Janna Levin

A madman dreams of Turing machines

Kurt Godel and Alan Turing were two of the most prominent mathematicians of the twentieth century, but their desire for privacy means that it is hard for a biography to tell what they were really like. Janna Levin solves this problem by making clear that much of what she is writing is fiction. In A madman dreams of Turing machines she tells their stories.

Thus we hear of Turing's troubled life at school, at of Gödel's entry into the Vienna Circle, and of how well his ideas were accepted. The book goes on to tell of Turing's vital work during the World War II in decoding the Enigma machine code, and of the problems he faced due to his homosexuality, eventually resulting in his suicide. We find out about how Gödel's paranoia meant that it took great effort from his wife Adele to get him to eat anything, and how when she becomes too ill to feed him he gradually starves himself to death.

So how well does the fictional account work? I liked the way that Levin combined her own musings about the nature of reality with those of her partially fictional characters. Unfortunately I felt that this was overshadowed by more of the book being about the lives of two misfits - I wasn't so keen on this. Certainly if you want to find out a bit about Gödel and Turing's lives without having to plough through lots of maybe's then I would say that this book is close enough to reality to be worth reading.

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Paperback 240 pages
ISBN: 1400032407
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Published: 2007 Anchor

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ISBN: 1400032407
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Published: 2007 Anchor Books

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Paperback 240 pages
ISBN: 1400032407
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Published: 2007 Anchor

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Product Description
Kurt Gödel’s Incompleteness Theorems sent shivers through Vienna’s intellectual circles and directly challenged Ludwig Wittgenstein’s dominant philosophy. Alan Turing’s mathematical genius helped him break the Nazi Enigma Code during WWII. Though they never met, their lives strangely mirrored one another—both were brilliant, and both met with tragic ends. Here, a mysterious narrator intertwines these parallel lives into a double helix of genius and anguish, wonderfully capturing not only two radiant, fragile minds but also the zeitgeist of the era.

Product Description

Kurt Gödel’s Incompleteness Theorems sent shivers through Vienna’s intellectual circles and directly challenged Ludwig Wittgenstein’s dominant philosophy. Alan Turing’s mathematical genius helped him break the Nazi Enigma Code during WWII. Though they never met, their lives strangely mirrored one another—both were brilliant, and both met with tragic ends. Here, a mysterious narrator intertwines these parallel lives into a double helix of genius and anguish, wonderfully capturing not only two radiant, fragile minds but also the zeitgeist of the era.

So totally poeticalful and stuff *
This book is terrible. The writing is unbearable. Levin's attempts at poetry and depth quickly become confusing, overwrought and annoying. I think I hated this book so much because it reminds me of the kind of literary fart I had in high school. Somewhere in the middle the writing style shifts to a more straight-forward prose and the book becomes more tolerable. However, by that point I had spent about 100 pages rolling my eyes and wanting to throw the pages out the window so even this positive change couldn't win my favor. The writing style, the odd narrative choices (yes, we all see that you wrote this book, congratulations, now get the hell OUT of it), and the unique grammar worked together to completely block out the dramatic power of Turing's and Goedel's lives. For all the attempts at poetry and humanity, no story was told. Facts, people and places were scattered around like so much vapor being snorted in the middle of a circle at the conclusion of a talentless writing infection. Sigh.

So totally poeticalful and stuff *

This book is terrible. The writing is unbearable. Levin's attempts at poetry and depth quickly become confusing, overwrought and annoying. I think I hated this book so much because it reminds me of the kind of literary fart I had in high school.

Somewhere in the middle the writing style shifts to a more straight-forward prose and the book becomes more tolerable. However, by that point I had spent about 100 pages rolling my eyes and wanting to throw the pages out the window so even this positive change couldn't win my favor. The writing style, the odd narrative choices (yes, we all see that you wrote this book, congratulations, now get the hell OUT of it), and the *unique* grammar worked together to completely block out the dramatic power of Turing's and Goedel's lives. For all the attempts at poetry and humanity, no story was told. Facts, people and places were scattered around like so much vapor being snorted in the middle of a circle at the conclusion of a talentless writing infection. Sigh.

