Gödel, Escher, Bach: An eternal golden braid, by Douglas Hofstadter, is a book I have read several times, and am now reading again. I first read it when it was published in 1979; someone gave it to my father, inscribed "A little light reading" and he gave it to me, it being more my type of thing than his.
I have always thought it would be good as a discussion book, to be read slowly and in cooperation with others. So, I am starting this series.
Whether you've read the book, want to read the book, or are just interested in a lot of interesting ideas, I hope you'll join me below the fold.
The first thing worth talking about in this book is the title and cover.
The title is, of course,
Gödel, Escher, Bach: an eternal golden braid. Already, some of the spirit of the book is evident. While most educated people have heard of Bach, and many have heard of Escher, I would guess that relatively few have heard of Gödel. Even if you've got some knowledge of each, what do a 18th century composer, a 20th century graphic artist, and a 20th century logician have in common? Did you notice that the initial letters of the each word are GEB an EGB?
The cover shows a rather mysteriously lit sculpture, whose shadows show GE and EGB.
The author Wikipedia page notes that he is 'An American academic' rather than citing a specific discipline. He got a BA in mathematics and a PhD in physics, but he's a professor of cognitive science, but was, earlier, a professor of computer science. Academic, indeed.
Next, we have the table of contents. Looking carefully, we see that there is an overview that runs from p. viii (or 8) to p. xiv (or 14). That seems like quite a long overview!
Then we see that the book is, rather normally, divided into parts and chapters. But the parts are oddly titled: GEB and EGB; and each chapter is subdivided into two parts, written in different fonts..... The Introduction has both Intoduction: A musico-logical offering and Three Part Invention. Then there's The MU puzzle and Threee part invention; Meaning and form in mathematics and onata for unaccompanied Achilles, and so on.
People familiar with Bach may recognize that "Musico-logical offering" is a play on one of Bach's great works: A Musical Offering and that the second parts of each chapter are either taken directly from titles of Bach's works (two part invention, three part invention) or are plays on the titles (sonata for unaccompanied Achilles - where Bach's work was Sonata for unaccompanied violin ..... chromatic fantasy and feud where Bach wrote chromatic fantasy and fugue).
This book is going to be odd! I hope you'll join me in exploring it.
In the comments today, I welcome thoughts on the book in general, the author, the contents, or the overview. Let's save the chapters for another diary (if there is one!)
Update [2008-12-25 17:33:7 by plf515]: OK, there seems to be some demand. I will try to post on Sundays.