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Nimier:Do any of your memories concern math? Brigitte: Any? For the last 20 years my life has been full of math. Any memories of math? Nothing but... (laugh) Nimier: Nothing but? Brigitte: Math is woven into my whole life. My private life, my professional life, my children, ... everything. It's the fabric of my life. Nimier: Oh! Brigitte: So, I couldn't possibly pick out particular memories. It's everything. All my existence. Nimier: So you can't separate your life from math? Brigitte: No, it's just not possible. It's the warp of everything I do and have done. Nimier: What do you mean? Brigitte: Everything is woven round math. It's because of math that I chose scientific studies at school; it's because of math that I met my future husband at University. If I hadn't chosen math, my life would perhaps have been quite different. The directions my life has taken, the things I've done, the people I've met... it's always been because of math. It plays an important role in communication between my husband and me. It's fundamental to my life. Nimier: How does it play an important role? Brigitte: In understanding how he feels about things. By doing math with him I can feel what he's feeling. How he feels about the problems he's trying to solve. |
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Nimier: So there's a sort of communion with him? Brigitte: Yes, it's at those times that I feel a deep communion between us... when I don't do so much math I feel more distant from him. All the other forms of communication - going to the cinema, seeing friends - they all seem artificial forms of communication compared with doing math together. That's why I said it's the warp of my life. I don't know if it's because I feel that for me it's the means of communicating with my husband. I don't know if it's a means or if it's the object, if I'm interested in my husband because of math, or the other way round. I can't separate one from the other. Nimier: You can't separate your husband from math? Brigitte: I don't know what is the cause and what the result. It's all intertwined. And the proof is that I dislike doing math with anyone else. This example illustrates math as the'Ideal Object' |
