“Taking ideas for a walk”

“We destroyed the world we had been given

For inspiration, for life — —

Each stone of jealousy, each stone

Of fear, greed, envy, and hatred, put out the light,

No one was without a stone in his or her hand…”

Joy Harjo, Intersections

According to Sarah Hart, a professor at Birkbeck, University of London, Herman Melville often created mathematical allusions or metaphors. Dr. Hart says “‘Moby-Dick’ has loads of lovely juicy mathematics in it”. For example, toward the end, Captain Ahab praises the loyal cabin boy, Pip, with geometry: “True art thou, lad, as the circumference to its center.”

Last spring, Dr. Hart was appointed the Gresham professor of geometry; established in 1597. It is the oldest mathematical chair in England. Dr. Hart is the 33rd person to hold the position, and the first woman. “I like to take an idea for a walk.” According to Dr. Hart

“Real mathematics involves not knowing what is going on, not having any idea what to do, and then playing around and hopefully finding your way through,” she said.

George Eliot (the pen name of Mary Ann Evans) seemed to take solace from her own mathematical literacy. In 1849 Eliot, in “want of health,” described in a letter how she sustained herself: “I take walks, play on the piano, read Voltaire, talk to my friends, and just take a dose of mathematics every day to prevent my brain from becoming quite soft.”

Like mathematics, real poetry involves not knowing what is going on, not having any idea what to do, and then playing around and hopefully finding your way through,”

Joy Harjo’s poetry takes ideas for a walk.