# Do I have to be really smart to get Gödel Escher Bach?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-i-have-to-be-really-smart-to-get-godel-escher-bach/783946>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [April 7, 2017, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-i-have-to-be-really-smart-to-get-godel-escher-bach/783946 "2017-04-07T02:09:35Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\
**Post date:** [April 7, 2017, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-i-have-to-be-really-smart-to-get-godel-escher-bach/783946/21 "2017-04-07T17:01:04Z")

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> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#):
>
> Also, _War and Peace_, incredibly overrated, very boring, too heavy to read while on the toliet. Tolstoy can’t even write in English, very sad, should be deported.
> 
> Stranger

Even worse, he wrote in two different languages (French and Russian). Couldn’t he make up his mind?

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**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\
**Post date:** [April 7, 2017, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-i-have-to-be-really-smart-to-get-godel-escher-bach/783946/22 "2017-04-07T17:25:00Z")

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I was fascinated by the tortoise and achilles dialogues when I was in middle school. The concept of a record player that could play anything and an album that couldn’t be played on the record player blew my tiny little mind.

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**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\
**Post date:** [April 7, 2017, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-i-have-to-be-really-smart-to-get-godel-escher-bach/783946/23 "2017-04-07T21:49:55Z")

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Mu.

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**Author:** ![Damfino](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Damfino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damfino)\
**Post date:** [April 7, 2017, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-i-have-to-be-really-smart-to-get-godel-escher-bach/783946/24 "2017-04-07T21:56:35Z")

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Ìt’s worth reading for the Achilles/Tortoise dialogues alone. Some of the mathematical parts may be skimmed through without harming the gist. You may need some time: I read it over a vacation, pen and paper to hand for the few “”“exercises for the reader” I attempted.

When I finished I had the same sense of epiphany I’d had on completing Darwin’s \* Origin of Species \*.

Go for it.  
Don’t forget to look through the index:)

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