Kurt Gödel was an Austrian logician and mathematician.

Maurits Cornelius Escher was a Dutch graphic artist.

Johann Sebastian Bach was a German musician.

What’s common between them, apart from the fact that they were in neighbouring countries?

That they caught the fancy of a certain professor in the USA, Douglas R. Hofstadter.

And for good reason. I wouldn’t have known that there could be intricate underlying themes common between mathematics, art, and music, if it wasn’t for reading Gödel, Escher, Bach - An Eternal Golden Braid by him.

The author goes on and on for 700-odd pages about something that somehow relates to works by the three aforementioned geniuses, and also manages to draw a “golden braid” that links them all, but till the very end (and beyond) the reader probably doesn’t understand what exactly is going on. But it does makes sense, somehow.

I was amazed and I couldn’t really wrap my head around what I had just read - so I thought I’d figure out by writing to someone - the book’s author himself! I shot an email right away.

I was quite surprised to actually get a response - but strangely even DRH said he wasn’t sure how to describe the book properly - and perhaps that was why the book was special in its own way.

I think I agree. Time to read it again.