I Am a Strange Loop by Douglas Hofstadter- Publisher: Basic Books
- Year: 2008
- Pages: 436
- See the rest of this year’s listings
- What is 52 Books in 52 Weeks?
- №59
I was vaguely aware of Douglas Hofstadter by reputation: his reputed magnum opus, a dense 1970s work called Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Brain Braid, has been the subject of much praise and adulation. My brother, who read the work in question in the context of a college course, read and apparently enjoyed this new work by Hofstadter somewhere in the time surrounding the death of our father. It is from that recommendation that I picked the book up.
Before I started throwing adjectives or grades around, I should expand upon the context at play here: Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden BrainBraid was, if I may condense it thus, an exposition of Hofstadter’s thoughts on conscious and the nature of Self-with-a-capital-S. Despite the acclaim which this book earned him, Hofstadter was perturbed that much of his thesis was largely ignored or misunderstood, and so almost 30 years later comes this latest book about Self, and if I might guess1, I would wager that none of the imprecision or vagueness or…. opaqueness… has been resolved in that span.
- Please note, I have not read Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden
BrainBraid[↩]
