Heat Exchange and Theodolite

     A heat exchanger is a piece of equipment used to transfer heat from one source to another. A famous example would be the internal combustion engine, used to power our cars. Heat exchangers can take on many forms and types, though. Interestingly, human nasal passages also serve as a type of heat exchanger, warming air as it enters the nose, and cooling the air as it exits the nose. Certain types of animals also use heat exchange in their bodies, such as whales and fish. There are some pretty complex mathematical equations which model a 'simple' heat exchange using Newton's law of cooling, among other things.

     The exchange of heat is of interest to our readings of Arcadia, because of the nature of Thomasina and Valentine's collaborative work. They are concerned with "the action of bodies in heat," (84) and this could have a double meaning as those bodies may be human bodies embracing a side of beef, or as Thomasina puts it, "Chater would overthrow the Newtonian system in a weekend." Valentine calls this "the attraction that Newton left out," on p. 74. Also at stake is the loss of heat, and how although Newton's laws should work both ways, backwards and forwards, heat exchange works in only one direction only, much like the cream in coffee or jam in pudding. This is related to our problem of being able to move through time in only one direction, and the play is obviously playing with that assumption.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_exchanger

Regency dress & the waltz (73, 81)

Regency dress describes the fashion of the early 19th Century in which style translated from somewhat plain and reserved to more extravagant attire.  The style of this fashion is best and most easily described by the photograph below.  The frock that Bernard is described as putting on is visible on the male, while the presence of several adornments on the females reflects the increased extravagance of the period.  Although not included in this specific drawing, it was also fashionable for men to wear high boots in addition to their imposing hats.  The waltz was also an important cultural aspect of the era.  According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the waltz is an intimate dance in which partners "swing round and round in the same direction with smooth and even steps, moving on as they gyrate."  Also, as noted by the characters in the text, the waltz is German.  Its German root word "walzen" means to revolve.


Although I think that both of my assigned terms have special significance in Arcadia, I think that the waltz is the more crucial term in my understanding of the play.  Thomasina and Septimus are engaged in a dance that is, by definition, revolutionary.  This adheres to the cyclical nature of time that is often pointed out by the characters and even by the action of the play, but it also makes a connection to the fact that Thomasina and Septimus are revolutionary figures in history--forgotten, but ultimately remembered and reenacted through Hannah and Gus.  Their dancing is symbolic of their existence in time and history as purveyors of change.  The connection between these characters is focused by the modern characters wearing Regency dress; even though they are separated by centuries, the similarity between the emotions and concerns of the characters in different eras supersedes the restrictions of time and space, connecting these characters on a human level.

Sources:
http://locutus.ucr.edu/~cathy/men2.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1795–1820_in_Western_fashion#Regency_.281815.E2.80.931820.29_gallery

"waltz, n.". OED Online. March 2013. Oxford University Press. 21 April 2013 <http://libweb.uwlax.edu:2141/view/Entry/225389?rskey=Lw4It8&result=1&isAdvanced=false>.

Determinism

 (73, 80, 83)

de·ter·min·ism

noun

1.

the doctrine that all facts and events exemplify natural laws.

2.

the doctrine that all events, including human choices and decisions, have sufficient causes.

Determinism is a metaphysical philosophical idea stating that for every event or state of affairs, including human action and decision, there are conditions such that nothing else could happen. These states of affairs are inevitable and necessary consequences. “Past events and the laws of nature fix or set future events.” (New World Encyclopedia) Determinism is contrasted with the theory of free will.  Free will is the ability to make choices unrestrained by certain factors. In physics, determinism is synonymous with cause-and-effect.

            The idea of determinism makes three obvious appearances in Arcadia. This happens once on page 73 when Chloe and Valentine are talking about the theory of how the future could possibly be programmed like a computer (a huge computer), but Chloe goes on to disprove her own theory by saying “the only thing going wrong is people fancying people who aren’t supposed to be in that part of the plan.” (73) This suggests an element of free will in a deterministic universe. The play itself is very deterministic. The simple fact that it has been written out takes away any free will that the characters in the story may have had. Also, we know the future of the characters in the earlier period of the play as the characters in the later period are discovering what happened to them, so their future had already been written out.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/determinism?s=t

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Determinism

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_will

http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Determinism

http://www.informationphilosopher.com/freedom/determinism.html

~Teresa Turner 

Kew Gardens

Contemporary Kew

 



Located in southwest London, Kew Gardens has a history that dates back to the 1700's making it over 250 years old. It was originally formed by Lord Capel John of Tewkesbury. After it was originally created, it was expanded several times for several different reasons. The garden has been expanded from 75 acres at one time, to 270 acres, to its current size- 300 acres. Kew is responsible for the world's largest collection of living plants and employs 650 scientists and other staff. But the Kew Gardens are not much like they originally were.

Relation to Arcadia

Kew Palace

We do get some idea of the pastoral in some early scenes in Arcadia. We don't get an intricate description or vision of the gardens. Mostly we get people coming in from and going out to the gardens. Seemingly some type of oasis for characters, the garden seems to be the retreat away from conflict. However, just as we see with Kew's history, the contemporary is a much altered form of the original. We try to draw binaries between the two eras of the play, and to do so we must find what is similar to the past (i.e. Septimus and Bernard as critics). You could imagine doing something similar if you were walking through Kew Gardens. What's similar, and what has changed?

