This site uses cookies to deliver our services, improve performance, for analytics, and (if not signed in) for advertising. By using LibraryThing you acknowledge that you have read and understand our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Your use of the site and services is subject to these policies and terms.
With a New Introduction by Mary Gaitskill A PEN/Hemingway Award Finalist ANew York Times Book Review Notable Book Ellen Ullman is a "rarity, a computer programmer with a poet's feeling for language" (Laura Miller,Salon).The Bug breaks new ground in literary fiction, offering us a deep look into the internal lives of people in the technical world. Set in a start-up company in 1984, this highly acclaimed first novel explores what happens when a baffling software flaw--a bug so teasing it is named "the Jester"--threatens the survival of the humans beings who created it.… (more)
I read Ullman's recent book, A Life in Code, and thought it would be interesting to read her novels. I thought this book would be amusing, a programmer obsessed with a bug, but I actually found it anxiety inducing. My heart literally started racing when the programmer accidentally deleted his days worth of work, and my own memories of bugs, that seemed to become personal, was a little too real. While parts of the book tended to drag, and the tester, Berta's voice seemed indistinguishable from Ullman's own voice in a Life of Code, which was a bit distracting, I have a feeling that this book will stick with me. ( )
Probably closer to a 4, but I'll cut Ullman some slack as this is billed as a first novel and the subject matter is so unique in my experience that I couldn't help but be delighted. Ullman accurately captures the thrill of victory/agony of defeat of programming, and the little joys and crushing despairs of living in the world. I wish there were more books like this, which, really, is what a 5-star book should be. ( )
An so-so story but in Bug is a sequence which describes the procedures and problems of computer programming in a stong forthright way for the programming complete outsider. ( )
A computer can execute millions of instructions in a second.
Quotations
"It is remarkable," he said. "A man cannot make general observations to any extent, on any subject, without betraying himself, without introducing his entire individuality, and presenting, as in an allegory, the fundamental theme and problem of his own existence. This, Engineer, is what you have just done."
– Settembrini to Hans Castrop Thomas Mann, The Magic Mountain
Invention, it must be humbly admitted, does not consist in creating out of the void, but out of chaos…
– Mary Shelley, Author's introduction to Frankenstein
"You are acquainted with my failure and how heavily I bore the disappointment"
– Letter from R. Walton to his sister, Mrs. Saville Mary Shelley, Frankenstein
Every time you finish a program, you realize you've arrived at a more particular solution to a more general problem.
– Old programmer saying
Last words
To discover that between the blinks of the machine's shuttered eye – going on without pause or cease; simulated, imagined, but still not caught – was life.
With a New Introduction by Mary Gaitskill A PEN/Hemingway Award Finalist ANew York Times Book Review Notable Book Ellen Ullman is a "rarity, a computer programmer with a poet's feeling for language" (Laura Miller,Salon).The Bug breaks new ground in literary fiction, offering us a deep look into the internal lives of people in the technical world. Set in a start-up company in 1984, this highly acclaimed first novel explores what happens when a baffling software flaw--a bug so teasing it is named "the Jester"--threatens the survival of the humans beings who created it.
)
)
)
Google Books — Loading...
(3.59)
Wikipedia in English (1)
1
Characters: 6
Setting: 6
Prose: 5
Tags: Programming, relationships, marriage, infidelity, mental health, stress, work, downsizing, coding, software (