History of maths

Have you ever think about world before teorem of Tales?
Can you imagine your calculation without "zero"?
Do you know that if you are under 21 you still can became a great mathematics?
How much do you know about Carl Friedrich Gauss, a man called a prince of mathematics?
How many digits of the number pi (symbol: π) can you recite without breath?
Have you heard about constant e, which "father" was Euler?

If you want read about it, I recommend you a Denis Guedj's book The Parrot's Theorem.
A Parisian bookseller (Mr. Ruche), receives a bequest from a long lost friend in the Amazon of a vast library of maths books, which propels him into a great exploration of the story of mathematics. He is reading about maths in chronological order and a reader can learn history of maths with him. At the same time you are invited to solve the murder mystery along with the main characters.

Brazil in German way

So long I haven't written... and so many books I had read in that time. Today one of the latest read book.
More then three years ago I met nice man from Brazil. And than I have been trying find a book about Brazil. It was very difficult, everything what I found was about nature or about Indians of South America.
Finally I've got a one about emigration of Germans in 19th century - "Dziewczyna znad Rio Paraiso"

They know almost nothing about Brazil environment and animals, but they dream and believe in wonderful future in that far far away land. But not everything went as they wish...
(german: Das Maeschen am Rio Paraiso). The author (Ana Veloso) tells a story parallel in two point of time. At the beginning, in 1826 we met a young woman, who suffer from amnesia and then we learn what had happened in the past. The second point of time is in 1810, when the main character is 7 years old girl. She is German and has grown up in German village in Hunsrueck as a 8th child of her parents. When she was about 20 years old she went with her fiance to Brazil to Sao Leopoldo, because a government of Brazil gave fields to all immigrants and helped them at the beginning.
Of course it is only an imagination story, however I learn a little about Brazil history.

Nobel Prize

Probably you already known, that the Nobel Prize in literature in 2012 goes to Chinese writer - Mo Yan. I haven't read his book yet. But it is a good opportunity to write about books written by people from China. Unfortunately, I read books faster than I have time to write about them. I hope this month I will write about books, which are for very long time on my list... I hope to write here soon!

The second part of an orange

When we watch a movie or read a book very often we can hear about love story. Finally love is the most important part of our life. Today I would like to write about book "Heaven Lake" by John Dalton (2004). It is quite long (ca. 650 pages in Polish) story of an American Christian volunteer, who arrived in Taiwan to tell about God and teach English. His name is
Vincent Saunders, and he is fresh out of college in the States. His story is complicated and in the second part of his being in Asia he decided to help a guy who ask him to marry a woman from China instead him...
Usually I like main character of book or identify with him. But not this time. Vincent is young man, he believes in God, knows the Bible very well and try do many things correctly. Page by page I saw that he is a bit naive, and doesn't know what he want. Although I do not like him and his behaviour made me angry, reading this book gave me pleasure! His travel for taking woman from China as a wife, show China as a bit strange and dangerous country. Vincent seemed lost and very lonely, not only in China, but probably more in their emotions.
Other intriguing character is a businessman from Taipei, who has wife and four years old son are constantly looking for his other half, his true love. What an unhappy marriage! Very strange book!

book vs movie

Next book about China. It is "Pavilion of women" written by Pearl Buck. That day, when I borrowed it from library, there was a movie displayed in TV, which is a screen adaptation of the book :) I recorded that movie to be able to watch it after reading the book.

The main character is Mrs Wu. The story begins on day of her 40th Birthday in 1938. She has four sons. She don't want be lover for her husband any more, therefore she plans to find a young girl for him. This changes harmony in her big, famous and rich family. Finally she recognizes that she hurts all people with this decision and that she never loved her husband. She is very lonely until she meets a Christian priest. He becomes her friend. He understands her mind and knows almost all answers of her questions about life, sense of life, love, man and woman, etc.
Only one of her sons has as philosophic soul as Mrs Wu. He is married, but doesn't love his wife much. He feels that his wife doesn't understand his existential problems and intellectual needs. Mrs Wu wants to help him, so she sends him to US for study. He meets an American girl there. Her name is Margarita, she has blue eyes... They fell in love, but he understands, that he can't be with her. He tells Margarita about his marriage and immediately (earlier than he planned) comes back home to China.

In this book there was one sentence about colours of eyes: "Her blue eyes are like an open window, his dark eyes are like a descended curtain."

Marrgareth, do you have blue eyes, maybe? Sorry, but I do not remember...

When it comes to the movie... the beginning is quite interesting, but the longer I watched the more bored I was. Some stories have different scenario, but unfortunately not better. This is one of many examples when book is much better then movie.

Scenario of good movie

Saga under the title "Imperium łez" (ang. The Empire of Tears) contains two volumes ("Wojna opiumowa" - La Guerre de l’Opium - and "Księżycowy Kamień" - Le sac du Palais d'été - by Jose Freches). These books are about completely unknown story for me of opium wars in mid-19th Century China. You will find many historical annotations here, which are very helpful. In the novel, the author shows how complicated relationships can be, not only in one cultural region (China), but also cross-cultural, in this case - the line between England and China.

We can see the bad side of people from France and Great Britain in 19th century. When they totally don't understand people from China and only want make fortune selling them opium.

Very colourful described characters from China, GB, France, Portugal, Russia and others have very fascinating threads. In this two books we meet a few characters. Initially their stories are described separately and only on further pages their fates  begin to cross, pass and connect... But in this book characters are not black-white, maybe only one... the title character from the second volume. They have to make many difficult decisions in very complicated times...
Very seldom I read a book in which the fate of many characters are described and actually there is not one main thread, but there are many. It is very interesting idea! Both the beginning and the ending relate to European journalist describing and drawing extraordinary facts, which used to happened in China.

For me, these books are good base for a film script. Any director think the same? Now I am waiting for a film... ;)

Friendship once again

 Have you ever tried to find a new friend? If so, you probably know, how difficult task it is.

Maybe you tried to keep friendship with a person with the opposite gender... did you succeed? If you want to read about this kind of relations I recommend you "Brand New Friend" by Mike Gayle (in Polish 2008). Rob, main character, moved in to a new city, where he did not have a family, friends or even work-mate. He tried to find a new friend for men talking-drinking, but it is not so easy for 32 years old guy, especially if he works alone at his home.
They say that friendship between men is very different than between women. Women meet very often, they talk each other just like that, no reason, etc. And men meet much more seldom, don't go shopping together or talk all the day. And it is a point how it is possible to combine such different points of view of friendship?

I don't know how, but I know IT IS POSSIBLE :) Sometimes it is the biggest advantage that my male friend is not a female and other times it is his the biggest disadvantage ;)

After reading this book I have read an interview with the author (you can find it here). It was surprising for me that men need that much time before they call someone a friend. It takes them so many years...
I know, friendship is something special and needs much time, needs years, but sometimes we know from the beginning that something special happened, that we like each-other and after years we recognize that it is a friendship. A few times in my life I met a man, and from the beginning I knew that we could be a close colleague and the time will check whether we can be friends or not.

Following Polish singers (Rafał Olbrychski and Maryla Rodowicz) I would like to sing now:

 

'When you find a new friend,
all your days in the whole year
are like Sunday.
When you find a new friend
Sunny shoots a ray from heaven
eyesight is gleaming
And a word is not afraid a word
Tablecloth is white, the bread is sliced

When dusk falls
The light of reason pierce the gloom
And you have someone to talk deeply
from heart
you can be silent together too.

And if yours roads are diverging
If it is friendship, nothing can destroy its
And at the end of the world you will get a sms
If this is true friendship
If it is
(...)'

/my translation/