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Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine

From the very first pages, one could deduce that Ms. Oliphant (as she likes to be called by strangers) is not completely fine. Certain aspects of her life are certainly considered ordinary: she has an ordinary job, a deep grasp of language and a steady schedule. Then one discovers that she has the savoir faire of a judgmental ninny. On top of that, she definitely has an abusive relationship with her mother. Oh, and alcoholism.

But the novel is not about whether she is fine or not. It’s about her journey to realizing that she is not fine, and, subsequently, taking the steps to changing her life. It’s oddly fulfilling to read about a character struggle with loneliness rather than being able to embrace it:

These days, loneliness is the new cancer—a shameful, embarrassing thing, brought upon yourself in some obscure way. A fearful, incurable thing, so horrifying that you dare not mention it; other people don’t want to hear the word spoken aloud for fear that they might too be afflicted, or that it might tempt fate into visiting a similar horror upon them.

Though initially a bit difficult to sympathize with our protagonist,  the author did a wonderful job of making her mental health struggles tangible.

Did I mention that the vocabulary of the book is top notch? Definitely a GRE level novel.

 

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On a Theorem by Seeley

In my current work, I use the eigenfunctions of the Laplacian: $\varphi_k, \lambda_k \in H^1_0, \mathbb{R}^+$ satisfying
\begin{align*}
-\Delta \varphi_k = \lambda_k \varphi_k.
\end{align*}
It is well known that $\{\varphi_k\}_{k=1}^\infty$ provides an orthonormal basis for $L^2$, and is also orthogonal in $H^1$. Hence, any function $f \in L^2$ can be expressed as $f = \sum_{k=1}^\infty f_k \varphi_k$ where $f_k = (f, \varphi_k)$.

Unfortunately, there are not many properties which can be derived from this eigenfunction expansion. Besides the fact that the squared $L^2$ norm of $f$ is simply $\sum_{k=1}^\infty f_k^2$, and the $H^1$ norm is $\sum_{k=1}^\infty f_k^2 \lambda_k$, the connection between regularity and expansion is tenuous at best.

I was excited about the paper Eigenfunction Expansions of Analytic Functions by Seeley. In it, the author claimed to have derived a theorem giving necessary and sufficient conditions on analyticity and the eigenfunction expansion: a function $f$ is analytic iff $\sum_{k=1}^\infty s^{\sqrt\lambda_k} f_k^2 < \infty$ or $\{s^{\sqrt{\lambda_k}} |f_k| \}$ is bounded for some $s > 1$. Unfortunately, I don’t think it is an iff.

In particular, on a square with $f = 1$. We know the coefficients are
\begin{align*}
f_{ij} = \frac{2 \left((-1)^i-1\right) \left((-1)^j-1\right)}{\pi ^2 i j} \approx \frac{1}{ij}
\end{align*}
and so the theorem is stating that
\begin{align*}
s^{\sqrt{\lambda_{mm}}} f_{mm} &= \frac{2 \left((-1)^m-1\right)^2 s^{\sqrt{2} \pi m}}{\pi ^2 m^2} \\
&\approx \frac{s^{\sqrt{2} \pi m}}{m^2} \to \infty
\end{align*}
as $m\to \infty$ which is clearly unbounded.

Rather, more conditions needs to be imposed on the theorem. It is not hard to show that any function satisfying $\sum_{k=1}^\infty s^{\sqrt\lambda_k} f_k^2 < \infty$ is in any $\mathbb{H}^s := \{ u \in L^2 | \sum_{k=1}^\infty u_k^2 \lambda_k^s < \infty \}$ space for $s \ge 0$. Coincidentally, we know $\mathbb{H}^s = H^s_0$ for $1 > s > 1/2$ by an interpolation argument, meaning that at the minimum, our functions need to vanish at the boundary.

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The Four Winds

A novel about hardship felt especially apropos given the pandemic. In many ways, the novel about a woman enduring the Dust Bowl did its job. My feelings were thoroughly manipulated, and then crushed whenever a misfortune befell our protagonist, which was often. At times, I had tears in my eyes.

But at the end, the book made a turn for the unusual. There’s a distinct break in the plot, after the plot drifted from Texas to California. The change was subtle at first, but it was gradually made clear that there was an underlying political message in the novel. Oddly enough, it was positions which I generally support but nevertheless, seeing it diluted in the novel felt out of place. Perhaps Communism is a major factor during the Dust Bowl. It certainly made sense given FDR’s then-radical policies.

In view of the whole novel, I have to commend the author for an easy read with some interesting historical perspective.

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The Searcher

Prior to reading this novel, the only other thriller that I’ve read was arguably The Da Vinci Code. I’ve always stayed away from fast paced action, and prefer character building or world building in my novels. It just seems that movies provide a much better vehicle for suspenseful, simmering plot lines where the pace can be controlled by a director and accentuated by appropriate accompaniment.

The Searcher proved me wrong. The actual crime(s) being investigated could be explained in a grand total of five or so sentences. It was no The Usual Suspect. But what the author excelled at was interweaving thoughtful discussion on morality, ethics and relationships with the whodunit. I found myself thinking about the conundrums facing the main character Cal as proper philosophical questions. It’s the type of discussion which would flub if adapted to a movie, and I thought the story was an excellent vehicle for these discussion.

A few complaints: the beginning could be more interesting, some of the side characters are forgettable, the geography of an Irish town really was hard to grasp with no map or figures. Overall, a fun read where I raced through the last few chapters.

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A Tale from Anasazi

Once, there was a handsome fellow who liked to climb rocks. He lived in an age where people managed to construct monoliths-esque structure inside a building! In these gyms of rocks, he would climb tall rocks which required ropes, and sometimes would climb short rocks which didn’t.

One day, he realized that the specialized shoes he was wearing to climb the rocks was wearing out, so he decided to order a new pair from the internet. He found an excellent deal on a great pair of shoes from a, somewhat sketchy, website. But the price. The price was alluring. So he took his credit card, and purchased it.

Days later, a pair of shoes from a warehouse in Spain left, bound for a trip across the pond. Slowly, it meandered into Amsterdam where it boarded a boat and landed in New York City. There, it traveled up I95 and landed in a porch in Providence.

There, the guy opened the package to find the pair of shoes just a tad too small. A little too crampy for my toes, thus he sought to return the shoes. But he soon exclaimed “EGAD!” for the company did not have free returns!

Now, the guy is stuck with a pair of shoes, which are just.

a

tad

too

small.

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The many named God

Doing the crossword can be quite a religious experience. The sixty six books provide a constructor with some pretty easy clues for RUTH (Book after Judges) or clever cluing for ACTS (Romans predecessor).

Similarly, ALLAH and ESAU have a wealth of high-frequency letters which means they appear quite often. GOD, oddly enough, doesn’t.

But ADONAI? On a Monday crossword? Oh god.

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Shade

is defined as Carvana renting the billboard right in front of the Carmax.

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Petit Four

  1. Trader Joe’s switched up their layout. Finding the chocolate took too long.
  2. Climbed in Rumney, and found a tick latched. Ugh.
  3. Dutch oven from Misen came. Step 20423 to being a house husband.
  4. Celeste is a good game.
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30 Rock x Community

Four blockbusters: The Office, 30 Rock, Community and Parks and Rec aired on NBC on the same Thursday nights at one point in time; this fact is incredible to reflect upon, and will likely never be repeated with the decline of network television. But how did NBC capture (or attempt to anyways) the nation’s attention with back to back to back to back sitcoms?

Part of the reason this bloc of four comedies succeeded was that each had different ideals and  relied on different humor “engines.” Parks and Rec was hopelessly positive about everything, and that optimism carried the show to great success after the initial trudge that was the first season. The Office, while also created by Michael Schur, was more cringe and relied on the prowess of Steve Carell.

Interestingly, I’ve noticed from re-watching a lot of these shows during WFH is that Community and 30 Rock have a lot in common. Not only do the shows share a tendency of utilizing witty repartee and homages, but the character development and themes also followed a similar arc. Nevertheless, even with these shared tenets, it is interesting to conjecture that a crossover episode would never work.

On the surface, 30 Rock and Community shouldn’t overlap much. One is about a lovable gang of misfits in a community college, and the other focuses on the relationship between a show runner, her “staff” and her boss. But it’s not the topic of the humor which unites them, but one facet is how both channel (no pun intended) their inner Abbott and Costello. At their zenith, 30 Rock and Community have fast-paced zingers peppering every line of dialogue. This sort of pitter patter, which makes one’s own real life conversations feel dull and mundane at times, really contrasts with the mockumentary dialogue of the other two NBC offerings. Indeed, it more so reflects Arrested Development, a show which both Dan Harmon and Tina Fey has accredited to being inspirational.

On top of this repartee,  both have an Dada-esque undertone throughout the shows, and I’m not even accounting for some of the fantastical elements in each show (can we talk about how Liz’s stomach is its own magical entity?). In the most mundane of scenarios, a veil of meta-ness would peep out at the perfect times. Of course, in Community, Abed was the clear vehicle for this:

It makes every 10 minutes feel like the beginning of a new scene of a TV show. Of course the illusion lasts until someone says something they never say on TV, like how much their life is like TV. There, it’s gone.

But 30 Rock, a show about people running a show, also has a large share of meta humor:

We’re on a show within a show! My real name is Tracy Morgan!

This probably stemmed from the show runners’ backgrounds. After all, both Fey and Harmon have roots in sketch comedy troupes where breaking the fourth wall is valuable technique for engaging the audience.

On top of the dialogue, music plays a surprisingly large role in the duo. The early Community seasons had many great original soundtracks made specifically for episodes and overall had fantastic music choices. The most glaring example is the Spanish library rap which was repurposed twice: once to apply for the “cool” study group (where Pierce also brings back his musical number GDB) and the other was with the loving Betty White. The latter seasons unfortunately didn’t have such intricate musical numbers, due to the lack of funding and the departure of Childish Gambino.

Conversely, 30 Rock usage of sound bites and musical numbers stayed more consistent, one is partly due to the premise of running a variety show and the other is 30 Rock’s usage of musical themes. The first point should be pretty obvious. For the second usage, 30 Rock would sometimes associate a novel musical motif with a particular character in a situation, and call upon that motif anytime the situation arises. This was particularly noticeable for Jack’s girlfriends: Phoebe and Elisa both had distinct themes when they are in potentially compromising situations. While small, this attention to creativity goes a long way.

Finally, a lot of both shows humor revolves around elaborate, fictional homages while interspersing real pop culture. Dan Harmon did a fabulous job on this aspect with the best being the paintball episodes of Community paying homage to Westerns, space Westerns (e.g. Star Wars) and spy flicks. On 30 Rock’s sides, Queen of Jordan is a clear “spinoff” of Real Housewives.

A sitcom also can’t succeed if there is no heart to the cast; while bits makes for great five minute Youtube clips, a story arc sells seasons. In a lot of ways, 30 Rock’s and Community’s male lead both share the same story line. Both lands in a place (NBC, Greendale) which they both initially thought would be a simple stepping stone towards their final goal (CEO at GM, being a lawyer again), yet no amount of hard work could overcome unfortunate circumstances (bought out by Cabletown, season 5 repilot).

Initially, Jack and Jeff view the other cast members as simple tools to achieve their goals, but gradually start to form meaningful relationships with them. The two have internal reorientation of what they consider success and expect from life. The leads soften up, and become a more complete person at the end of the shows.

One can also draw connections between other characters. Liz very much resembles Abed in how both of them came to achieve what they wanted through deep character growth. Abed noticeably becomes more empathetic and learns the human-side of film making, resulting in his final departure to Hollywood. Liz realizes what she values in life and a partner which allowed her to tank TGS. On the other side, Britta and Jenna both became increasingly weird…

In conclusion, two great shows with great dialogue that uses homages and meta humor to tell, usually, relatable stories in vastly different settings. As an exercise to the reader (e.g. this blog post has more than 1000 words now and I’m tired), consider how a crossover episode would work. Does the dynamic change is the episode happened in a different season? Which characters would not work at all?