The Great Code: Some Remarks on “Π”

Dariusz Czaja

Abstract

Contrary to the title, Darren Aronofsky’s film is not a math movie. Despite clear cognitive ambitions and numerous references to mathematics and numbers, Π does not aspire to rivalry with academic mathematics. It is, however, an attempt to describe a dilemma of contempo­rary mentality in an extremely original way. We seem to think that we live in the times of an impatient expectation to crack a final code that we participate in the final act of a big drama of the revelation of the secrets of the world. We think that the act of a „great denouement” will follow in a minute. Dilemmas of contemporary search of science and popular mentality of the „final meaning” are intensely focused in the character of crazy number theorist Max Cohen. In many respects Cohen resembles a Faustian hero. While not rejecting this interpretation Czaja draws a detailed parallel between the maths genius and a geometrician from Kafka’s The Castle. Czaja states that the world as an epiphany is a response to the world as a code or a rebus to solve. The sense of reality we experience cannot be counted but it can be sometimes seen, through an ecstatic act of contemplation.