Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

The Bug by Ellen Ullman

Posted by michael on from the evil-geniuses-for-a-better-tomorrow dept.

Never Rock Fila writes "On the front page of tomorrow's New York Times Book Review, a slightly breathless but overdue enthusiastic review of Ellen Ullman's new novel, The Bug. The review acknowledges that 'Ullman has already established herself as an indispensable voice out of the world of technology' -- if you haven't read her first book, a memoir, Close to the Machine, read that too -- and it's nice to see a mainstream publication like the Times, the gold standard of book reviews as I understand it, giving such prominent and positive attention to a novel by a former 'software engineer' that's all about getting inside the mind of a programmer, even concluding 'If more contemporary novels delivered news this relevant and wise they'd have to stop declaring the death of the novel.' The reviewer, one Benjamin Anastas, has the chops to develop a sustained comparison to Mary Shelley, to legitimately place the 1984 computer programmers at the center of the novel among 'all the best characters in fiction,' and to declare the book 'thrilling and intellectually fearless.'"

5 of 1,547 comments (clear)

  1. Ullman's Programming the Post-Human by Drakonian · · Score: 5, Interesting

    If you get a chance, read Ellen Ulman's article Programming the Post-Human - Computer Science redefines life. It was an excellent and realistic look at the current state of AI development. It was found in the October 2002 issue of Harper's Magazine. (I couldn't find an online copy) I'll have to think about picking up this book now, I thought her writing was superb.

    --
    Random is the New Order.
    1. Re:Ullman's Programming the Post-Human by ullman · · Score: 5, Informative

      That's funny but unfortunately not true. You must be confusing me with Ellen Degeneres or Tracy Ullman (or someone; there's nothing on E! online for me). I did many things in college, but softcore porn just wasn't among them. In any case, I'll stick to writing.

  2. Ellen Ullman Stuff by the+end+of+britain · · Score: 5, Informative

    Salon.com loves Ellen Ullman almost as much as I do. Read excerpts from The Bug here: http://archive.salon.com/books/int/2003/05/16/ullm an/index_np.html You can read articles by Ullman here: http://archive.salon.com/directory/topics/ellen_ul lman/ Salon is free as long as you watch a little commercial (C'mon--its 10 secondds, and then you get to read Ulllman--for free!!!)

    --
    "Oh, the tragedy of math gone wrong. I can't even talk about it." -Wil Wheaton http://www.wilwheaton.net
  3. Solution to the NYT registration thing... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    How come everybody always posts these broken links that require registration? Why can't they link to, say, the Google partner URL or some such? Is this some kind of unwritten rule? Or do the Slashdot editors make sure to find the registration-required URLs? I always see replies with "no reg link", etc. Why don't the original authors use these?

  4. Golden standard? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    "...and it's nice to see a mainstream publication like the Times, the gold standard of book reviews as I understand it..."

    I thought Oprah's book club was?