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JM on counterpoint and fugue structure in Goedel, Escher, Bach
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I recommend ( again) the book about self-referential sentences and worlds
( and a lot more) by Douglas Hofstadter: "Gödel, Escher, Bach: an eternal
golden braid". Although I couldn't follow many arguments, and didn't agree
with certain conclusions, I felt that, as a whole, it is a very rewarding
source of information and new links.
From Wikipedia: Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid (commonly GEB)
is a Pulitzer Prize-winning book by Douglas Hofstadter published in 1979 by
Basic Books... As the author states: "I realized that to me, Gödel and
Escher and Bach were only shadows cast in different directions by some
central solid essence. I tried to reconstruct the central object, and came
up with this book." The central theme of the book is more abstract.
Hofstadter asks: "Do words and thoughts follow formal rules, or do they
not?" In the preface to the twentieth-anniversary edition, Hofstadter
laments that his book has been misperceived as a hodge-podge of neat things
with no central theme. He stated: "GEB is a very personal attempt to say how
it is that animate beings can come out of inanimate matter. What is a self,
and how can a self come out of stuff that is as selfless as a stone or a
puddle?"
Gradus: During High-School I learned ( sort of) Latin in books with the
titles: "Gradus Primus", "Gradus Secundus..Tertius...Quartus.." No "Gradus
ad Parnassum" and counterpoint was available to us. I still remember the
opening sentences (Mmm, sort of): Omnia Galia divisa est in partes tres...
( Julius Cesar), perhaps Omnia Zembla, too?
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( and a lot more) by Douglas Hofstadter: "Gödel, Escher, Bach: an eternal
golden braid". Although I couldn't follow many arguments, and didn't agree
with certain conclusions, I felt that, as a whole, it is a very rewarding
source of information and new links.
From Wikipedia: Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid (commonly GEB)
is a Pulitzer Prize-winning book by Douglas Hofstadter published in 1979 by
Basic Books... As the author states: "I realized that to me, Gödel and
Escher and Bach were only shadows cast in different directions by some
central solid essence. I tried to reconstruct the central object, and came
up with this book." The central theme of the book is more abstract.
Hofstadter asks: "Do words and thoughts follow formal rules, or do they
not?" In the preface to the twentieth-anniversary edition, Hofstadter
laments that his book has been misperceived as a hodge-podge of neat things
with no central theme. He stated: "GEB is a very personal attempt to say how
it is that animate beings can come out of inanimate matter. What is a self,
and how can a self come out of stuff that is as selfless as a stone or a
puddle?"
Gradus: During High-School I learned ( sort of) Latin in books with the
titles: "Gradus Primus", "Gradus Secundus..Tertius...Quartus.." No "Gradus
ad Parnassum" and counterpoint was available to us. I still remember the
opening sentences (Mmm, sort of): Omnia Galia divisa est in partes tres...
( Julius Cesar), perhaps Omnia Zembla, too?
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm