Once Upon a Prime is a joyous tour de force of mathematical and literary delights.
“Mathematical symbolism and metaphor are present in every kind of literature, from the humblest of fairy tales right through to, she lays bare some of this hidden math and meaning in a host of poetry, novels and folklore.
The number three has a special hold on Western literature and languages in general. It pervades common phrases — “Three cheers for…,” “Ready, Set, Go,” “Learning your ABCs.” It’s also central to story structure; for example, trilogies are more prevalent than tetralogies. Characters tend to come in threes too, like “The Three Little Pigs,” and even in jokes like “A priest, a minister and a rabbi…”
It’s a poetic argument, if not completely convincing. To bolster her case, she also points to trichotomies. Take a number, any number, and every other number is either more, less or equal to that number — a trichotomy that has direct parallels with Aristotle’s doctrine of the mean: “Every ethical virtue is a golden mean between two vices — one an excess, the other a deficiency,” as Hart describes it.
For example, I had noticed Amor Towles was not moving through time in a strictly linear fashion when I read his 2016 book, but I completely missed how the number two orchestrates the story’s structure. The novel takes us through 32 years in the protagonist’s life, starting in 1922 when he begins living under house arrest.
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