The Thin Line Between Genius and Madness ****
A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines Alan Turing, Kurt Gödel, and the Dawn of the Computer Age Kurt Gödel and Alan Turing were, respectively, leaders in logical theory and artificial intelligence. Both were high and early achievers, and both had self-destructive tendencies that ended their careers and lives prematurely. Turing spent The war years at Britain's fabled Bletchley Park, working with other mathematical geniuses to break the seemingly unbreakable "Enigma" codes. In the process, he assembled a precursor of the modern computer, a tube-powered giant called Colossus. But his crowning achievement was the development of the theory of computability of numbers, and the formulation of "The Turing Machine" that incorporated elements of today's random access memory, storage, and universally applicable "instructions", or programs. Gödel first put forward what came to be known as "Godel's Theorem," which posited that in certain formal systems, there exist certain propositions that cannot be proved or disproved using the axioms of that system. In later years, he emigrated to the United States, where he worked with Albert Einstein at the Institute for Advanced Studies at Princeton. In "A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines," Janna Levin has undertaken a fictional approach to the lives of these two men who, although they never met, were contemporaries. Levin traces the lives of both through their early education, obvious precociousness, and difficulty in relating to other people. For Turing, his difficulty was sexual: as a teenager, he became infatuated with another boy, Christopher Morcom, who died of tuberculosis. "Chris is Alan's first, greatest, purest, entirely unrequited love," Levin writes, and for the rest of his short life Turing tried to recapture that youthful, platonic, affair. Godel was another story: he was likely obsessive-compulsive, had an irrational fear of being poisoned, and became anorexic. He weighed just 65 pounds when he died of malnutrition - he starved himself to death. Turing, unable to get a security clearance for government contracts because of his homosexuality, committed suicide in 1954. Levin does an excellent job of exploring the lives of these two talented, tortured men. Her writing is crisp, clear and evocative,and her concept original and creative. Suggestions for Further Reading The Man Who Knew Too Much: Alan Turing and the Invention of the Computer (Great Discoveries) Alan Turing: The Enigma Machines and Thought: The Legacy of Alan Turing, Volume I

The Thin Line Between Genius and Madness ****

A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines

Alan Turing, Kurt Gödel, and the Dawn of the Computer Age

Kurt Gödel and Alan Turing were, respectively, leaders in logical theory and artificial intelligence. Both were high and early achievers, and both had self-destructive tendencies that ended their careers and lives prematurely. Turing spent
The war years at Britain's fabled Bletchley Park, working with other mathematical geniuses to break the seemingly unbreakable "Enigma" codes. In the process, he assembled a precursor of the modern computer, a tube-powered giant called Colossus. But his crowning achievement was the development of the theory of computability of numbers, and the formulation of "The Turing Machine" that incorporated elements of today's random access memory, storage, and universally applicable "instructions", or programs.

Gödel first put forward what came to be known as "Godel's Theorem," which posited that in certain formal systems, there exist certain propositions that cannot be proved or disproved using the axioms of that system. In later years, he emigrated to the United States, where he worked with Albert Einstein at the Institute for Advanced Studies at Princeton.

In "A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines," Janna Levin has undertaken a fictional approach to the lives of these two men who, although they never met, were contemporaries. Levin traces the lives of both through their early education, obvious precociousness, and difficulty in relating to other people. For Turing, his difficulty was sexual: as a teenager, he became infatuated with another boy, Christopher Morcom, who died of tuberculosis.
"Chris is Alan's first, greatest, purest, entirely unrequited love," Levin writes, and for the rest of his short life Turing tried to recapture that youthful, platonic, affair.
Godel was another story: he was likely obsessive-compulsive, had an irrational fear of being poisoned, and became anorexic. He weighed just 65 pounds when he died of malnutrition - he starved himself to death. Turing, unable to get a security clearance for government contracts because of his homosexuality, committed suicide in 1954.
Levin does an excellent job of exploring the lives of these two talented, tortured men. Her writing is crisp, clear and evocative,and her concept original and creative.

Suggestions for Further Reading
The Man Who Knew Too Much: Alan Turing and the Invention of the Computer (Great Discoveries)
Alan Turing: The Enigma
Machines and Thought: The Legacy of Alan Turing, Volume I

fair play must be given to the machine ***
If the mention of Turing machines in the title of a novel caught your eye, chances are you've at least passing familiarity with Turing and his importance to the fields of computing theory and artificial intelligence. One reason I work in the field of computing is I'm fascinated by the idea of giving the illusion of intelligence - and as Turing points out, if that's successful enough to convince a human, how can we call it an illusion when that's the only standard by which we judge each other? I've applied the idea not only to programming but to life - I don't consider myself a highly intelligent person but I use what I have to convince people I am intelligent when I need to. It's like.. let's say you have a job interview that requires some specialized knowledge and you prep as much as you can the day before. Now you luck out because the interviewer asks you a finite number of questions and you can parrot or improvise just enough to make him believe you know the subject. You know as much as he asked and you explained it to his satisfaction in your own words. You walk away from the interview thinking maybe you do "understand" it - at least to his satisfaction. Similarly if a machine is intelligent enough to fool a human, how else are we to judge its intelligence? But as other reviewers have pointed out, this book is more about the emotional life of Godel and Turing than an exposition of their interrelated ideas. Turing's importance to computing and to breaking German cyphers during World War 2 and Godel's importance to maths and the idea of undecidability are almost a footnote to the attempt to capture how it all felt to them - most every other book on either of these guys does it the other way around, and the author is clear from the beginning about where she wants to focus. It's a legitimate goal and a worthy read.

