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January 31, 2005

Necessary Adding

Had Zero done more that merely add all his twenty-five years at work, he might have continued his thinking (with "Them damn figgers! I can't forget 'em..." p.54).

I wasn't sure what a bill file was, other than Zero's murder weapon of choice, so click here to see a photo. Looking at the thing, I can see how he killed his boss with it... brutal.

It's obvious that Zero had some pent-up rage. Over what? Well, consider the following numeric representations of his plight:

  • The Adding Machine by Elmer L. Rice
    143 pages/7acts = 20.428571428571428571428571428571 pages per act.

  • Halfway down the 71st page (71.5) is the middle of the play.

  • Some characters include the following:
    Zero
    Mrs. Zero
    One
    Mrs. One
    Two
    Mrs. Two
    Three
    Mrs. Three
    Four
    Mrs. Four
    Five
    Mrs. Five
    Six
    Mrs. Six
    ... and there is mention of other friends all the way up through Twelve (six more couples).

    --> the sum six groups of friends of these is 156.
    (Without the Sevens through the Twelves the sum is 42.)

  • 42 is equally divisible by 7, the number of acts in the play, with the quotient of 6. (Mrs. Zero's monologue (the 1st act) is exactly 6 pages, and ends on page 6.)

  • Zero spent 25 years at his job--to the day--until he was to be "let go" (which is actually when he hauls off and kills his boss). Within 25 years, there are 6 leap years (possibly 7--only if the first year is a leap year... but let's go with 6 for all intensive purposes). So that's 6 "extra" days.

  • 8 hours a day, six days a week, 52 weeks a year, for 25 years is 62,400 hours. (But since Zero tells us about his summer schedule of July and August half-Saturdays, and one week's vacation with pay (supposing he doesn't take the second unpaid week of vacation), that makes 54,400 (since he lost 8000 hours total, with 8hrs/day x 5days/wk x 8 "short weeks" in July and August x 25 years = 8000, that's the time he lost by taking the half-day Saturdays.

    Mathematically, with the miserable circumstances that seem to cloud Zero's life, I suppose he'd have to kill someone...

    *Disclaimer: sure, my math could be wrong... but I'm an English major. Pointing that out really isn't going to make any difference is it? I can balance my checkbook and make change, apply theorems and I even know my radians in pi... that's all I need, evidently, because that's what I remember :-)

    • Posted by KarissaKilgore at January 31, 2005 8:49 PM

    Comments

    hahaha! i think you might have a bit too much free time on your hands, Karissa, but I enjoy your math! ;c)

    Posted by: moira at February 2, 2005 9:37 AM

    Why thank you, Moira. Actually, I wanted to try to make a connection. You know, come up with something unique. Typically papers that get written are unoriginal and maybe seem off-the-wall, but are really just interpretation and whatnot. I guess I just wanted to play around and see if I couldn't make a significant connection of the numbers that Rice uses in the play with the theme and value of the story.

    Posted by: Karissa at February 2, 2005 5:32 PM

    I definetly think that this is a unique approach. I wish I would have thought to do something like that for my blog entry or paper. I have never been very into the mathematical end of life. I do have to ask though. What made you think to make that particular connection?

    It wasn't until just a little while ago that I found out that Zero dies in Scene Five. Were you just as confused. It too Kristen Zapalla telling me to finally figure it out. I understand that Jane and her comapanion were in a graveyard, but I thought that it was just some sort of play on scenery. That he was really in a jail.

    Also, who do you think is the worse murderer? Zero or Shrdlu?

    Posted by: Tiffany at February 2, 2005 5:42 PM

    Well, I'm not sure I'll have enough to write my paper on all the math in the story... But I'm trying! I'm not scared to post about it because it's obscure ;-) I know I'm a little out there on this one, and that's okay with me. I'm taking a chance.

    I don't know how it popped into my head, Tiffany. Really, I'm not a math person (I'm okay at it and I got As in school, but I don't like it at all!). So I suppose the fact that the story is based around the job and the unhappiness at the job (and the firing from the job on account of new technology at the job) sparked my interest to write about the numerical side.

    (Sidenote: After I wrote about this yesterday, I thought about the new series on tv called "Numb3rs," and what kind of connection there would be in crime investigation... Fascinating stuff!)

    And who do I think is the worse murderer? Well, murder in and of itself is damnable, so I'm not sure it's right to pick... And only God can judge... Shrdlu may have been psychotic, but I'm guessing Zero was either bored, stressed, angry, or all three.

    Posted by: Karissa at February 2, 2005 7:02 PM

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