Gödel, Escher, Bach: Chapter 3

The formal systems have officially gotten a bit too complicated for me in this chapter. The system that finds prime numbers was very difficult to understand, and I didn’t understand its connection to negative space. But the concept of negative space on its own was fascinating. Meaningful images can appear as both the figure and background (the negative space) of Escher’s pieces, like shown in this image:

This technique creates mesmerizing artwork. But the real A-ha moment for me was connecting the idea of negative space with Bach’s polyphonic music. When I play Bach’s inventions, the right hand and left hand both are the melody; both the figure (the right hand, which usually takes care of the melody) and the background (the left hand, which usually accompanies) have meaningful themes, just like Escher’s artwork. That is a beautiful connection. 

Additionally, the segments at the end with the dialogue between Achilles and the Tortoise are probably my favorite parts of the book. Achilles is just as whiny as I remember him being in the Iliad! But the entire conversation about record players seemed to be a metaphor for Gödel’s incompleteness theorem, which I struggled to understand. I did however learn some new facts about Bach! Apparently, he was a glassblower, and in one of his pieces, he incorporated his name (BACH) into the music notes of the theme. 

Again, I would benefit from a rereading of GEB a year from now.