fair play must be given to the machine ***

If the mention of Turing machines in the title of a novel caught your eye, chances are you've at least passing familiarity with Turing and his importance to the fields of computing theory and artificial intelligence.

One reason I work in the field of computing is I'm fascinated by the idea of giving the illusion of intelligence - and as Turing points out, if that's successful enough to convince a human, how can we call it an illusion when that's the only standard by which we judge each other?

I've applied the idea not only to programming but to life - I don't consider myself a highly intelligent person but I use what I have to convince people I am intelligent when I need to.

It's like.. let's say you have a job interview that requires some specialized knowledge and you prep as much as you can the day before. Now you luck out because the interviewer asks you a finite number of questions and you can parrot or improvise just enough to make him believe you know the subject. You know as much as he asked and you explained it to his satisfaction in your own words. You walk away from the interview thinking maybe you do "understand" it - at least to his satisfaction. Similarly if a machine is intelligent enough to fool a human, how else are we to judge its intelligence?

But as other reviewers have pointed out, this book is more about the emotional life of Godel and Turing than an exposition of their interrelated ideas. Turing's importance to computing and to breaking German cyphers during World War 2 and Godel's importance to maths and the idea of undecidability are almost a footnote to the attempt to capture how it all felt to them - most every other book on either of these guys does it the other way around, and the author is clear from the beginning about where she wants to focus.

It's a legitimate goal and a worthy read.

I dreamed of one day finishing it **
But I just couldn't! Sorry, Jenna, I just couldn't get into it. I loved the premise, and I'm fascinated with both main characters (as well as the mathematics involved), but I found it far too self-indulgent. I wanted to be a part of it, but I didn't feel Jenna was able to let me in.

I dreamed of one day finishing it **

But I just couldn't! Sorry, Jenna, I just couldn't get into it. I loved the premise, and I'm fascinated with both main characters (as well as the mathematics involved), but I found it far too self-indulgent. I wanted to be a part of it, but I didn't feel Jenna was able to let me in.

A Bad Start That Becomes An Amazing Read ***
Although Levin is an amazing physicist, her first foray into the world of literary fiction is, on first read, not so amazing. That said, the subject matter of her novel is more than fascinating and so, the fact that her storytelling and craftsmanship as a writer is more than lacking at the beginning of the book, the story sells itself as a tour de force in its fictionalization of the lives of two geniuses who struggle with a deep awkwardness with life. At the beginning of the book the prose is almost a torture to read: some times overwrought, 'While they continue to play an anomalously quiet game, the pit of dread is jostled and falls deep into the fertile gastrointestinal soil where it begins its life cycle. Will it fester as an ulcer, or blossom into rancid abnormal cells? That depends on how each chooses to tend that messy garden'; and at other times over the top, 'The iron frame of Kurt's bed was a brutal conductor of the chill singeing his hand so sharply as he hoisted himself awake this morning that it might as well have left a burn, and the cloud of condensation that escaped from his damp mouth could have been smoke'. The narration changes from past tense to present tense in the same paragraph! While her prose changes drastically for the better midway through the book, this irritating tendency to write a single scene as happening in the past as well as in the present continues unabated. But, amazingly, halfway into the book it seems as if another Levin is writing the book. A Levin who is confident in her craft and skilled in turning a single moment of the story into a soaring monument of poetry. What happened! Whatever happened it happened for the better. Levin takes command of her themes and infuses them into poetic states throughout the character's events. The most striking example of the preceding can be found on pages 138-9. Levin takes an ambitious but dangerous chance at explaining the event that informs a young Wittgenstein's philosophy. While she humbly admits that this something of Wittgenstein is the unspeakable that 'we must pass over in silence' from his Tractatus, she dares to speak to that silence and she actually makes it reveal itself to the reader. The moments like that in the story pay of with dividends which have the effect of apologizing for the early writing of an amateur.

