Vikram Chandra's exploration of grammar, logic gates and coding is a beautiful, refreshing tribute to text
Fiction writer, computer programmer and linguistic gazelle, Vikram Chandra personally hammers home a nail in the coffin of the two-cultures theory with every work he executes. But in his latest book, Geek Sublime, Chandra argues against the beguiling notion that writing code is in itself a truly artistic pursuit. The result is a compendium of delight in which Chandra delves with relish into the bowels of technology and the intricate mechanisms of linguistic suggestion, drawing on his own experiences to create an extraordinary thesis that is part autobiography, part crash course in coding and unfailingly an ode to language.
Although the numerous extracts he draws together could, at times, benefit from paraphrasing, Chandra's work is far from an esoteric indulgence. For amid the explanations of logic gates, the genius of the grammarian Panini and his Sanskrit rule book, and the beautiful poems of Shilabhattarika, lie truths those within the tech industries would do well to heed. Indeed Chandra is refreshingly blunt in his analysis of the self-perpetuating gender imbalance in Silicon Valley and the relentless pressures of an industry that never sleeps. But above all this is an eloquent tribute to text and its ability to shape our emotions, and rewrite the very world we live in. Reported by guardian.co.uk 8 hours ago.
Fiction writer, computer programmer and linguistic gazelle, Vikram Chandra personally hammers home a nail in the coffin of the two-cultures theory with every work he executes. But in his latest book, Geek Sublime, Chandra argues against the beguiling notion that writing code is in itself a truly artistic pursuit. The result is a compendium of delight in which Chandra delves with relish into the bowels of technology and the intricate mechanisms of linguistic suggestion, drawing on his own experiences to create an extraordinary thesis that is part autobiography, part crash course in coding and unfailingly an ode to language.
Although the numerous extracts he draws together could, at times, benefit from paraphrasing, Chandra's work is far from an esoteric indulgence. For amid the explanations of logic gates, the genius of the grammarian Panini and his Sanskrit rule book, and the beautiful poems of Shilabhattarika, lie truths those within the tech industries would do well to heed. Indeed Chandra is refreshingly blunt in his analysis of the self-perpetuating gender imbalance in Silicon Valley and the relentless pressures of an industry that never sleeps. But above all this is an eloquent tribute to text and its ability to shape our emotions, and rewrite the very world we live in. Reported by guardian.co.uk 8 hours ago.