MATHEMATICAL FICTION:

a list compiled by Alex Kasman (College of Charleston)

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Alphabet (2002)
Chelsea Spear
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A silent, short film which shows intertwined clips of a young girl playing the french horn and answering a question at the board in her algebra class. Reviews of the film that I've read suggest that she is realizing connections between math and music, though it is not clear to me whether those connections are the mathematical structure of music (which surely is a deep subject), the aesthetic beauty of mathematics (at least some people find appreciating mathematics similar to appreciating music), or merely the common aspect of "performing" in front of an audience. Either way, the girl is pleased with the experience and leaves her teacher an apple in thanks.

The film is actually available at Vimeo; just click here to watch it. (And if you do, also click on the link below to enter your votes on the movie and your comments!)

More information about this work can be found at www.imdb.com.
(Note: This is just one work of mathematical fiction from the list. To see the entire list or to see more works of mathematical fiction, return to the Homepage.)

Works Similar to Alphabet
According to my `secret formula', the following works of mathematical fiction are similar to this one:
  1. Infinitely Near by Anthony Cristiano
  2. Rites of Love and Math by Edward Frenkel / Reine Graves
  3. Stand and Deliver by Ramon Menendez
  4. In Our Prime [I-sang-han na-ra-eui su-hak-ja] by Lee Yong-jae (screenwriter) / Dong-hoon Park (director)
  5. Le Théorème de Marguerite [Marguerite's Theorem] by Anna Novion (Writer and Director)
  6. Løvekvinnen [Lion Woman] by Erik Fosnes Hansen
  7. Going Out by Scarlett Thomas
  8. Pascal's Wager by Nancy Rue
  9. The Mirror Has Two Faces by Barbra Streisand (director) / Richard LaGravenese (Writer)
  10. Love Counts by Michael Hastings (libretto) / Michael Nyman (score)
Ratings for Alphabet:
RatingsHave you seen/read this work of mathematical fiction? Then click here to enter your own votes on its mathematical content and literary quality or send me comments to post on this Webpage.
Mathematical Content:
3/5 (1 votes)
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Literary Quality:
2/5 (1 votes)
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Categories:
Genre
MotifFemale Mathematicians, Music, Math Education,
TopicAlgebra/Arithmetic/Number Theory,
MediumFilms,

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Exciting News: The 1,600th entry was recently added to this database of mathematical fiction! Also, for those of you interested in non-fictional math books let me (shamelessly) plug the recent release of the second edition of my soliton theory textbook.

(Maintained by Alex Kasman, College of Charleston)