"Notes on the State of Virginia" - Chapter 3
Deep Dives
Explore related topics with these Wikipedia articles, rewritten for enjoyable reading:
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Emmy Noether
15 min read
The fictional character shares her name with the pioneering mathematician Emmy Noether, who was also from Erlangen, Germany. This deliberate naming connects to the character's mathematics major and German origins, making the real Emmy Noether's groundbreaking contributions to abstract algebra and theoretical physics a rich contextual read.
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Lynah Rink
13 min read
The championship game takes place at Lynah Rink, Cornell's historic ice hockey arena known for its intense atmosphere and devoted fans. Understanding the venue's significance in college hockey culture adds depth to the story's setting.
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Wallace Stevens
14 min read
The chapter opens with an epigraph from Wallace Stevens' poem 'The Man with the Blue Guitar.' Stevens was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American modernist poet whose work explored imagination versus reality—themes that resonate with the story's literary ambitions.
We conclude the third and final week of PILCROW’s Inaugural Serialized Novel Contest. Soon, subscribers (both free and paid) will vote on a Winner to be fully serialized here on the Substack (Finalists are awarded $500; the Winner $1,000.)
Our Finalists for this round:
Seasons Clear, and Awe by Matthew Gasda
Mites by Gregory Freedman
Notes on the State of Virginia by Peter Pnin
We’re excited to have all of you as a part of this endeavor to forge a new path for fiction on Substack. If you believe in what we’re doing, please consider offering a paid subscription.
⚬─────────✧─────────⚬
I sing a hero’s head, large eye
And bearded bronze, but not a man…
From “The Man with the Blue Guitar” by Wallace Stevens
⚬─────────✧─────────⚬
—QUERY IV—
Sport
A Notice of a Disruption?
They were the top line on the Cornell women’s hockey team:
Cecilia Rubinstein: Left wing; 5’8” junior pre-med student from Montreal; Jewish; major: chemistry; truculent; good speed; ferocious work ethic; best defensive forward; voted best hair on team, 2016-17; shoots left; co-captain; uniform number 13.
Emmy Noether: Erlangen, Germany; club team: ESV Koenigsbrunn; member of Germany U-20 national team; sophomore mathematics major; center; superb hands; outstanding lateral movement; skilled deflector of puck; lover of Kurt Weill’s music; ECAC and Ivy League Rookie of the Year, 2016-17; shoots left; boyfriend plays for Boston University; uniform number 7.
Virginia Statusen: Senior; right wing; West Bloomfield, Michigan; major: astronomy; All-America second team, all-ECAC, and All-Ivy first teams, 2016-17; leading scorer ECAC 2016-17; excellent skater with quick acceleration and wit; tremendous vision and game instinct; shoots right; co-captain; uniform number 11.
On March 12, 2018, Dartmouth came to Ithaca to play Cornell at Lynah Rink for the ECAC hockey championship. The winner was assured entry into the NCAA tournament.
Emmy Noether was sick, weakened (people were told) by a misdiagnosed, lingering cold. She had skipped the morning skate and three days of practice. Now, at 5:00 p.m., two hours before game time, riven with fever and a scratchy, sore throat, she sat at her locker with a soccer ball between two stockinged feet.
Known as Oskar to teammates, Emmy was a lovely girl and she would remain lovely days later when her world would come crashing down on her. But ...
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