a thoughtful web.
Good ideas and conversation. No ads, no tracking.   Login or Take a Tour!
comment by Devac
Devac  ·  759 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: The King of Elfland's Daughter

    And who starts a sentence with a conjunction anyway?

So, Douglas Hofstadter comes to mind.





Cedar  ·  759 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Can't say I'm familiar but I did look him up. I don't really mind it. It was just something hammered home in every English and writing class I ever took.

Devac  ·  759 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I only read his Gödel, Escher, Bach (often referred simply as GEB). His style can be annoying, conjunctions are one of the more apparent traits. [And,] if GEB intrigued you, leaf through but don't buy into the hype: Hofstadter's true accomplishment is inspiring countless people to talk about aspects of GEB with half the vocab and tenth of pretentiousness.

goobster  ·  758 days ago  ·  link  ·  

GEB was a hard read. I got it the day it came out and slogged through it. Not sure any of it stuck.

But I never managed to get through "The Quark and the Jaguar" by Murray Gell-Mann.

Devac  ·  758 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    But I never managed to get through "The Quark and the Jaguar" by Murray Gell-Mann.

I'll give it a look when I'm done this week, but everyone's difficult book is different. Sapiens didn't take me six hours, the stupid-long 140 pages of Piketty's preface took me a month followed by not giving enough of a shit to finish the book.

kleinbl00  ·  758 days ago  ·  link  ·