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A review by bf777
Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas R. Hofstadter
5.0
I started reading GEB in high school. I began the book with an open mind, fascinated by the clever dialogues that brilliantly expose the abstractions discussed in the text. With time, though, I began to struggle through the MU problems, the Gödelian mathematics that dominate the first part of the book. At times, I had to put the book down and focus on other work. I tried to return to GEB when I could; and yet, soon, high school passed me by and then nearly all of my undergraduate degree zipped by before I picked up GEB seriously once again. I was certainly not the same person that I was when I started the book. Now, the subtleties of the dialogues of Achilles, the Tortoise, and their friends became clearer to me; I was more readily able to wrap my head around the Gödel problems; and Hofstadter's arguments began to weave themselves together (well, Hofstadter was the ultimate creator of this weave, but the notion of these arguments "weaving themselves together" goes with the spirit of the book).
Perhaps more than any other book I've read, this book made me ponder. Hofstadter draws brilliant connections in a mathematically rigourous fashion, while dropping in sometimes mind-bending links among disparate fields and clever linguistic structures alike. Moreover, this book meshes extraordinarily well with the works of art it discusses, at times emulating and improvising upon them such that it becomes - as many of the pieces discussed within it - a meta-commentary on itself, as well as a broader commentary of the incredible patterns that we may find in the world around us.
You may expect that with my opening statements about my years-long journey in reading this book that I would find some sort of parallel between this book and my life. Alas, I cannot make any such comparison (although it would certainly be elegant to do so). However, I will say that this incredible work has helped me approach the world with a keener eye; with a deeper appreciation for the role of mathematics in the arts and vice versa; and with an admiration for Bach's Musical Offering (if possible, I strongly recommend listening to the Bach and Cage pieces mentioned in the book as you read it - it makes for quite an inspiring experience).
I have never taken longer to finish a book than GEB. And yet, this book is so fascinating, so worthy of taking time to contemplate the words you've just read, that it almost seems appropriate that it should have taken me so many years to finish this book.
Perhaps more than any other book I've read, this book made me ponder. Hofstadter draws brilliant connections in a mathematically rigourous fashion, while dropping in sometimes mind-bending links among disparate fields and clever linguistic structures alike. Moreover, this book meshes extraordinarily well with the works of art it discusses, at times emulating and improvising upon them such that it becomes - as many of the pieces discussed within it - a meta-commentary on itself, as well as a broader commentary of the incredible patterns that we may find in the world around us.
You may expect that with my opening statements about my years-long journey in reading this book that I would find some sort of parallel between this book and my life. Alas, I cannot make any such comparison (although it would certainly be elegant to do so). However, I will say that this incredible work has helped me approach the world with a keener eye; with a deeper appreciation for the role of mathematics in the arts and vice versa; and with an admiration for Bach's Musical Offering (if possible, I strongly recommend listening to the Bach and Cage pieces mentioned in the book as you read it - it makes for quite an inspiring experience).
I have never taken longer to finish a book than GEB. And yet, this book is so fascinating, so worthy of taking time to contemplate the words you've just read, that it almost seems appropriate that it should have taken me so many years to finish this book.