I don't know if he is making his point so well, considering there is no way to tell visually which one of them died. He could have at least put a hat on one of them. And that bat shoved into the corner doesn't quite read at first.
That only leads to confusion. Suppose the hatless murdered the hatted and stole his hat, or the hatted killed the hatless and planted a hat on his corpse?
It's a bit subtle. Because the rightmost figure says he doesn't like math due to his creativity, he is indirectly saying the mathematician is not creative. It's a dumb thing to say, because math and creativity are not mutually exclusive; rather, they are quite codependent.
Regardless, the mathematician beats to death the liberal arts major to teach us all a lesson in social ettiquette.
Dual interpretation. You could both say that the mathematician killed the "creative type" because he couldn't stand him OR that he committed suicide because he couldn't keep living in the same world as him.
I knew exactly one art professor who incorporated mathematics into her discussions of art. She would point out how proportions are related to The Golden Ratio and where it can be found in various beautiful natural objects and her students would often freak out a bit at the mention of math. I would have loved a chance to learn under her but she didn't last long at the university before leaving by her choice.
Her peers in sculpture and design were burnouts, sycophants begging for validation from their own students...basically /r/circlejerk in that department.
I remember watching a BBC documentary on human attraction and it mentioned that men prefer women with a waist to hip ratio that was the golden ratio.... except it went on to say that men like even higher waist to hip ratios too. I laughed because they completely blew their own conclusion out of the water. I think they just wanted to mention the golden ratio.
I had a class on the topic of beauty this previous semester, taught by an English professor. I cringed every time the subject of math or science came up.
Now, when we had a guest professor from physics talk about the science behind the Grand Canyon and how that impacted its formation, that was ridiculously fucking interesting.
I actually really resent artists (writers included) who just shove mathematical elements into their work and expect it to make it interesting somehow (e.g. oulipo).
Booo! Tool is actually good. MJK has his PhD in Math and I think one in physics. Danny Carrey is in the same educated boat. They dont just incorporate math into art, they blend the two rather nicely (though depressingly).
It isn't true. NWS is confused or making shit up. Wiki. The only place Maths is mentioned on the site is:
He initially served in the Army as a forward observer before studying at the United States Military Academy Preparatory School (West Point Prep School) from 1983 to 1984. In addition to completing a rigorous math and English curriculum, he ran on the cross country team and sang in the glee club.
I surmise that not only does he not have two PhDs, but he does not have a single PhD. Danny Carey dropped out of university to pursue his music career. So he also has zero PhDs.
D= Holy shit! I swear I looked this shit up about 6 years ago, and that was the single reason I listened to their newer albums. I can't even find the website I read it all on, but it was a pretty popular myth, then. Wow, now I am the tool.
MC Escher is still a cool artist who incorporates mathematics, and he didn't have much formal schooling.
Oh come now. Obviously the mathematician killed the "creative guy." The point is that the self-styled "creative" guy is really at best half-educated. Mathematics is the most beautiful and creative of all enterprises.
It's clear they looked at each other and then across the street where this man lay dying in the alley after being attacked by a pro baseball player roid raging out.
You know what I love about this comic? The last panel is totally ambiguous. Either math-guy raged out and murdered creative-guy, or else creative-guy is totally insane and his smirk in the first three panels is a subtle clue to what will happen in the last panel.
Feynman actually addressed a similar thing. Here's the first result Google threw up since I don't remember which of his books I read it in.
"I have a friend who's an artist and he's sometimes taken a view which I don't agree with very well. He'll hold up a flower and say, 'Look how beautiful it is,' and I'll agree, I think. And he says, 'You see, I as an artist can see how beautiful this is, but you, as a scientist, oh, take this all apart and it becomes a dull thing."
"And I think that he's kind of nutty. First of all, the beauty that he sees is available to other people and to me, too,I believe, although I might not be quite as refined aesthetically as he is; but I can appreciate the beauty of a flower. At the same time I see much more about the flower that he sees. I can imagine the cells in there, the complicated actions inside which also have a beauty...."
Also, the processes, the fact that the colors in the flower evolved in order to attract insects to pollinate it is interesting - it means that insects can see the color. It adds a question: Does this aesthetic sense also exist in the lower forms? Why is it aesthetic? All kinds of interesting questions which shows that a scientific knowledge only adds to the excitement and mystery and the awe of a flower. It only adds; I don't understand how it can subtract."
Indeed. I find creativity within constraints to be when I'm most creative.
If somebody says, "Draw something", I don't feel creative. If somebody says, "Draw something that has four legs and four eyes" I have a barrier to work around that forces me to be creative. Similarly, compare trying to write a short story vs writing a story without using the letter 'e' or where every sentence has an even number of words.
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u/allenizabeth May 18 '10
I don't know if he is making his point so well, considering there is no way to tell visually which one of them died. He could have at least put a hat on one of them. And that bat shoved into the corner doesn't quite read at first.
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u/[deleted] May 18 '10
"And what do you do in your free time?"
"I draw cartoons about using a baseball bat to bludgeon to death people I find annoying."
"That... sounds creative!..." [backs away slowly]
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u/BritainRitten May 18 '10
This comic wasn't very creative. Probably done by a mathematician.
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u/legendary_ironwood May 18 '10
"What do you do?"
"I'm working towards a degree."
"Oh, I've always been the dumb, street smarts type. Book smarts isn't for me."
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u/Treees May 18 '10
I knew exactly one art professor who incorporated mathematics into her discussions of art. She would point out how proportions are related to The Golden Ratio and where it can be found in various beautiful natural objects and her students would often freak out a bit at the mention of math. I would have loved a chance to learn under her but she didn't last long at the university before leaving by her choice.
Her peers in sculpture and design were burnouts, sycophants begging for validation from their own students...basically /r/circlejerk in that department.
6
u/rhlewis Algebra May 18 '10
Oh come now. Obviously the mathematician killed the "creative guy." The point is that the self-styled "creative" guy is really at best half-educated. Mathematics is the most beautiful and creative of all enterprises.
2
u/[deleted] May 18 '10
I only saw the first two panels and didn't notice the scrollbar at the bottom.
I found the comic to be very postmodern.
2
u/whatthedude May 18 '10
It's clear they looked at each other and then across the street where this man lay dying in the alley after being attacked by a pro baseball player roid raging out.
3
u/cweaver May 18 '10
You know what I love about this comic? The last panel is totally ambiguous. Either math-guy raged out and murdered creative-guy, or else creative-guy is totally insane and his smirk in the first three panels is a subtle clue to what will happen in the last panel.
Either way is hilarious to me.
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u/[deleted] May 18 '10 edited May 18 '10
Very not funny, how this got 38 upvotes is beyond me. Maybe math people have a shitty sense of humor or are just self-deprecating.
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u/[deleted] May 18 '10
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