Round 1, Division 4, Match 32 (Gödel, Escher, Bach, 11-1)

[mith]

15 - Cat's Cradle - Kurt Vonnegut
2 - Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid - Douglas R. Hofstadter

[Adrith]

I had to go with GEB just because it was such a wonderful book that encompassed so much and made my head hurt worse than any other book I have ever read.

[L'lanmal]

I can't say GEB:EGB made my head hurt, but it was quite interesting, and it's still the book I hope to see win it all. I loved reading it, it has the connection to the GL (and puzzles and lateral thinking in general) and I believe it is the last "non-fiction" book still alive (despite the Achilles/Tortoise/etc. portions being the really fun part). I read it 8-10 years ago, and still am reminded of it whenever I hear about coans or think about positive and negative space. The only match I've seen to its eclectic way of combining fiction and non-fiction only by one of those Asimov collections where he reprinted his science fiction short stories alternating with articles about the real science involved, and those books just weren't as good. Although some sections of GEB aren't as well-written or as in-depth as I would have hoped, they are about ideas that everyone should have thought about at least once, and serves as a survey of such thoughts. An unfortunately side effect: people who are least likely to read it will probably get the most out of it, while those that seek it out (such as myself) will be familiar with many of the topics, and unimpressed by those sections.

It owes some of its coolness to Escher's prints being so cool to begin with. I found it worth it just to look at those.

I'm rather disappointed it only has 8 votes so far... that doesn't bode well for the later rounds. Also it may be going up against A Civil Campaign next round, which is my other favorite book of the tournament: totally amusing for me and stylistically solid through and through. I might end up voting A Civil Campaign over GEB, but I don't think enough people have read A Civil Campaign to give it any chance of winning the whole thing, whereas GEB's distinctiveness compared to the rest of the field may give it a shot.

The other reason I'd like to see GEB win is that if I were to believe it was "the best book", it won't ruin an entire genre for me. If Ender's Game or Hitchhiker's Guide really were the best book, I'd think to myself, "Well, I've read the best sci-fi/fantasy book already; it's really sad if all the rest of them are worse than this; maybe I should just give up on the whole genre." As opposed to "I've read the best book about recursion in music, mathematics, and art presented through dialogues. Cool. **Goes off to look in the fiction section**."

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go talk to an ant-hill or something.

[extro...]

GEB is mediocre. The material discussed (works of Godel, Escher and Bach) is brilliant and interesting. Also interesting are the concepts of recursion, fractals, AI, and so much other bits and pieces that Hofstadter obsesses over. But the attempt to tie them all together fails miserably.