I missed that Benjamin Labatut (When We Cease to Understand the World, 👍👍) came out with a new novel last fall, The Maniac. The book centers on John von Neumann and the fuzzy, unstable, tech-centric world (atomics, AI) he and his colleagues created.
Advertise here with Carbon Ads
This site is made possible by member support. ❤️
Big thanks to Arcustech for hosting the site and offering amazing tech support.
When you buy through links on kottke.org, I may earn an affiliate commission. Thanks for supporting the site!
kottke.org. home of fine hypertext products since 1998.
Discussion 3 comments
Interesting. His previous book (When We Cease To Understand the World) was compellingly written, but I was tremendously troubled by the fact that the stories were progressively fictionalized. This fictionalization wasn't really disclosed and included significant story points and prurient topics. Do we know if The Maniac will be similarly fictionalized, or will it be less fantastical? Goodreads has it classified as fiction and historical fiction.
I appreciate the concept of telling a historical story in a fictional manner by inventing conversations and events that weren't documented but likely occurred. Labatut went way beyond that point, and it just didn't sit right with me.
Be prepared for a truly grim and somewhat depressing first chapter. After that it's sparkly.
It's a very good book — reminded me of The World as I Found It by Bruce Duffy, which absolutely hit me square between the eyes. John von Neumann was obviously among the very smartest humans who ever lived, but as a friend once quipped: "High IQ and a buck fifty will get you a Diet Coke." Books like these provide a context for such extreme intelligence to work against, and it's richly rewarding to wade through.
Hello! In order to leave a comment, you need to be a current kottke.org member. If you'd like to sign up for a membership to support the site and join the conversation, you can explore your options here.
Existing members can sign in here. If you're a former member, you can renew your membership.
Note: If you are a member and tried to log in, it didn't work, and now you're stuck in a neverending login loop of death, try disabling any ad blockers or extensions that you have installed on your browser...sometimes they can interfere with the Memberful links. Still having trouble? Email me!
In order to leave a comment, you need to be a current kottke.org member. Check out your options for renewal.
This is the name that'll be displayed next to comments you make on kottke.org; your email will not be displayed publicly. I'd encourage you to use your real name (or at least your first name and last initial) but you can also pick something that you go by when you participate in communities online. Choose something durable and reasonably unique (not "Me" or "anon"). Please don't change this often. No impersonation..
Note: I'm letting folks change their display names because the membership service that kottke.org uses collects full names and I thought some people might not want their names displayed publicly here. If it gets abused, I might disable this feature.
If you feel like this comment goes against the grain of the community guidelines or is otherwise inappropriate, please let me know and I will take a look at it.
Hello! In order to leave a comment, you need to be a current kottke.org member. If you'd like to sign up for a membership to support the site and join the conversation, you can explore your options here.
Existing members can sign in here. If you're a former member, you can renew your membership.
Note: If you are a member and tried to log in, it didn't work, and now you're stuck in a neverending login loop of death, try disabling any ad blockers or extensions that you have installed on your browser...sometimes they can interfere with the Memberful links. Still having trouble? Email me!