24 February 2005: Well, my anonymous helper is still giving me comments to write about. He e.mailed me twice, yesterday. First to say:
"But I can't leave a long division example unfinished, can I?!"
Of course you can! What you fail to realize is that your
poem, "agreement divided by ocean equals moonlight" is in
the form of many classic physics equations. Examples: look
at "force divided by acceleration = mass" which is newtons
2nd law; look at "distance divided by time equals velocity"
which is the law that calculates moving objects ... or look
at "voltage divided by resistance equals electrical current"
which is of course is Ohm's law. the list goes on and on!
Those equations and that equation form are as classical
as Homer's odyssey! The form a/b=c STANDS FIRM!
"Assuming I wasn't making some point by doing so, which wouldn't
be the case here."
Of course it's the case. The point is to break out of this
long division rut you are in. Think in terms of equations.
branch out! Your long division poems have you locked into
this one 'kitchen recipe' way of doing things. broaden your
palate . look at how math has been used as a language in other
ways. Your long division poems are in the arena of arithmetic.
your latest equations are algebra! Step out of the box and breathe.
Don't be like the artist who doesn't know when the painting is
done leave it alone.
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I fear my correspondent doesn't know much about me or my work. And he isn't reading me too carefully. For instance, I was speaking of my poem as what is is: someething posed as a long division example. Hence, although it is, like just about everything in arithmetic, an equation of sorts, it is not printed as an algebraic equation. That I may be "in a rut" in concentrating on long division poems, it is a rut I've come to after doing equations and other kinds of mathemaku. (See my Mathemaku 6 - 12 at Karl Young's light & dust site, for instance.) As I've said before, perhaps the main reason I like this particular rut is that it allows me to readily add illumages to my poems, which is what I still intend to try here. I feel that if I get the illumages ("graphics," for those of you not speaking Grummanese) right, they leave the verbal part of the work central and undiminished. If they don't work, I should be able to drop them. I can also have two versions of the poem.
A second big reason for long division is that it allows/forces the poem to consist of several equations at once. Accepting this challenge increases the risk of failure, but the result of the occasional victory will make up for all botchery, it seems to me.
In his second e.mail, my correspondent said
Bob, I would like to reiterate. I mentioned that the 2 poems
stand firm without remainders but you would need to change the
format. Maybe you understood that the first time but in case I
wasn't clear. instead of leaving them in the long division format
you should make them equations "agreement / ocean = moonlight"
and "argument / ocean = sunlight" The poems are very simple,
romantic and visual . The long division process is more
algorithmic and cumbersome. clarity resides in simplicity.
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My correspondent seems here to realize that I'm doing long division, not algebra. He may be right in trying to stop me from continuing. Certainly, I've done fractions before, and equations. And maximal simplicity of statement definitely has its virtues. But I still want to see how my illumages come out. I started one yesterday that momentarily appealed to me, then looked pedestrian--until I returned to it eight hours or so after making it. It looked pretty good, at that point. I feel it needs further work, though.
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