Mathematics in Popular Culture: Essays on Appearances in Film, Fiction, Games, Television and Other Media

Mathematics has maintained a surprising presence in popular media for over a century. In recent years, the movies Good Will Hunting, A Beautiful Mind, and Stand and Deliver, the stage plays Breaking the Code and Proof, the novella Flatland and the hugely successful television crime series NUMB3RS all weave mathematics prominently into their storylines. Less obvious but pivotal references to the subject appear in the blockbuster TV show Lost, the cult movie The Princess Bride, and even Tolstoy's War and Peace. In this collection of new essays, contributors consider the role of math in everything from films, baseball, crossword puzzles, fantasy role-playing games, and television shows to science fiction tales, award-winning plays and classic works of literature. Revealing the broad range of intersections between mathematics and mainstream culture, this collection demonstrates that even "mass entertainment" can have a hidden depth. About the Author Jessica K. Sklar, an associate professor of mathematics at Pacific Lutheran University, has published in the field of noncommutative ring theory and in the more readily accessible field of recreational mathematics. Elizabeth S. Sklar, a professor emerita at Wayne State University, specializes in Old and Middle English language and literature. She has published extensively in the fields of modern and medieval Arthurian legend. Table of Contents Acknowledgments vi Foreword by Keith Devlin 1 Introduction JESSICA K. SKLAR and ELIZABETH S. SKLAR 3 Part One: The Game A Survey of Fictional Mathematics in Literature ALEX KASMAN 9 "You Never Said Anything about Math": Math Phobia and Math Fanaticism in the World of Lost KRISTINE LARSEN 27 What's in a Name? The Matrix as an Introduction to Mathematics KRIS GREEN 44 Mapping Contagion and Disease, Catastrophe and Destruction: Computer Modeling in the Epidemiological Disaster Narrative KATHLEEN COYNE KELLY and DOUGLAS WHITTINGTON 55 Fair and Unfair Division in Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon WILLIAM GOLDBLOOM BLOCH and MICHAEL D. C. DROUT 71 Game Theory in Popular Culture: Battles of Wits and Matters of Trust JENNIFER FIRKINS NORDSTROM 86 Coming Out of the Dungeon: Mathematics and Role-Playing Games KRIS GREEN 99 Playing Moneyball: Math and Baseball JEFF HILDEBRAND 114 A Mathematician Does the New York Times Sunday Crossword Puzzle GENE ABRAMS 123 Part Two: The Players XKCD: A Web of Popular Culture KAREN BURNHAM 137 Counting with the Sharks: Math-Savvy Gamblers in Popular Culture MATTHEW LANE 148 Stand and Deliver Twenty Years Later KSENIJA SIMIC-MULLER, MAURA VARLEY GUTIERREZ and RODRIGO JORGE GUTIERREZ 163 Smart Girls: The Uncanny Daughters of Arcadia and Proof SHARON ALKER and ROBERTA DAVIDSON 172 Mean Girls: A Metamorphosis of the Female Math Nerd KRISTIN ROWAN 187 The Mathematical Misanthrope and American Popular Culture KENNETH FAULKNER 198 Alan Turing: Reflecting on the Life, Work, and Popular Representations of a Queer Mathematician K. G. VALENTE 219 Mat(t)h Anxiety: Math as Symptom in Gus Van Sant's Good Will Hunting DONALD L. HOFFMAN 233 Part Three: Math + Metaphor Thinking Outside the Box: Application Versus Discovery in Saw and Cube JESSICA K. SKLAR 247 Tolstoy's Integration Metaphor from War and Peace STEPHEN T. AHEARN 258 "We'll all change together": Mathematics as Metaphor in Greg Egan's Fiction NEIL EASTERBROOK 265 Truth by the Numbers: Mysticism and Madness in Darren Aronofsky's π LAURIE A. FINKE and MARTIN B. SHICHTMAN 274 Flatland in Popular Culture LILA MARZ HARPER 288 Discovering a Higher Plane: Dimensionality and Enlightenment in Flatland and Diaspora CHRIS PAK 304 Projective Geometry in Early Twentieth-Century Esotericism: From the Anthroposophical Society to the Thoth Tarot RICHARD KACZYNSKI 314 Appendices A: Mathematics in Performance Media 333 B: Mathematics in Fiction and Poetry 334 About the Contributors 337 Index 341