Infinite Summer

Can someone please explain whether there is any higher significance of the convexity / concavity references throughtout the novel?

I enjoy the 'duck season/wabbit season'-ness of it all. I also enjoyed the additional chemistry references contained within this forum (relating to the shape of the top layer of a liquid inside a test tube - again underscoring this whole convex/concave themes).

At a stretch I can also imagine it has something to do with the different narrative voices contained within the novel (some scenes appear to be viewed through a convex or concave camera lense).

But am I missing something here....?

[apologies if this already appears somewhere else in the forums]

At a simplistic level, I think it has to do with the same thing being seen different ways, based on your viewpoint, which sort of ties in to Himself's interest in light and lenses. U.S. calls it the Concavity, Canada sees it as the Convexity. One sees it as a blessing, another a curse. Otis Lord sees the Eschaton rules one way, Pemulis another. You can either accept the AA cliches or reject them and return to your former hell "Out There". You can either "play the game" or "hide behind a mask", whatever form that mask takes.

_________________
"The truth will set you free. But not until it is finished with you." DFW

Himself is definitely caught up in the issue concavity/convexity raises about perspective. Meniscus films, one of the production companies he uses, suggests it pretty strongly; a meniscus can be either concave or convex. And while we talk about being on one side of the lens or the other, what about being trapped somewhere in the lens? That seems to be a consideration raised by the existence of a the concavity/convexity as a huge wasteland/overly fertile region. The distortions going on there are a thing a myth for most of the people in IJ, but there are some who've been inside...