Marianne North Gallery of Botanic Art


Works Cited
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Botanic_Gardens,_Kew


Fractal Geometry:

Fractals have played a large part in the modernist literary tradition, especially on the stage.  A play within a play is the most common literary denominator of the fractal method.  With an understanding that integers are numbers that have no decimal expansion (i.e. whole and real numbers), fractals in geometry employ non-integer numbers, creating expansive sets of algorithms as they have few limitations.  Essentially, this means that fractal images are between one and two dimensional.  As fractals are geometrically manifest, they form discernable patterns.  In order to create the pleasant fractal images that modern art has championed, color is added where changes of pattern occur, creating symmetrical distinctions pleasant to the human eye.  Any minimized or maximized view of a fractal should be undistinguishable in their raw form.  Literary tradition uses the fractal method to create mirroring in plot and characters, especially where the dimension of time is the background the patterns are spread across. Additionally, fractals can be found in nature and create some of the most pleasing art.

http://library.thinkquest.org/3493/frames/fractal.html

http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractal

http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractal_geometry

http://fractals.chat.ru/gallery.htm

http://thereisnocavalry.wordpress.com/2012/08/09/fractals-in-nature/

Fractals in Arcadia:

When faced with the limitations of traditional geometry, Thomasina looks to the fractals of nature in veins of a leaf in order to stumble on to her iterated algorithms.  Her abject frustration is most famously shown as she speaks to her tutor:

"Each week I plot your equations dot for dot, x's against y's in all manner of algebraical relation, and every week they draw themselves as commonplace geometry, as if the world of forms were nothing but arcs and angles. God's truth, Septimus, if there is an equation for a bell, then there must be an equation for a bluebell, and if a bluebell, why not a rose?"

Thomasina’s break from traditional methods is a meta-manifestation of the post-modernist movement and its breaking with traditional knowledge.  The impact of this science has a profound effect on the intellectual characters and fractals become a very integral part of the plot— but is the dichotomy of stories within the play a fractal itself?  There are certainly similarities between the questioning characters Thomasina and Chloe, or Gus and Augustus and their hobbies.  However, with the obvious differences in time and characteristics between these pairs, can we really say that the stories follow the same fractal pattern?

For more on the mathematics in arcadia:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iM0cR7qvmgY&noredirect=1

-Christian Sorensen

Lord George Gordon Byron (21-22; 28; 29-32)

"Crede Bryron" or Trust Byron is the motto of the 

Lord Byron crest.

I thought that this motto was very fitting for what we have come to find within the play Arcadia. We have come to a conclusion through Bernard and Hannah that our earlier character Septimus Hodge may have hidden a relationship with the famous poet Byron. So, can we trust Bryon; it was through his holding of "The Couch of Eros" that was previously Hodge's that we come to these small conclusions. But I'm jumping ahead.

Lord George Gordon Byron:

Born 1788 to Catherine Gordon and Captain John Byron, he was raised by his mother in Aberdeen, Scotland. Although he had a club foot and a "coarse, often violent mother," he was able to excel in his studies and even played sports with the other young men. He attended Trinity College, Cambridge off and on from October 1805- July 1808. Byron is greatly known for his poetry and model Romantic hero who embodied defiance and melancholy and was always haunted by secret guilt. He is also known for being "the most flamboyant" of the Romantics. It is rumored that he had bi-sexual tendencies though he favored women. Later on in his career, however, Byron turned away from his usual eroticisms to more weightier works such as autobiographical personae experiments and satire and popular verse tales. He is believed to have had an incestuous relationship with his half-sister Augusta. Byron was unique from his contemporaries and he says himself, "I was born for opposition." Byron died from illness after riding in a heavy rain storm; he just so happened to die during a "violent electrical storm."

Although I jumped ahead in the beginning, now that we know a little more about Lord Byron, do you find this possible relationship a little more intriguing? How close of a relationship do you think that Lord Byron and Hodge had? So far it seems as though they shared at one book and that book contained some secrets about sexual interests and troubles. Did Hodge ever write a review for "The Couch of Eros"? or was is possible Lord Byron who took over this request? I'm very interested to see how this relationship plays out!

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/lord-byron

Horace Walpole & Landscape Gardening (pg 13)

Horace Walpole (1717-1797), also known as Horatio Walpole, was the 4th Earl of Orford and a reasonably successful English politician and writer. He is well known for helping to revive an interest in the Gothic style in the Victorian Age. His contributions to the Gothic revival were literary and architectural.  He wrote a successful Gothic novel, The Castle of Otranto, which he published under a
pseudonym, and built a prominent Gothic estate named Strawberry Hill at Twickenham outside of London. Strawberry Hill is considered one of the earliest examples of Gothic revival estates. It features towers, battlements, vaulted arches, and vaulted windows in an effort to simulate the elaborate styles and gloomy essence of medieval Gothic construction. This Gothic style was also emulated in Victorian landscape gardening, with fake Roman and medieval ruins (often called "follies"), hermitages, and other exotic buildings becoming fixtures of Victorian gardens and status symbols for wealthy families.

The mention of Horace Walpole in Arcadia is important because it explains the inspiration behind Lady Croom's elaborate garden renovations, which seem to be important for the setting and plot motivation, while giving us some insight into the characters. The fact that Lady Croom is unaware of the connection between The Castle of Otranto and Horace Walpole suggests that she is only shallowly concerned with participating in the Gothic-revival trend and not aware of its foundations. This ignorance could possibly foreshadow other misunderstandings/miscommunications and have an effect on the Sidley Park research of Hannah Jarvis and Bernard Nightingale later in the play.

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strawberry_Hill_House
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horace_Walpole
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_landscape_garden