Limes with Orange

Watched the movie Pi yesterday. It almost felt like a culmination of the thought process for my "I Believe..." post. Max, the main character, believes in the unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics as a method for understanding the universe and has a very Platonist view that mathematics is the language of nature (my first point in that post). He searches for patterns in all facets of the world, no matter how chaotic they appear (my second point). He ends up meeting some Jewish scholars studying the Kabbalah (which relates to my third point). And okay, the film didn't really touch on my fourth point about the paranormal (in my opinion, anyway) but I could relate a little too well to Max's incessant migraines (and I've been hoping to be struck with inspiration for a story relating migraines to some unique ability, so this is sort of along those lines). In short, I felt like writer/director Darren Aronofsky managed to record my thoughts and dreams and translate them into a really cool looking film. Much as I liked the experience, there were moments when I felt like shouting, "Get outta my head, Aronofsky!"

There's an interesting article about Mathematics and Madness that discusses Pi, along with A Beautiful Mind and Good Will Hunting. I don't agree with everything it says, but it's fuel for thought. There's also a website for Pi, but it's not quite as cool as the Donnie Darko website. But, then again, what is?

Labels: film, pop culture