Rec: Calculus by etherati

[eve11]

Hi again, this is eve11 and I'm quite thrilled to be taking up the baton for this week! I've got a mixed bag of stories from a few different eras with a few different lengths and styles, and I couldn't help but start off the week with a topic dear to my heart:

Story: Calculus
Author: etherati
Rating: All ages
Word Count: 556
Characters: Tenth Doctor
Author's Summary: f(x) = 1/x : The simplest of equations. The limit as x approaches infinity is zero. The limit as time approaches forever is nothing. Life is just math, in the end. Post-Doomsday.

Recced because: The analogy here is so simply stated but also elegant, in the way that mathematics should be. In this short vignette, Etherati gives us an unflinching look at the Doctor's perspective on life and the harsh reality of impermanence and loss, but they also show the spark of hope, resourcefulness, and admiration-- all rolled into a construct that is so central to our technological advancement as a species, but at the same time, such a strange thing to consider, taken at face value. Mathematics is the Doctor's language, and etherati gives us both an intimate portait and outsider's perspective using it.



The idea of limits, for example — equations existing in a constant state of potentially equaling something or other, somehow, when some impossible set of circumstances are met or an impossible value plugged in. The mathematics of possibility, of may or may not. That’s more than most advanced cultures give humans credit for, this spending of an inordinate amount of time fixating on nothing and infinity. Not a good topic for apes, right? Hand them a banana to consider instead.

Comments

[hence-the-name.livejournal.com]

This is one of the first DW fics I stumbled across when I started looking, a little over a year ago now. Gorgeous and haunting. It's still one of my favorite post-Doomsday vignettes.

[wendymr.livejournal.com]

I have a mental block when it comes to maths (mild learning disability in that direction; I often can't add up single-digit numbers correctly), so calculus and complicated fractions are completely beyond me. Even with that handicap, I agree that this story flowed so very well, and very poignantly. Thanks for the rec!

:D

[etherati.livejournal.com]

Thanks so much for reccing this! I'm perpetually amazed that people ever even find the stuff I write :D

[eve11]

Agreed. I like that it takes place post Doomsday, definitely a Tenth Doctor POV from that time, but tackles the idea on that larger scale of how ephemeral human companionship is for the Doctor, and how ephemeral everything is, when the limits extend far enough-- it's almost a comfort.

[eve11]

you're welcome! I have a soft spot for math in fic, and this story really melds the two together beautifully.

Re: :D

[eve11]

you're very welcome :) Thank you for writing it!

And I must confess I love your definition of limits. I think it's especially resonant when you consider how derivatives are defined as limits simultaneously across the entire x-axis: in that case you have a whole function-- well-formed and well-behaved, that exists simultaneously across the entire domain merely as a representation of that impossible set of circumstances. :)

[elliptic-eye.livejournal.com]

So glad that this finally got rec'ed, even if I'm going to have to refill yet another slot. It really is just beautiful.

[eve11]

Ah, I thought you might have that one queued, but alas, I could not resist. :)