Utsob Roy

An excellent exposition of Sufism if you are already well-versed in philosophy in general. It explains both the core tenets and the historical development of Sufism in a concise yet well-developed manner.

Sufism is a religion of Knowledge and Love. In this, it is like every other spiritual cult (cult, because only a handful is following them) comes with organised religion. It focuses on self-searching instead of social demonstration and the execution of faith. Like every such cult, not only has Sufism been marginalised for the last few centuries, but it has also been persecuted heavily.

The only problem with this book is that the author starts from an axiom (there is a God) that has been out of fashion for around four thousand years. No one invokes absolute belief in God as a starting point for any serious philosophical discussion. One can argue that this is a book of Religion, not philosophy. However, it is a very philosophy-ridden book. It is natural to expect it to maintain certain standards. Many of the attacks on science and other modern philosophies made in this book are uninformed and misleading.

This is a journey, and a deeply contemplative one. But, what is the goal? In the author's words:

In a word, GEB is a very personal attempt to say how it is that animate beings can come out of inanimate matter. What is a self, and how can a self come out of stuff that is as selfless as a stone or a puddle? What is an "I", and why are such things found (at least so far) only in association with, as poet Russell Edson once wonderfully phrased it, "teetering bulbs of dread and dream"– that is, only in association with certain kinds of gooey lumps encased in hard protective shells mounted atop mobile pedestals that roam the world on pairs of slightly fuzzy, jointed stilts?

But a person like me, who enjoys the journey more than the destination, surely finds their stays in the way nourishing. For this is a book nothing short of cross-disciplinary. Music, Mathematics, Philosophy, Biology, Logic, and Computer Science, even Zen Buddhism, all found their fair share of pages in this work.

The Strings

Gödel

Philosophers of mathematics have toiled long to make mathematics's theoretical underpinning unassailable. Many minds of extraordinary abilities have devoted their lives to it. Gödel, in his incompleteness theorems, has shown that such efforts are futile. A sufficiently powerful system cannot prove all truths about itself.

Escher

Escher's paintings are illusory, puzzling to say the least. They are full of self-reference and paradoxical connections.

Bach

Bach is beautiful. Bach is sublime. And, Bach, mysteriously, is more mathematical than we think he is.

The Braid

These strings, along with others, braided and narrated a story and theory about consciousness. At the base of it is Gödel's incompleteness theorems, which allow, with sufficient layers, to build a self-referential and introspective system which is the basis of consciousness. For the author, this is the cornerstone of true AI.

Summarising like this, of course, doesn't do justice to this book. Instead of a run-of-the-mill scientific book, the author tried to invoke vivid scenarios to not only know this, but also to understand and feel his arguments. The primary tool for this endeavour was some Quan-like, paradoxical conversations used as preludes to every chapter.

With all these literary devices, this book is not a pop-science book. The subject matter, and to the depths they have been covered, requires a slow-going, mindful approach to comprehend.

Thoroughly enjoyed!

I consider myself a writer. However, I fear writing, and I fear publishing more. For, writing is agonising. And, I don't dare to publish until I really have a story to tell. My fear accumulated over time by reading more, by reading books just like this. And, I will tell my fellow writers this: If you are not really as serious as Danielewski, Borges, Tagore, Pessoa, or Jibanananda, stop writing.

The structure of this book is recursive, layered and of a madman. It is a book you should approach with an arsenal of bookmarks, much patience for multiple re-readings and the intention to read cover-to-cover— footnotes and appendix and all. While some of the references in this book are purely fictional, many are real. It is not necessary, but some familiarity with classic literature, and existential philosophy (resources like Being and Time by Martin Heidegger) can be very rewarding. I will also recommend reading Walking by Thomas Bernhard which deals with madness singularly unlike this book which deals with a lot of things. A knack for etymology and the exact meaning of words can be rewarding too.

Now about the madness… It is everywhere, and it must be relished. It must be understood on its own terms, not from our couch of comfortable 'normality'. Madness is, in some sense divine. Madness is motherly. Madness is a concentrated potion, too hard to gulp down, of the essence of our existence. This book talks about that madness, and love, and madness-inducing love, and love-inducing madness.

Most readers of this book may find the preceding paragraph needs some qualifications. The book is considered to be of genre horror, and rightly so. However, it is not a run-of-the-mill horror. I will put it in a sub-genre: philosophical horror. Because, most horror content depends on unfamiliarity, and not understanding of the situation, this book depends on understanding and examining. Instead of jump-scares and goosebumps, author brings in elaborate discussion on meanings of words like 'uncanny', 'space', 'echo' etc. so that as the meanings sinks in us in most accurate and non-trivial manner, so does the horror of the situation.

But, at the end, it still remains a story of love, or seeking, of remembering, of hope, and of redemption.

I consider myself a writer. However, I fear writing, and I fear publishing more. For, writing is agonising. And, I don't dare to publish until I really have a story to tell. My fear accumulated over time by reading more, by reading books just like this. And, I will tell my fellow writers this: If you are not really as serious as Danielewski, Borges, Tagore, Pessoa, or Jibanananda, stop writing.

The structure of this book is recursive, layered and of a madman. It is a book you should approach with an arsenal of bookmarks, much patience for multiple re-readings and the intention to read cover-to-cover— footnotes and appendix and all. While some of the references in this book are purely fictional, many are real. It is not necessary, but some familiarity with classic literature, and existential philosophy (resources like Being and Time by Martin Heidegger) can be very rewarding. I will also recommend reading Walking by Thomas Bernhard which deals with madness singularly unlike this book which deals with a lot of things. A knack for etymology and the exact meaning of words can be rewarding too.

Now about the madness… It is everywhere, and it must be relished. It must be understood on its own terms, not from our couch of comfortable 'normality'. Madness is, in some sense divine. Madness is motherly. Madness is a concentrated potion, too hard to gulp down, of the essence of our existence. This book talks about that madness, and love, and madness-inducing love, and love-inducing madness.

A seminal text of the Sufi literature. It influenced both thinkers and the writing styles of subsequent generations. As far as Sufi spiritualism is concerned, the content is timeless.

So, what is this book about? In Attar's words:

This book is all madness. / Reason is alien to these pages. / Not until the soul breathes in / the fragrance of its own lunacy / can it stop being a stranger to itself.

It is difficult to appreciate the accuracy of this statement without reading the book first.

Sufism is all about love. Unconditional, unfailing, love and submission. This brought the practitioners into broad daylight from a narrow tunnel of organised religion. Since they reject anything that is against love, they reject hatred and welcome even critical thinking to a certain extent.

The genius of Attar is manyfold. This is not a philosophical treaty. Philosophy was unimportant (mocked even) to Attar. What he wanted to convey was the journey of a Sufi (consisting of Fanā and Baqā) and its emotional import. He did it with very accessible parables. Some of them are even borderline heresy, but all of them are beautiful.

It is amazing how well this book conveys the deeper meanings of Sufism that many weighty discourses cannot do.

Darwinism is now common knowledge to anyone who reads any amount of pop science. But, most often it is a much revised version of natural selection commonly known as neo-Darwinism.

It still remains an interesting read. Just like Newton's laws of motion can be easily proved by calculus. But, the original geometric proof is a much more satisfying read.

Biology, back then, was mostly about observations and record-keeping. Predictive theories are scarce, knowledge is fragmented. Truly, most of these fragments started to make sense in the light of the theory of natural selection.

The book is written quite hastily yet shows how meticulous a mind Darwin really had. His prose is not only very accessible but also elegant in places.

What Darwin did required a paradigm shift. It was not easy as paradigm shifts go. But, he was confident and that confidence stands on intellectual honesty and a rebellious mental makeup.