| In scene seven both time periods are present on stage together. An
interesting consequence of that we interpret later. First, we see Valentine's
reconstitution of Thomasina's discovery of the Mandelbrot set. |
[Hannah] looks over Valentine's shoulder at the computer screen. Reacting.
Hannah Oh! But ... how beautiful!
Valentine The Coverly set.
Hannah The Coverly set! My goodness, Valentine!
Valentine Lend me a finger.
(He takes her finger and presses the computer key several times.)
See? In an ocean of ashes, islands of order. Patterns making themselves out of nothing.
I can't show you how deep it goes. Each picture is a detail of the previous one, blown up.
And so on. For ever. Pretty nice, eh? |
|
| and later in that scene |
Septimus Geometry, Hobbes assures us in the Leviathan, is the only
science God has been pleased to bestow upon mankind.
Lady Croom And what does he mean by it?
Septimus Mr Hobbes or God?
Lady Croom I am sure I do not know what either means by it.
Thomasina Oh, pooh to Hobbes! Mountains are not pyramids and trees are not cones.
God must love gunnery and architecture if Euclid is his only geometry. There is another geometry
which I am engaged in discovering by trial and error, am I not, Septimus? |
|
| Compare the beginning of Thomasina's statement with the end of the first paragraph of
Mandelbrot's The Fractal Geometry of Nature: "Clouds are not spheres, mountains are not cones,
coastlines are not circles, and bark is not smooth, nor does lightning travel in a straight
line." |
| And recall the main feature of the Mandelbrot set is a cardioid, a heart-shape. Is Valentine's
name unintentional? |