Synchronicity: I just finished reading the book for the first-ever time. Oddly, its a fast read. It is more than 1,400 pages long but you zip through 25 pages in no time. This is partly because Hugo takes 25 pages to do what other authors do on one page.
If the book said why he assigned that number, I didn’t remember it.
I do know that many people think the book takes place during the French Revolution which is like thinking “Casablanca” takes place during World War I.
I mean the French Revolution of 1789 of course. You learn in the book that there were lots of French Revolutions.
My first idea was that it might be a prime number, but when I looked up 24601, I first discovered that it can be factored (73 × 337), but then that the first paragraph of the Wikipedia article explains the connection to Hugo. Oops.
P.S. The guess by ItsJustMe is very close to the right answer.
Little-known fact: he didn’t do so in his first 24,600 rough drafts of the novel, but he kept on tinkering until he got a number that felt “right” to him.
Alternate explanation: his secret powers of precognition told them that Hugo Gernsback was eventually going to be pissed if 124C41+ had already been spoken for, and as a fellow Hugo, Victor decided to be a nice guy about it.
I remember when my son saw Preparation H mentioned in a movie and asked me what it was. And then we had quite the discussion about what must have been horribly wrong with Preparations A through G.
Shrug: 4th Street Rag, 10th Street Rag and 11th Street Rag were not successful for Euday Bowman, but 12th Street Rag made the big time. Absolutely true; you can look it up.
@ Anne – I had never heard of that explanation for the “40” before, but the search I thought was going to be a wild goose chase produced confirmation almost immediately, from everybody’s favorite “authoritative” source (Wikipedia).
Comics I Don't Understand 
24600 was already taken.
LikeLike
Because 2+4 = 6 and 01 is what you get when the odometer clears a hundred block.
LikeLike
Victor’s European birthday?
LikeLike
It was his zip code? He needed something that rhymed really good in English for the inevitable musical?
LikeLike
Synchronicity: I just finished reading the book for the first-ever time. Oddly, its a fast read. It is more than 1,400 pages long but you zip through 25 pages in no time. This is partly because Hugo takes 25 pages to do what other authors do on one page.
If the book said why he assigned that number, I didn’t remember it.
I do know that many people think the book takes place during the French Revolution which is like thinking “Casablanca” takes place during World War I.
I mean the French Revolution of 1789 of course. You learn in the book that there were lots of French Revolutions.
LikeLike
Its Justme came closest: Hugo calculated he was conceived on June 24, 1801.
LikeLike
My first idea was that it might be a prime number, but when I looked up 24601, I first discovered that it can be factored (73 × 337), but then that the first paragraph of the Wikipedia article explains the connection to Hugo. Oops.
P.S. The guess by ItsJustMe is very close to the right answer.
LikeLike
P.S. Double oops: I forgot to refresh the page before posting that comment, after reading why 24601 is a hyperperfect number.
LikeLike
For the same reason Ivan Denisovich was assigned number S854: he was given that number by the author-ities.
LikeLike
Because it fit the rhyme scheme of “Look Down”?
LikeLike
Little-known fact: he didn’t do so in his first 24,600 rough drafts of the novel, but he kept on tinkering until he got a number that felt “right” to him.
Alternate explanation: his secret powers of precognition told them that Hugo Gernsback was eventually going to be pissed if 124C41+ had already been spoken for, and as a fellow Hugo, Victor decided to be a nice guy about it.
LikeLike
I remember when my son saw Preparation H mentioned in a movie and asked me what it was. And then we had quite the discussion about what must have been horribly wrong with Preparations A through G.
(He was 10. I had no excuse)
LikeLike
The soft drink company also had a lot of failures before their big success. Anybody remember 1-Up, 2-Up, 3-Up, 4-Up, 5-Up, or 6-Up?
LikeLike
FBS: I was gonna say ZIP code!
LikeLike
Shrug: 4th Street Rag, 10th Street Rag and 11th Street Rag were not successful for Euday Bowman, but 12th Street Rag made the big time. Absolutely true; you can look it up.
LikeLike
I heard that Chanel No. 4 was outlawed because the smell could kill people from ten feet way.
LikeLike
And there’s the infamous 58th Street Bridge (Feeling Grumpy).
LikeLike
Regarding Preparation H–I guess we all know that WD-40 was the true success after WD (Water Displacement) 1 through 39 (which all failed).
LikeLike
@ Anne – I had never heard of that explanation for the “40” before, but the search I thought was going to be a wild goose chase produced confirmation almost immediately, from everybody’s favorite “authoritative” source (Wikipedia).
LikeLike
And C-4 (explosive) is “Compound 4”, after C-2 and C-3 (and, I guess, just C).
LikeLike
What about Love Potions Numbers 1 through 8?
LikeLike
Why didn’t your first 18 nervous breakdowns work?
LikeLike
And, of course, everybody knows the story of Catch-18.
LikeLike
JP, I do, at least. Those that don’t should know that, unlike many of the posts leading up to it, Catch-18 isn’t a joke.
LikeLike
There was only one catch, and it was Catch-18. At least, until the editors got ahold of it.
LikeLike