Surfaces and Essences

Publisher's Summary

Analogy is the core of all thinking.

This is the simple but unorthodox premise that Pulitzer Prize-winning author Douglas Hofstadter and French psychologist Emmanuel Sander defend in their new work.

Hofstadter has been grappling with the mysteries of human thought for over 30 years. Now, with his trademark wit and special talent for making complex ideas vivid, he has partnered with Sander to put forth a highly novel perspective on cognition.

We are constantly faced with a swirling and intermingling multitude of ill-defined situations. Our brain's job is to try to make sense of this unpredictable, swarming chaos of stimuli. How does it do so? The ceaseless hail of input triggers analogies galore, helping us to pinpoint the essence of what is going on. Often this means the spontaneous evocation of words, sometimes idioms, sometimes the triggering of nameless, long-buried memories.

Why did two-year-old Camille proudly exclaim, "I undressed the banana!"? Why do people who hear a story often blurt out, "Exactly the same thing happened to me!" when it was a completely different event? What did Albert Einstein see that made him suspect that light consists of particles when a century of research had driven the final nail in the coffin of that long-dead idea?

The answer to all these questions, of course, is analogy - making - the meat and potatoes, the heart and soul, the fuel and fire, the gist and the crux, the lifeblood and the wellsprings of thought.

Analogy-making, far from happening at rare intervals, occurs at all moments, defining thinking from top to toe, from the tiniest and most fleeting thoughts to the most creative scientific insights. Like Gödel, Escher, Bach before it, Surfaces and Essences will profoundly enrich our understanding of our own minds.

©2013 Basic Books (P)2013 Gildan Media LLC

Critic Reviews

"I am one of those cognitive scientists who believe that analogy is a key to explaining human intelligence. This magnum opus by Douglas Hofstadter, who has reflected on the nature of analogy for decades, and Emmanuel Sander, is a milestone in our understanding of human thought, filled with insights and new ideas." Steven Pinker (Professor of Psychology, Harvard University, and author of How the Mind Works and The Stuff of Thought)

Lots of verbiage, few insights. Don't bother.

If you are on the fence about whether to buy this book, then skip it. Don't bother. The book contains very few insights.

If you were a fan of Gödel Escher Bach and are hoping for an equally insightful book, then look elsewhere. This book is nothing like that previous book.

I'm sold on the author's main thesis, that analogies underlie much of human thought, and that analogizing and categorization are the same process. I have no argument with that notion.

However, the author doesn't really investigate analogies or categorization very deeply, in spite of the book's length. What exactly is categorization? The authors never really investigate this question.

I'm not fan of narrator Sean Pratt. Pratt injects too much intonation and too much feeling into each sentence. Pratt wants each sentence to deliver a bit of drama. His sing-songy delivery distracts from the authors' train of reasoning, which develops over paragraphs and pages, and not in each sentence.

12 of 12 people found this review helpful

A dance on the street is worth 2 in the club.

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I already have demanded several people get it.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Category, that guy was tricky always trying to act like he's not an analogy.

Which scene was your favorite?

The one where I had to stop listening and have an argument with an idea for ten minutes before I could continue.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

This book demands reaction, it makes you want to yell, "of course Doug, get on with it." Then you realize he's pretty accurate at predicting how you think even though he's never met you. You probably won't cry but I ended of laughing at myself a lot.
This is all about thinking and you want it to be wrong, you want to believe your thoughts are ordered and consistent. Instead you're left knowing that your thoughts are arranged as needed and in ways that contradict past and future arrangements.

Any additional comments?

If you've read his other works this one is simpler and more focused in its idea. Therefore it takes a lot more effort to understand it. The premise makes Jungian psychology seem more relevant, Mel brooks more genius, and Einstein more like an average guy.
If you think you know the definition of words like; much, and, but, grow, time or play, you should get this book.

13 of 15 people found this review helpful

Not my cup of tea

I didn't listen to the whole book. I listened to about 9 hours of it. The book is clearly for lovers of words of which I'm not. I do like the authors overriding theme that we think by categorization through analogy. I just didn't want to sit through a countless stream of analogies and word play examples.

