Polly Shulman writes, in a review of “Everything and More: A Compact History of Infinity” by David Foster Wallace (originally on Salon but received by me via Powell’s Review-A-Day listserv):
The greatest thrill I remember from my girlhood — better than my first kiss, first airplane flight, first taste of mango, first circuit around the ice rink without clinging to a grown-up’s sleeve — was the heart-lifting moment when I first understood Georg Cantor’s Diagonal Proof of the nondenumerability of the real numbers.
Choke. Cough.
What? That’s a GREAT proof! I’ve always prefered Gödel’s proof of his incompleteness theorem myself, but probably because it’s just so subversive in nature … or was that not your point?
I’m sure it’s one of your favorite girlhood memories as well, then. ;)
Absolutely!