Apunte críptico

I distrust the term "plot" (not to mention "theme" and "setting") in discussions of writing: It (and they) refer to an effect a story produces in the reading. But writing is an internal process writers go through (or put themselves through) in front of a blank paper that leaves a detritus of words there. (...) In short, a vocabulary that has grown from a discussion of effects is only of limited use in a discussion of causes.

Así decía Delany en los 70. Seguro que no pensaba en la escritura en términos de "valor añadido" ni de "diferenciarse de la competencia".

Ironía soviética

A.G.Vitushkin, en Mathematical Events of the Twentieth Century, unas memorias colectivas de la matemática rusa del siglo XX:

In the 1970s we seldom traveled abroad. The reasons are known. Here is a typical example. Our colleague, the mathematician Esenin-Vol’pin, had been put in a mental institution for his too emotional response to political events. A letter signed by over a hundred mathematicians was sent to the authorities, insisting on his release, and he was freed. A few years later he emigrated to the USA, whereas those who signed this letter were not permitted to take trips abroad for a long time.

(El libro se puede descargar en PDF desde Google Scholar. Buscando "The Life and Fate of Functional Analysis in the Twentieth Century" (uno de los capítulos) y pinchando en el enlace, te sale todo el libro.)

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