Some people (especially lovers of words) will love the book. I just prefer less examples and more facts.

(I bought this book because I absolutely loved the senior author's book, "Godel, Escher and Bach", and suspected that this word book would not be for me, but was willing to give it a try. I'm only writing this review to warn people who prefer science and mathematics type books that this book might not be suitable for you).

11 of 14 people found this review helpful

'Mother occupies the chair.' So what?

Would you try another book from Douglas Hofstadter and Emmanuel Sander and/or Sean Pratt?

Perhaps, and by that I mean to say "no," which, as an utterance, occupies a rarefied category of one, with, of course, spelling being the only consideration. As a category of one, it is like the opposite of the Higgs-Boson particle in that, when present, nothing matters (which, as a word, "matters," has multiple meanings, including "relevancy, materials, events, Icelandic for "mother" and so on and so on.). Truthfully, I'll probably try "Strange Loop." I've given it as a gift enough times, it's high-time I got up on it myself.

What could Douglas Hofstadter and Emmanuel Sander have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

92% fewer examples.

Which scene was your favorite?

A quote which, used only as one example in a long line of examples, reads "Censorship is the mother of metaphor." Loved that! Worth the $22 (monthly plan at two credits).

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

Perhaps, and by that I mean to say "no," which, as an utterance, occupies a rarefied category of one, with, of course, spelling being the only consideration. As a category of one, it is like the opposite of the Higgs-Boson particle in that, when present, nothing matters (which, as a word, "matters," has multiple meanings, including "relevancy, materials, events, Icelandic for "mother" and so on and so on.).

Any additional comments?

The book was exceptionally well-narrated.

13 of 17 people found this review helpful

Mind-exploding dance of ubiquitous wordplay

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes. A patient friend, anyway. If only to help them understand what I get so excited about.

What other book might you compare Surfaces and Essences to and why?

Can't compare it to much, other than Hofstadter's other works. He (along with co-author Emmanuel Sander) goes deeply into heavy territory of linguistics, philosophy, cognitive science, and other fields without ever becoming too technical or academic. Constant throughlines of playfulness and personal details keep things from becoming too dry.

Have you listened to any of Sean Pratt’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I haven't, but I'd like to. He does an absolutely fantastic job making you feel like he's personally connected to the pages and pages of examples and organically meandering explanations that comprise this book. My one complaint is that his French pronunciation is pretty horrendous. For a book whose co-author is French, and thus makes use of fairly frequent forays into French phrasing (alliteration bonus +5), it would've been nice to have someone who can say the words. However, if you don't speak French or aren't a stickler for pronunciation, this isn't an issue, just like I didn't have any problem with his pronunciation of Mandarin words. Either way, it's worth this minor sacrifice for the excellent performance overall.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

I would die. It's just under 34 bloody hours.

Any additional comments?

It's hard to express how much I enjoyed this book. While I'm sure it's not for everyone, it was one of the primary motivators that convinced me to go back to school to study cognitive science. Hofstadter has the most wonderful ability to tie together poetry, math, memory, languages, and visual design (among other areas of interest) into pure magic. To me, this itself serves as a metaphor for the amazing web of association and analogy that allows our brains to make meaning and creativity from our experience and culture. This book could be my bible. And while I don't want to see myself as too much of an evangelist, I'd humbly suggest you give it a try.

As a final note: some might prefer to have the hard-copy (a giant brick of a tome) in order to go back and review some of the lists and examples as you go. I bought the book after listening to the audio, and while I'm glad to own it, I think I prefer the audio experience overall. I did find myself pausing to think, or hitting the "30 seconds back" button fairly frequently, extending the 33-hour running time even further, but this is only necessary if you want to spend the time really thinking about the details.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Interesting, but could be a quarter the length.

What did you love best about Surfaces and Essences?

Absolutely love Hofstadter as I've encountered him both here and in GEB. This is a set of ideas that I've had in an informal way for a long time, and he lays them out in his typical methodical, logical style with many surprising conclusions I hadn't reached. The moments of insight are... spread out... but they unfold spectacularly.

What other book might you compare Surfaces and Essences to and why?

The only thing I can think of that is this casually philosophical is GEB, but that's a trivial example. The concepts resonate with some of Foucault's work on language, particularly The Order of Things, and some recent academic linguistics, but the book differs drastically in style.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

Taking forEVER to read the ENDLESS lists of examples. I GET IT GOOD GOD

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Many, many.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Doug, Doug, Doug

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

Let's just say that Hofstadter is a fascinating combination of brilliant and boring. If you like the way he thinks, then it's a good book to have around to listen to here and there. He always has something interesting to say, often, though, the executive summary might be sufficient.

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

Oh good, time to move on to Dennett...

Any additional comments?

I am giving Hofstadter a hard time, but I love his mind, he's just, well, you know, tedious...

6 of 9 people found this review helpful

Too many examples

Any additional comments?

This book would have been better at half the length. The ideas I agree with but there are far too many tedious examples. They assume the reader is really dull and needs extensive examples to get it to sink in.

3 of 5 people found this review helpful

Extremely tedious

I confess that I just couldn’t finish this book. They may have eventually gotten to a point if they had one but they bored me to tears before they did. The phrase not being able to see the forest for the trees came to mind. There are certain personality types that love excruciating detail and they don’t all become accountants, some seem to want to go into linguistics. They think it’s not scientific unless they set out all the excruciating data before making any conclusions and don’t understand that some of us want to know if their point is even worth getting to before investing the time. If they had a curious green ideas point they should’ve told me they were heading to it so that I would have the extreme patience needed to get there.

Graphomania

Two start overall, and the second star is just for the author being Hofstadter. Lots of mildly entertaining observations, but with no insight or scientific approach. The entire super-huge book is, in its essence, a definition for two concepts: analogy-making and categorization. Could have been like a two-page essay without losing anything important whatsoever.

Trivial and laboured

I love Hofstadter, but this book shouldn't have been written. First chapter is good example of my problem with this book. It labours painfully and embarrassingly over an idea that I (and I imagine most people) have had, and understood completely and utterly, in the past, namely that some words have different levels of granularity and that some languages have more granularity than others. Yes, we could use different verbs for when a man *eats* to when a woman *eats* or even different words depending on what is being eaten. But we just use "eat". So what?! But there's not even a discrete set of categories and it's in fact fluid? So what! Not interesting.

5 of 5 people found this review helpful

Chloroform in print

So you loved GEB, consumed every single golden word, and are desperate for something even remotely related? This audiobook does not have what you seek. It's not even the Star Wars prequels of GEB, it's not even as yawnsome as the extended edition Hobbit film trilogy at high frame rate. It's a long sleep that doesn't nourish.

It's just boring. Hours of tepid boredom orbited by a tiny electron of information that if you're not asleep already you might catch a single interesting sentence per hour. It's not completely without merit, but it's like trying to eat flavourless ice cream with a toothpick.

I was so disappointed.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

very well written and told, full of deep ideas

surfaces and essences is a wonderfully written manuscript detailing the motor of thoughts. Even though it is no easy material the listener is always engaged

I simply cannot get on with this book

I am not sure if it is the narrator or the content but this book just drags and drags and drags on and on and on in the first few hours and has made no startling revelations to keep me on the edge of my seat waiting for the next chapter. Douglas Hofstadter seems like an interesting man but if I am going to listen for 33 hours, it needs to be way more entertaining than this. If I was doing a PhD in Analogy perhaps it would be riveting? But alas and despite being a listener with above average intelligence I am bored to death. Maybe it is fascinating later? I'll give it three stars just in case. Or perhaps this work is from a paradigm so alien in concept that my mind simply can't deal with it and I keep falling asleep listening to it. I will not be finishing the book and I am going to return it and get a credit. If I ever get insomnia...

3 of 7 people found this review helpful