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Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid, by Douglas HofstadterOver the course of several years, this book was recommended to me by three friends and another book before I eventually bought it. It's awesome. Full of puns and self-reference, which is no accident; self-reference is one of the main themes. There are enough people singing its praises that I needn't do so here.
I read it for the first time before, during, and after my move to Geneva, while I was hastily trying to learn some French. Hofstadter mentions in the foreword of the 20th anniversary edition that he really loves the French language, and he spent a lot of effort making sure that all the translations of the book keep the same hidden puns etc. that the original has. So I thought it would be interesting, once my French was good enough, to get the translation and see if I could spot the wordplay. It's one of those books that can stand to be read many times without losing its interest, but I thought rereading it in French would make it even more interesting. I couldn't find it in any bookshops and it was ridiculously expensive on Amazon, so I put it off.
Naturally, as a budding French learner, I was also interested in reading his book Le Ton beau de Marot, which I eventually managed to find a copy of. Le Ton Beau de Marot has several passages discussing the translation of GEB, even specifically mentioning parts of the French version, so at that point I couldn't resist ordering the French GEB from Amazon. I've only read a few passages so far, comparing them to the English, but it's an amazing experience.This page has been accessed  times since 2024-04-28 08:15:42 Last updated: 2007-09-08 23:53:01
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