The WELL: inkwell.vue.205: Ellen Ullman, "The Bug"

#104: Art Kleiner (art) Sun 7 Mar 04 00:31

Sun, 07 Mar 2004 00:31:00 PST

I too read this with a great deal of interest... In part because I was a literary type writing about personal computers and the computer industry during the 1980s (first for the Whole Earth Catalog, then for the Bay Guardian). Thank you. [Read entire topic]

#103: Ellen Ullman (ullman) Mon 2 Feb 04 09:38

Mon, 02 Feb 2004 09:38:00 PST

My pleasure. [Read entire topic]

#102: Gerry Feeney (gerry) Sun 1 Feb 04 15:09

Sun, 01 Feb 2004 15:09:00 PST

Yes, thank you, Ellen. I hope you'll hang out indefinitely. [Read entire topic]

#101: a meat-vessel, with soul poured in (wellelp) Sun 1 Feb 04 14:18

Sun, 01 Feb 2004 14:18:00 PST

Thank you so much for a great book and a great discussion, Ellen. [Read entire topic]

#100: Cynthia Dyer-Bennet (cdb) Fri 30 Jan 04 12:56

Fri, 30 Jan 2004 12:56:00 PST

groan...

And on that note, I wanted to thank Ellen and Laura for joining us in Inkwell for the past couple weeks. This has been a fascinating discussion, indeed. We appreciate having you here, and though we've launched another interview, we wanted to assure you that you're welcome to continue as long as you wish. This topic won't be frozen and we'd be delighted if you stick around. Thank you! [Read entire topic]

#99: Ellen Ullman (ullman) Fri 30 Jan 04 09:09

Fri, 30 Jan 2004 09:09:00 PST

A body in motion tends to stay in motion; a body at rest tends to stay at rest. Everyone surely knows that! [Read entire topic]

#98: Ellen Ullman (ullman) Fri 30 Jan 04 09:07

Fri, 30 Jan 2004 09:07:00 PST

>I was chilled by Ethan's body not being found for days, because just a few weeks before I read _The Bug_, I learned of a similar recent incident in real life--a programmer who died (naturally) in his home and wasn't found for nine days. (Also with a significant interest in AI, by the way.) Did you base that part on an actual occurrence, or did it justseem to you like something that might happen? I wonder how often it does happen?

Something like that happened to a programmer at a place I once worked. He didn't show up for work for several days, and calls to his house went unanswered. Later we learned that he had hung himself. The story that went around the office (and which I used in The Bug as office gossip) was that he had died in an act of autoeroticism gone wrong -- a *really* bad bug, went the joke.

What stayed with me about the incident (beyond the loss of life and the callousness with with his co-workers received the news) was the way he had had not been found for days. I was astonished by lack the disconnectedness in this programmer's life, the lack of friends or family connections, the fact that it would have to be his manager who would miss him, but only after he had disappeared for nearly a week. [Read entire topic]

#97: s 205 (lauram) Fri 30 Jan 04 06:44

Fri, 30 Jan 2004 06:44:00 PST

Actually, I think my example is sufficiently parallel. Yes, it's unrealistic to expect a humanities person to come up with ""Every body continues in its state of rest or of uniform motion in a right line unless it is compelled to change that state by forces impressed upon it," but it's not outrageous to think that knowing that one of Newton's major "discoveries" is the law of *inertia* should be something the average cultured person should know. That, after all, is a word people use metaphorically all the time. Since I'm about to have lunch with about 6 book review editors, I'll see if any of them can do it. [Read entire topic]

#96: from RUCHIRA DATTA (tnf) Thu 29 Jan 04 22:06

Thu, 29 Jan 2004 22:06:00 PST

Ruchira Datta writes:

Hi, Ellen. Thanks so much for the great book. I found both Roberta and Ethan very sympathetic. As both a programmer and a voracious reader (I felt so smug about knowing the significance of the Key to All Mythologies!) I saw a little of myself in both of them. Afterwards it amazed me how you had managed to make the reader identify with and feel for Ethan, when objectively speaking if we ran into him in real life we probably would dislike him.

Spoiler space

When Ethan gets reamed out on the phone just as he's about to hang himself, I felt like screaming "NOOOO!" Yet her reaction is perfectly understandable and we can't blame her; we might react the same way in her shoes. I think engaging our compassion is one of the highest things a book can achieve, and _The Bug_ has done an outstanding job.

I was chilled by Ethan's body not being found for days, because just a few weeks before I read _The Bug_, I learned of a similar recent incident in real life--a programmer who died (naturally) in his home and wasn't found for nine days. (Also with a significant interest in AI, by the way.) Did you base that part on an actual occurrence, or did it just seem to you like something that might happen? I wonder how often it does happen? [Read entire topic]

#95: a meat-vessel, with soul poured in (wellelp) Thu 29 Jan 04 21:37

Thu, 29 Jan 2004 21:37:00 PST

Another CS major here. I always say I learned to "think like a programmer" rather than any particular technical skills. I know exactly what you mean by the art of programming, Gerry. A well written program is a lovely thing to behold. [Read entire topic]