The preceding item is not a joke.)
I confess to a certain sadistic delight in crafting humor that 99% of people will not get. Some of my fellow arrogant jackasses are with me on this. Because you know that the 1% who do get it will really appreciate it. Also, you can immediately lower your opinion of everyone who doesn't laugh. So really: what's not to love about Kasman's description of a joke telling contest in which every joke had to end with the same punchline: "Oh I'm sorry ma'am. I thought you said 'cohomology' "
Ha! That's funny! I'm almost sure that's funny! But all kidding aside, there are some great stories here, some funny, some sad, but every one of them with something to say, and not just about math. As I wrote in a review of the title story (my favorite of the collection), there is something here that gets to the heart of what it means to be human, not just what it means to be a mathematician. Because math is a part of our shared humanity, and a sorely neglected part. It's certainly more relevant than vampires and wizards are, but mathematical fiction is, I'm sad to say, doomed to get a lot less attention. The world of publishing will continue to marginalize and trivialize fiction incorporating this subject matter that is so rich, fascinating, and vitally important to all of our lives, casting it aside in favor of marketing to-- if you'll excuse a painfully overused expression--the lowest common denominator.
Math is not only one of the most essential intellectual tools we could ever hope to discover, without which our lives would be nasty, brutish and much much shorter, it is genuinely beautiful. You don't have to be a mathematician to appreciate this, any more than you need to be a musician to love music. I have often opined that through music the beauty of mathematics is made apparent even to those who do not understand it. Fiction, like music, expresses the ineffable mystery of life in a way that straightforward explanation cannot. I am a lover of beauty, be it music, mathematics, or fiction. And this beautiful collection of stories had me humming along.
I dabble with mathematical fiction myself, but when I ran the premise of my second (math-heavy) novel by the publisher of my first, she could hardly contain her lack of enthusiasm. "People who read fiction don't like math," she opined. "People who like math don't read fiction." She then made a little Venn diagram, just to make sure her point was not lost upon me, what with the imprecise tools, words, with which she customarily expresses herself. It showed the intersection of the two sets to contain a single element, me. I now know that there is at least one other element in that set! It is not a singleton set! Woohoo!
I suspect there may be others, but the one other confirmed element of the set has proven to be nearly as skilled with words as he is with numbers. Or so I suspect, as his mathematical expertise is so far beyond my own that not only do I not really understand it, I can not even make pithy jokes about it, and I have thus far found very little about which I will not try to crack wise. Sumerian funereal rites, amoebic dysentery, Cantorian set theory, hell there's just a treasure trove of potential risible brilliance here. But even if I could find something humorous about permanent localized disturbances in non-linear waves, or Grassmannian manifolds and associated functions which satisfy nonlinear partial differential equations, nobody would get it.
(Aside: I am hereby offering a prize to anyone out there who can make a funny joke on the above subjects and explain it to me. Extra credit will be given for an explanation incorporating cusp catastrophe models. The preceding item is not a joke.)
I confess to a certain sadistic delight in crafting humor that 99% of people will not get. Some of my fellow arrogant jackasses are with me on this. Because you know that the 1% who do get it will really appreciate it. Also, you can immediately lower your opinion of everyone who doesn't laugh. So really: what's not to love about Kasman's description of a joke telling contest in which every joke had to end with the same punchline: "Oh I'm sorry ma'am. I thought you said 'cohomology' "
Ha! That's funny! I'm almost sure that's funny! But all kidding aside, there are some great stories here, some funny, some sad, but every one of them with something to say, and not just about math. As I wrote in a review of the title story (my favorite of the collection), there is something here that gets to the heart of what it means to be human, not just what it means to be a mathematician. Because math is a part of our shared humanity, and a sorely neglected part. It's certainly more relevant than vampires and wizards are, but mathematical fiction is, I'm sad to say, doomed to get a lot less attention. The world of publishing will continue to marginalize and trivialize fiction incorporating this subject matter that is so rich, fascinating, and vitally important to all of our lives, casting it aside in favor of marketing to-- if you'll excuse a painfully overused expression--the lowest common denominator.
Math is not only one of the most essential intellectual tools we could ever hope to discover, without which our lives would be nasty, brutish and much much shorter, it is genuinely beautiful. You don't have to be a mathematician to appreciate this, any more than you need to be a musician to love music. I have often opined that through music the beauty of mathematics is made apparent even to those who do not understand it. Fiction, like music, expresses the ineffable mystery of life in a way that straightforward explanation cannot. I am a lover of beauty, be it music, mathematics, or fiction. And this beautiful collection of stories had me humming along.
January 30, 2023
This is a new and exciting genre. And not everyone is even remotely qualified to step into this genre. Alex Kasman has not just the math chops, but a fine storytelling style, that builds suspense and keeps you turning pages.
This is a highly under-rated book - should have more exposure, IMHO.
Loved it. Of course, I am math buff, but regardless, the key mathematical stories here are not just pure fiction. They explore actual math theorems, unsolved conjectures and one can actually learn to see these complex conjectures in a simplified manner (thanks to the breakdown skills of the author).
Will re-read it a few more times in the coming years.
This is a highly under-rated book - should have more exposure, IMHO.
Loved it. Of course, I am math buff, but regardless, the key mathematical stories here are not just pure fiction. They explore actual math theorems, unsolved conjectures and one can actually learn to see these complex conjectures in a simplified manner (thanks to the breakdown skills of the author).
Will re-read it a few more times in the coming years.
August 23, 2012
This book contains 16 short stories, which were the perfect sized chunks to squeeze into pockets of free time over my last 2 family vacations. Very entertaining reading for a wanna-be math geek.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews