Algebra Theme Park

This is another bit of doodlyness from the Crazy Lizard archives, and may very possibly be the only drawing in existence to explore what would happen if the worlds of complex mathematics and horribly gaudy consumer entertainment were to unexpectedly merge together like an impetuous professor of physics and an irritating buzzing insect inside a funny pod thing. Hey, it could happen.

As I prepared to re-scan this little oddity, in order to provide a nice big version of the picture especially for my DA gallery, I suddenly realised that it's been almost a decade since I drew the thing. How time flies, eh? I came up with it at the end of March in 1998, after visiting an excellent friend who'd gone to study something or other to do with science at the University of Durham. Knowing that I've always been hopeless with maths, he thought it'd be funny to bring me along to a two-hour lecture on advanced algebra - and after roughly 30 minutes, my addled brain started rearranging all the little symbols into fairground rides. I couldn't stop thinking about it until I'd got the idea down on paper, and the resultant illustration is one I'm actually very fond of, although I remain at a loss as to where the whole fairground thing came from. And I still don't know what most of the symbols actually mean. How exactly *do* you multiply the letter R by something that looks like a wonky divining rod?