Simple City

Richard Elwes's Blog and Website

  • Book: Maths 1001
    • Maths 1001: Errata
    • Maths 1001: Reviews
  • Book: Chaotic Fishponds…
  • Book: How to Build a Brain
  • Book: Maths in 100 Key Breakthroughs
  • Book: The Maths Handbook
  • Writing
  • Talking
  • Teaching
  • Research
  • Who is Richard Elwes?

A few words of explanation, in general terms

Posted by richardelwes on May 27, 2008
Posted in: Logic, Maths.

I rewatched Breaking The Code the other night, the TV adaptation of Hugh Whitemore’s play of the life of Alan Turing, in turn based on Andrew Hodges’ book Alan Turing: the enigma.

It’s a wonderful film, not least for Derek Jacobi’s performance as Turing. I’ve embedded below the scene where he goes to Bletchley Park for the first time, and is interviewed by Dilly Knox (Richard Johnson). I love this speech. When I first saw it, I was struck by the contrast with every other film about maths that I’d seen. It doesn’t lazily misunderstand Turing, so as to portray him as a misunderstood genius, obsessed with the incomprehensible. But it makes a real effort to let him say why he’s so passionate about his research, and explain what it is actually about. For me, it beautifully captures the drama within mathematics itself.

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook

Like this:

Like Loading...

Related

Posts navigation

← Defecating on an infinite number of keyboards
Put a little science in your life! →
  • Some of my interesting things

    • The Grothendieck Song
    • A rhopalic sentence
    • Wondering about this wallpaper?
    • Topological limericks
  • Affiliations

    • I work at University of Leeds, UK
    • I am the Publicicty Officer for the European Mathematical Society
    • I am a Holgate Session Leader for the London Mathematical Society
  • Me on Twitter

    My Tweets
  • Me on Facebook

    Me on Facebook
  • Subscribe to Simple City

    • RSS - Posts
    • RSS - Comments
Blog at WordPress.com.
%d bloggers like this: