The Lover Who Can't Stop

After reading it, I still can't help but think about the gender issue. Sophie's engagement was broken off because she was a woman who liked mathematics too much. But for men who are also obsessed with mathematics or other things, such as Gauss, this fanatical obsession endows them with charm and makes them more popular. Not only can they get married, but they can also have perfect wives who take care of them and support them wholeheartedly. It seems natural that accomplished men don't care about family, but it seems unreasonable for women to put other things above love and family.

Xiaohongshu came here because of the recommendation

What a great name. The unstoppable lover is mathematics and those who pursue mathematics. Keep repeating Faust's sentence "stop, you are so beautiful", like a prophecy of helplessness and obsession in life. Unswerving determination, but only in the morning and evening throughout my life Love those two sentences from the author If death is doomed, how can one prove that one has lived? This life does not belong to him

A comment I like very much, I don't dare to steal the beauty, from yumikoz The shackles of the times are certainly one aspect, but it would not be superficial if we look at Sophie's fate entirely from this perspective. Loneliness is not only the historical destiny of women, but also the religious and philosophical destiny of seekers of truth. What creates the bond is not only the prejudice of the times, but also the heavy body. It is painful to face the soul directly. "You let their hot souls burn their flesh and blood and tear their lives apart. In such tearing, the world changes?" Could it be that God tacitly approves martyrdom? At that moment, Gauss was thinking not only of Sophie's fate, but also of Newton Descartes' choice. However, the conflict between spirit and body is more intense in Sophie, a woman: "Mathematics is a man who has taken away all my heart and cannot marry me. It is my lifelong lover..." The inert body yearns for the stability and tranquility of marriage, but the soul is always restless, following the lover who can't stop. At the last moment, Sophie hopes to reach reconciliation with her. What kind of reconciliation is this, and is reconciliation possible? Can she catch up with him, or can he stay for her even for a moment? Or, is truth possible? This is Faust's question, and it is also the source of the title "The Lover Who Can't Stop", the famous bet between Faust and Mephistopheles, "It's so beautiful, please stop!..." People who pursue the truth, Sophie, Archimedes and even Gauss, all have the soul of the insatiable Faust who yearns for the other side: "If greed is her sin, then are you the instigator?" This is the mystery of God that Gauss cannot break. However, isn't the origin of the bet God? Isn't Faust the most faithful servant of God? Sophie's life embodies the eternal tragic Faustian fate, and as a woman, she is in an isolated and helpless situation. This is doubly lonely. Maybe Sophie is not alone. Gauss's last words were his deepest sympathy for his fellow travelers. Through time, what we see is the figure of Archimedes, such a deep obsession. "Virtue is not alone, it must have neighbors." On the other hand, Gauss's persistence is also a demand for justice. This is the honor she deserves, and he doesn't want her to die in obscurity: a gentleman will die without a name. Truth is beauty and goodness. Gauss's doubt: Can justice be achieved? Is truth possible?

I discovered this article because of Paipai's recommendation. After reading it, I'm still not satisfied. The author's writing is extremely smooth and beautiful, with a sense of picture. As I was describing word for word, it seemed as if the figure of the girl anxiously waiting for Professor Lagrange in the rain was standing in front of me. It seemed as if I was also looking up at the high dome of the Ecole Polytechnique library, and my vision was filled with lilies that were thrown into the sky and fell one after another. It is said that human life is a multiple-choice question, and it is our choices that make us what kind of person we become. Sophie is an aristocratic lady from the upper class. She has a perfect family background and a youthful beauty. She can choose the leisurely afternoon tea in the garden under the warm sun, but chooses the hardship of calculation and argumentation on the cold desk on the manuscript paper. Still the same question, isn't it good to be an ordinary woman? I don't think so. God gave her a genius mind and a soul that loves mathematics. How could she give up her pursuit and become an ordinary woman, living only for her husband, children, and family, and enjoying herself by changing a few sets of clothes every day? Perhaps the loneliness of a genius is a kind of sadness, but it is even more of a pity for a genius to break his wings, drown in mediocrity, find his ambition difficult to achieve, and lose himself. "If every star is an ancestor who died on the road, are they willing to protect me? If they don't love me, why do they bring me into this world of fatal temptations. If they love me, why do they let me be born as a woman." Sophie's difficulty lies in the fact that the society at that time could not give birth to me. To give her an equal space as a woman, the path she chose is not understood, her abilities are despised by men, and her achievements cannot bring her a matching status in the academic world. With firm faith and the sadness of loneliness, she is still searching up and down and walking alone on this road. This reminds me of Charlotte Bronte. I happened to be writing an essay about her recently. In her early years, she encountered obstacles in the publishing world. She published articles under a male pen name. She was lonely throughout her life until she married a priest a year before her death. As the first feminist writer, she still had traces of inferiority complex on her body. Said far. The relationship between Gauss and Sophie is probably more of a connection between souls. That familiar feeling deep in life made Sophie say "I have seen you". Just like Shu Ting's "To the Oak", they have like-minded pursuits and appreciate each other's talents. So what if we're not together? What can separate love? Regret? Maybe it's just that the years are long and the clothes are thin. My favorite part of the whole text is the ending, with the intertwined descriptions of the two scenes between Gauss and Sophie, which is very touching. As Sophie looks back on her life from her perspective, whether she is proud, sad, happy or regretful, all the ups and downs of her life are about to come to an end. On the other hand, Gauss firmly fought for her to get the honor she deserved, and also reviewed the life contribution of this great woman from another perspective. Besides those theorems and prime numbers, what else can last forever? Could it be that feeling submerged in the ashes of time? Even if the person involved has fallen asleep, only the glorious name is left in the world.

Gauss holds a doctorate hat in his hand, a belated honor that should have come as early as more than 20 years ago when Mr. Brown put forward the important idea of ​​proving Fermat's last theorem in his first letter to Gauss. It didn't have to be so early, even a few months in advance, so that the Paris municipal authorities would not have written absurdly and scrawledly on her death certificate: The deceased was single and unemployed. I particularly like this section, and the scenes interspersed here at the end are also very touching~~ It's a pity that not many people know about her.

The whole story is very smooth and has a lingering effect. In fact, although this is the story of one person, why not the story of a group? She was originally a genius who was half a step ahead of her time, but because of her status, half a step became one step. Human beings are afraid of power that is beyond their control. If they cannot use it for themselves, they often choose to destroy it; her light makes others unable to look directly at her, which determines her fate - seriously speaking, gender and era are just a coincidence. Who can say that there is no such story in modern times? If she can forget her original intention and choose to surrender to the world, then she can enjoy marriage, family, children and grandchildren, and maybe a few months or years of tender love, all at the same time. She just chose to be loyal to her love, chose to be exiled from the world, and chose this way of life. This is a perfectionist's choice and a testament to her steadfastness. Queen Elizabeth I said: I married my country. Madame Germain was married to the natural sciences. Accolades and degrees? Just the icing on the cake, they were already in her pocket when the French Academy of Sciences recognized her research. This era is at least not so sad as to deliberately erase her name. I think that if you can look back on your life before death and give a peaceful smile to the God of Death, such a life will not be so miserable. So~~Ms. Germain made a grand finale and everyone applauded enthusiastically.

I think you wrote it very well. Before you wrote this article, I had never heard of this lady's deeds. Of course, that was because I was ignorant of science, especially natural science. But your article made me get to know such a great woman. I have not read her life, but your article seemed to show me her lonely but fulfilling life since she was thirteen years old. When she was thirteen years old, she saw the charm of mathematics from Archimedes and fell deeply in love with him. From then on, mathematics became her lover, her lover, her friend and the object of her lifelong pursuit. Mathematics has a face like Archimedes, with the sound of a wooden stick scratching on the ground, the courage to face the vicious soldiers without changing her expression, and the persistence that cannot be let go until death - that is the persistence, courage and love of her life. When she was nineteen, her engagement was broken off, which was undoubtedly a huge humiliation and pain for girls of that era. But for her, breaking off the engagement this time gave her a broader sky. From then on, she was no longer anyone's fiancée, she was just herself. She had the right to study mathematics with men. When she was thirty, she fell in love with Gauss, because Gauss was like the concrete manifestation of mathematics in the human world. Just like Archimedes, he had the same face as mathematics. The rustle of his writing on the paper overlapped with the sound of the stick scratching on the ground. The sunlight shining through the ivy outside the window was much gentler than the torches in the hands of the soldiers... He was Gauss, the prince of mathematics, but he was not just Gauss, he was her beloved mathematics. But Gauss couldn't accept her, because his reason told him that he needed a wife who could take care of him in life more than a companion who could study mathematics with him sleeplessly. Only careful care could allow him to go further on this charming path of exploration. Yes, he doesn't need someone to walk side by side with him, someone who will involve his emotions and energy, he needs someone who can make him worry-free, and Ms. Germain is obviously not the latter. She has met Poisson, and after becoming famous, she may have met more men who admired her, but those people came too late, her life and enthusiasm will be exhausted, but she is still a woman, unable to hand herself into the hands of an emotionless person. She is lucky, as you said, she has had youth, beauty, wealth, status, and she also has a pure soul and excellent wisdom. But she was unfortunate. She was born in an era when women were just subordinates of men. For this reason, she lived a lonely life with no one understanding her. She is lucky to have a father who dotes on her and supports her, and a teacher who teaches her everything he can without discriminating against her gender. But she was unfortunate because she gave her life to someone who could never respond to her. She is a woman, and maybe because of this, she does not have the almost cold rationality like men; but she is a woman, and because of this, she brings the delicate emotions of women into the mathematics she pursues throughout her life. Women's almost prophetic intuition and sharper feelings allow her to find new ways of thinking and research, showing another beautiful scenery to a world that is almost entirely populated by men. You can tell you love her, you call her the queen bee of the colony. But in my opinion, her beauty does not lie in how many achievements she has made, but in her unrelenting pursuit and courage that made her a pioneer in this field. She used her wisdom and achievements to make women after that era realize that they can also pursue their own excellence. Of course, this is just my idea, and there may be something wrong. After all, I don't know that period of history, and all I know is from your article. If there are any deviations, please provide further guidance. Finally, please accept my compliments and thank you for telling such a wonderful and beautiful story.

It was so shocking that after reading it, I immediately searched for Sophie Germain and met a great mathematician 🧋

Love and mathematics, or choose mathematics, a lifelong pursuit