A Bad Start That Becomes An Amazing Read ***

Although Levin is an amazing physicist, her first foray into the world of literary fiction is, on first read, not so amazing. That said, the subject matter of her novel is more than fascinating and so, the fact that her storytelling and craftsmanship as a writer is more than lacking at the beginning of the book, the story sells itself as a tour de force in its fictionalization of the lives of two geniuses who struggle with a deep awkwardness with life.
At the beginning of the book the prose is almost a torture to read: some times overwrought,
'While they continue to play an anomalously quiet game, the pit of dread is jostled and falls deep into the fertile gastrointestinal soil where it begins its life cycle. Will it fester as an ulcer, or blossom into rancid abnormal cells? That depends on how each chooses to tend that messy garden';
and at other times over the top,
'The iron frame of Kurt's bed was a brutal conductor of the chill singeing his hand so sharply as he hoisted himself awake this morning that it might as well have left a burn, and the cloud of condensation that escaped from his damp mouth could have been smoke'.
The narration changes from past tense to present tense in the same paragraph! While her prose changes drastically for the better midway through the book, this irritating tendency to write a single scene as happening in the past as well as in the present continues unabated.
But, amazingly, halfway into the book it seems as if another Levin is writing the book. A Levin who is confident in her craft and skilled in turning a single moment of the story into a soaring monument of poetry. What happened! Whatever happened it happened for the better. Levin takes command of her themes and infuses them into poetic states throughout the character's events. The most striking example of the preceding can be found on pages 138-9. Levin takes an ambitious but dangerous chance at explaining the event that informs a young Wittgenstein's philosophy. While she humbly admits that this something of Wittgenstein is the unspeakable that 'we must pass over in silence' from his Tractatus, she dares to speak to that silence and she actually makes it reveal itself to the reader.
The moments like that in the story pay of with dividends which have the effect of apologizing for the early writing of an amateur.

Madman Dreams of Turing Machines **
I bought this one because I had read "The Semantics of Murder" by Aifric Campbell and was interested in reading other novels about the Vienna Circle. Brilliant and eccentric scientists are perfect hunting ground for novelists but the difference is that Levin is a professor of physics and this is her first novel. The book has some serious structural flaws - the first person narrator who intrudes upon the story is completely superfluous to requirements. But as character study of genius and obsession the portraits of Kurt Godel and Alan Turing are compelling and lovingly done. There are wonderful vignettes - Wittgenstein for example - and pre-war Vienna is powerfully re-created.

Madman Dreams of Turing Machines **

I bought this one because I had read "The Semantics of Murder" by Aifric Campbell and was interested in reading other novels about the Vienna Circle. Brilliant and eccentric scientists are perfect hunting ground for novelists but the difference is that Levin is a professor of physics and this is her first novel. The book has some serious structural flaws - the first person narrator who intrudes upon the story is completely superfluous to requirements. But as character study of genius and obsession the portraits of Kurt Godel and Alan Turing are compelling and lovingly done. There are wonderful vignettes - Wittgenstein for example - and pre-war Vienna is powerfully re-created.

Almost as good as its title ****
A compelling and haunting début. Compelling despite the headlines, despite the fact that it is 'faction', written by a young, talented and attractive female physicist, dealing in numbers and maths and things us normals can't grasp, and despite the expectation that it couldn't be as good as its title. It is compelling because Janna Levin is a very good writer. Despite their extreme contrasts, neither Turing nor Gödel descend into caricature or hyperbolic farce. They cut haunting figures not because they are great logicians but because their frailties seem so palpable, even minor, in the context of their times and thought. The book's occasional weakness is a certain upbeat insistence on the metaphysics of the math - of worlds turned upside down by abstract thought and revelations that shake the foundations of science. It is not so much that this doesn't work (it does) or that it unmasks Levin as a dry mathematician playing at literature (she displays a quite stunning turn of phrase, decent pacing and an accomplished eye for the human). On the contrary, the weakness is a tendency to oversimplify and infantilise the intellectual dimensions of Turing and Gödel, to render what they struggled with simple enough for us to understand quickly, and hence not worth the angst. Moments smack of worthiness, of 'A Madman Dreams...' as a gateway drug to Principa Mathematica or late Wittgenstein. The result is that, if anything, the logical and mathematical dimensions are undersold. A little bolder, a little more comfortable with the reader having to wrestle with the concepts, a little less self-conscious, and this would have been not only compelling but stunning.

