A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines

A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines is a book by Janna Levin which contrasts fictionalized accounts of the lives and ideas of Kurt Gödel and Alan Turing (who never met).[1][2][3][4]

In an interview with Sylvie Myerson in the Brooklyn Rail, Levin said of her book: "There was a lot that made me want to write it as a novel, one being this whole idea that sometimes truth cannot come out as a theorem even in mathematics, let alone in a retelling of two people’s lives. Sometimes you have to step outside of the perfect linear logic of biographical facts."[5] The book won several awards, including the prestigious PEN/Bingham Fellowship Prize for Writers and the MEA Mary Shelley Award for Outstanding Fictional Work. It was also a runner-up for the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award.

A copy of this book was among the items seized as evidence from Bruce Ivins in an FBI raid investigating the 2001 anthrax attacks.[6]

References

  1. ↑ Holt, Jim (September 3, 2006), "Obsessive-Genius Disorder", New York Times.
  2. ↑ Johnstone, Doug (January 18, 2008), "A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines by Janna Levin", The Times.
  3. ↑ Jackson, Kerri (April 28, 2008), "A madman dreams of turing machines", New Zealand Herald.
  4. ↑ Stretch, Charlotte (January 17, 2008), "Touched by genius", New Statesman.
  5. ↑ Myerson, Sylvie (September 2007). "Janna Levin in conversation with Sylvie Myerson". Brooklyn Rail.
  6. ↑ Meek, James Gordon (August 7, 2008), "FBI reveals tasers, guns and 'anger checklist' from Bruce Ivins raid", New York Daily News.