Line #34 Literature/GodelEscherBachAnEternalGoldenBraid


1	[[quoteright:281:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/geb_egb.jpg]]
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3	''Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid'' by Douglas Hofstadter is an intricate and complex study of Strange Loops, MetaConcepts in general and their connection to self-awareness and intelligence. Each chapter is separated from the next by a short fictional piece in the style of Creator/LewisCarroll, which exemplifies the theme of the following chapter. The drawings of Creator/MCEscher and the Surrealist paintings of Creator/ReneMagritte are used as illustrations.
4
5	Mathematical, logical and computer-science concepts discussed in this book include:
6	* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gödel%27s_incompleteness_theorems Gödel's incompleteness theorem]]
7	* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epimenides_paradox The Epimenides paradox]]
8	* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeno%27s_paradoxes Zeno's paradoxes]]
9	* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euclid%27s_theorem Euclid's Theorem]]
10	* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-Euclidean_geometry Non-Euclidean geometry]]
11	* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recursion Recursion]]
12	* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stack_(abstract_data_type) Stacks]]
13	* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propositional_calculus Propositional Calculus]]
14	* UsefulNotes/FermatsLastTheorem
15	* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quine_(computing) Quines]]
16	* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church%E2%80%93Turing_thesis The Church-Turing Thesis]]
17	* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cantor%27s_diagonal_argument Cantor's diagonal method]]
18	* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldbach%27s_conjecture Goldbach's conjecture]]
19
20	----
21	!!The Dialogues contain examples of:
22	* [[AllThereInTheManual All There in the Index]]: For example, to find where the true end of ''Aria with Diverse Variations'' is, search for 'typos'.
23	* ArcWords: "RICERCAR".
24	* ArtificialIntelligence: Discussed.
25	* AuthorAvatar: In the final dialogue, the characters figure out that they're fictional characters in a dialogue, and the author, Douglas Hofstadter, himself appears in the dialogue and talks about the book he's writing — the very same book the dialogue is included in.
26	* BreatherEpisode: The interlude "English French German Suite", consisting of Lewis Carroll's poem "Literature/{{Jabberwocky}}" in three languages, taking place between two chapters of theories on how the human mind works.
27	* CulturalTranslation: Several have been approved by the author.
28	* ADogNamedDog: The book features characters named Tortoise, Crab, and Anteater who are [[TalkingAnimal talking versions]] of the animal of their name.
29	* DoorStopper: This book has well over 700 pages.
30	* {{Foreshadowing}}: Looking at the semantic network on page 370 reveals a lot about the latter half of the book.
31	* FunWithAcronyms:
32	** The chapter "Contracrostipunctus", which contains an acrostic which itself contains an acrostic.
33	** RICERCAR and CEGABBAB ("Babbage, C(harles)" backwards) show up in the last chapter.
34	* GoldSilverCopperStandard: ... Well, okay, not really. But the words "Copper", "silver", and "gold" appear (in that order) in several places.
35	* GratuitousForeignLanguage: French and Latin are frequently used in this manner.
36	* HarassingPhoneCall: Achilles begins the dialogue "Air on G's String" by telling the Tortoise about an obscene phone call he received in which the caller merely shouted twice before hanging up, "Yields falsehood when preceded by its quotation!" When the Tortoise teaches him about quines, he realizes that the caller was stating a logical paradox.
37	* HereWeGoAgain: The ending, which also [[spoiler:makes the entire book into a FramingDevice for itself]].
38	* HiddenInPlainSight: The answers to the puzzles in "Sonata for An Unaccompanied Achilles." Not only [[spoiler:is the answer explicitly used in the text]], it is also [[spoiler: the two puzzles ''make up the entire word'']].
39	* InNameOnly: By the author's own admission (in the Overview), the dialogue "Chromatic Fantasy, And Feud" bears "hardly any resemblance, except in title, to Bach's ''Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue''."
40	%%* InstructionalDialogue
41	* {{Koan}}: On a whole bunch of baffling ones.
42	* LeaningOnTheFourthWall: In the final dialogue "Six-part Ricercar" the characters suspect their world could be fictional in a dialogue before they are absolutely sure of that.
43	* LogicBomb: The book shows how Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem does this to mathematics.
44	* {{Metafiction}}: Some stories are so extremely meta that they have no content other than discussions of themselves discussing themselves discussing themselves ad infinitum, usually indirectly.
45	* MindScrew: Many of the Dialogues and accompanying illustrations do this in one way or another. Indeed, the entire book is deliberately written to screw with the reader's perception of reality, using a blend of mathematics and Zen philosophy.
46	* MusicalThemeNaming: Every dialogue is named after a piece by Music/JohannSebastianBach, or a pun on one.
47	* NestedStory: "Little Harmonic Labyrinth", which [[spoiler:[[ForgottenFramingDevice actually ends while still one level "down"]]]].
48	* NestedStoryReveal: The Subjunc-TV dialogue is All Just A Hypothetical Situation.
49	* NewhartPhoneCall: the "Sonata for An Unaccompanied Achilles".
50	* OurGeniesAreDifferent:
51	** In the dialogue "Little Harmonic Labyrinth," Genies are allowed to grant wishes, but not wishes about wishes, which are known as meta-wishes. Meta-Genies (who come from Meta-Lamps) are allowed to grant meta-wishes, but not wishes about meta-wishes, which are within the authority of Meta-Meta-Genies. The word "Djinn" is generically used to designate Genies, Meta-Genies, Meta-Meta-Genies, and all others in {{GOD}} (which [[RecursiveAcronym stands for "GOD Over Djinn"]]).
52	** In the chapter "Typographical Number Theory," "djinn" is an undefined term used in place of "natural number" in setting out the five [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peano_axioms Peano postulates]], with "genie" taking the place of zero.
53	%%* PaintingTheMedium
54	* PortalPicture: In "Little Harmonic Labyrinth," the lower levels of stories are entered by entering pictures by drinking pushing potions.
55	* PublicDomainCharacter: Achilles and the Tortoise, from the Greek philosopher Zeno (who also himself appears).
56	* PunnyName: The coppers Silva and Gould, as well as the ant collective Aunt Hillary.
57	* RecursiveAcronym: "GOD" in "Little Harmonic Labyrinth" (short for "GOD Over Djinn").
58	* RecursiveReality. In so many ways.
59	* RunningGag:
60	** This dialogue, repeated, at least, some variation of, thrice; on pages 62, 200, and 724.
61	-->'''Achilles''': Say, don't you play the guitar?\
62	'''Tortoise''': Fiddle. It makes a big difference, you know.\
63	'''Achilles''': Oh, well, it's all the same to me.
64	** Also, in page 731 each of the characters (Babbage, Crab, Tortoise, Achilles, and the Author respectively) say "The grounds are excellent!" at the beginning of each line followed by Achilles saying "Yes, I know. One even might say the grounds were excellent."
65	* SchrodingersButterfly: The book uses several of these, nesting several layers of drama. In the dialogue "Little Harmonic Labyrinth," Achilles and the Tortoise are on an airship and start reading a book about themselves. The bad news is that the story doesn't "pop back" all the way to the last level, and the initial story is still left hanging. The good news is that the Tortoise and Achilles can move up to a previous level using popcorn.
66	* ShesAManInJapan: The Tortoise is referred to as male in the original, but the French word for tortoise is the feminine ''tortue''. Hofstadter, who is interested in the phenomenon of unconscious sexism in language, was delighted when this was pointed out, and gave the French translators the go-ahead to make the Tortoise a female character.
67	* SelfDeprecation: A book about "metal-logic", called ''Copper, Silver, Gold: an Indestructible Metallic Alloy'' is mentioned in the dialogues. The Crab says that it's "filled with strange Dialogues about many subjects, including molecular biology, fugues, Zen Buddhism, and heaven knows what else." Achilles responds that "probably some crackpot wrote it". The book is also listed in the bibliography, where it's called "a formidable hodge-podge, turgid and confused". Indeed very little praise is given to its author, Egbert B. Gebstadter.
68	* SelfFulfillingProphecy: Commented on if a psychic who could determine the minds of other people was allowed to choose his or her jury if accused.
69	* ShapedLikeItself: "Church-Turing Thesis, Tautological Version: Mathematics problems can be solved only by doing mathematics."
70	* SickEpisode: "Sonata for Unaccompanied Achilles," a dialogue for one in which Achilles is telephoned by the Tortoise, who is apparently suffering from a headache. (The readers only get Achilles' side of the conversation.)
71	* SignificantAnagram: [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Winograd Terry Winograd]], author of SHRDLU, becomes "Dr. Tony Earrwig" in the dialogue "SHRDLU, Toy of Man's Designing."
72	* SpoiledByTheFormat: The Tortoise and Achilles discuss using {{Filler}} to counteract this problem. [[invoked]]
73	%%* StealthPun
74	* SubvertedRhymeEveryOccasion: In one of the dialogues, the Crab puts on a record of himself singing "A Song Without Time or Season." Here's how it goes:
75	-->A turner of phrases quite pleasin',\
76	Had a penchant for trick'ry and teasin'.\
77	In his songs, the last line\
78	Might seem sans design;\
79	What I mean is, without why or wherefore.
80	** This is [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] almost immediately:
81	--->'''Achilles''': Lovely! Only I'm puzzled by one thing. It seems to me that in your song, the last line is--\
82	'''Crab''': Sans design?\
83	'''Achilles''': No ... What I mean is, without rhyme or reason.
84	* TextbookHumor: Well, the text wasn't all that serious to begin with, but you have to wonder when Hofstadter describes the DNA of a feline as CATCATCATCATCAT...
85	* TitleDrop: In the form of BookEnds.
86	* ToBeContinued: The two Dialogues Prelude... and ... Ant Fugue are, well, two sections of a separated story. The end of the former ends with [=TTortoise=], while the latter begins with Achilles and [=CCrab=], using "ATTACCA" [[note]]in music, an instruction meaning "continue straight on without a break"[[/note]] as a guide.
87	* TheTreacheryOfImages: Subverted--one character takes the pipe out of the Magritte painting and smokes it.
88	* TuringTest: Parodied in the final chapter, where Alan Turing and Charles Babbage each try to prove that the other is a computer invented by them. Turing insists on calling it a "Babbage test."
89	%%* VariantChess
90	* ViewersAreGeniuses: The dialogues, especially, conceal mathematical jokes that aren't explained in the text. For example, in a spoof of UsefulNotes/FermatsLastTheorem, the Tortoise claims to have found a counterexample in which the exponent ''n'' is "the only positive integer which does not occur anywhere in the continued fraction for pi". Mathematically inclined readers will know that, while the famous constants ''e'' and sqrt(2) have highly patterned continued fractions, that for pi is quasi-random, so the Tortoise's claim is of no help at all in finding the value of ''n''.
91	* YourPrincessIsInAnotherCastle: A unique version of a fake ending which takes place ''after'' the actual ending.

Context Literature / GodelEscherBachAnEternalGoldenBraid