Almost as good as its title ****

A compelling and haunting début. Compelling despite the headlines, despite the fact that it is 'faction', written by a young, talented and attractive female physicist, dealing in numbers and maths and things us normals can't grasp, and despite the expectation that it couldn't be as good as its title. It is compelling because Janna Levin is a very good writer. Despite their extreme contrasts, neither Turing nor Gödel descend into caricature or hyperbolic farce. They cut haunting figures not because they are great logicians but because their frailties seem so palpable, even minor, in the context of their times and thought. The book's occasional weakness is a certain upbeat insistence on the metaphysics of the math - of worlds turned upside down by abstract thought and revelations that shake the foundations of science. It is not so much that this doesn't work (it does) or that it unmasks Levin as a dry mathematician playing at literature (she displays a quite stunning turn of phrase, decent pacing and an accomplished eye for the human). On the contrary, the weakness is a tendency to oversimplify and infantilise the intellectual dimensions of Turing and Gödel, to render what they struggled with simple enough for us to understand quickly, and hence not worth the angst. Moments smack of worthiness, of 'A Madman Dreams...' as a gateway drug to Principa Mathematica or late Wittgenstein. The result is that, if anything, the logical and mathematical dimensions are undersold. A little bolder, a little more comfortable with the reader having to wrestle with the concepts, a little less self-conscious, and this would have been not only compelling but stunning.

A Truly Poor Work *
Though on a very interesting subject, this is a truly poorly written book, adopting the style of a cheap romance novel. Much of the book reads like a fifteen year old girl's high school writing assignment: "The Cafe Josephinum is a smell first, a stinging smell of roasted Turkish beans too heavy to waft on air and so waiting instead for the more powerful current of steam blown off the surface of boiling saucers fomenting to coffee. By merely snorting the vapors out of the air, patrons become overstimulated. The cafe appears in the brain as this delicious, muddy scent first, awaking a memory of the shifting room of mirrors second--the memory nearly as energetic as the actual sight of the room, which appears in the mind only third. The coffee is a fuel to power ideas. A fuel for the anxious hope that the harvest of art and words and logic will be the richest ever because only the most fecund season will see them through the siege of this terrible winter and the siege of that terrible war." ...and somehow manages to make the stories of Turing and Goedel incomprehensible and tedious. How this book received good reviews from the press is an absolute mystery. One of the only books I have ever felt compelled to throw away after finishing.

A Truly Poor Work *

Though on a very interesting subject, this is a truly poorly written book, adopting the style of a cheap romance novel. Much of the book reads like a fifteen year old girl's high school writing assignment:

"The Cafe Josephinum is a smell first, a stinging smell of roasted Turkish beans too heavy to waft on air and so waiting instead for the more powerful current of steam blown off the surface of boiling saucers fomenting to coffee. By merely snorting the vapors out of the air, patrons become overstimulated. The cafe appears in the brain as this delicious, muddy scent first, awaking a memory of the shifting room of mirrors second--the memory nearly as energetic as the actual sight of the room, which appears in the mind only third. The coffee is a fuel to power ideas. A fuel for the anxious hope that the harvest of art and words and logic will be the richest ever because only the most fecund season will see them through the siege of this terrible winter and the siege of that terrible war."

...and somehow manages to make the stories of Turing and Goedel incomprehensible and tedious. How this book received good reviews from the press is an absolute mystery. One of the only books I have ever felt compelled to throw away after finishing.

Could not get past the first 50 pages **
Alan Turing and Kurt Godel were two of the greatest mathematical minds of the 20th Century, if not of all time. Not surprisingly, these two brilliant men had more than a few personality quirks. Leven tries to create a novel, not even a historical fiction, really, based on the two men's lives. I could not get past Leven's overwrought prose, and gave up after about 50 pages. The book sounded interesting to me -- I've read and enjoyed Hofstadter's Godel, Escher, Bach, for example -- but after fighting through 50 pages of this book, I am not so sure I like the idea any more. Perhaps a writer like Hofstadter could pull it off, but Leven certainly cannot.

Could not get past the first 50 pages **

Alan Turing and Kurt Godel were two of the greatest mathematical minds of the 20th Century, if not of all time. Not surprisingly, these two brilliant men had more than a few personality quirks. Leven tries to create a novel, not even a historical fiction, really, based on the two men's lives.

I could not get past Leven's overwrought prose, and gave up after about 50 pages. The book sounded interesting to me -- I've read and enjoyed Hofstadter's Godel, Escher, Bach, for example -- but after fighting through 50 pages of this book, I am not so sure I like the idea any more. Perhaps a writer like Hofstadter could pull it off, but Leven certainly cannot.