name: On_Love_and_Death isbn13: 9781585679508 isbn: 158567950X isbn: 3257235895 title: On Love and Death title: Über Liebe und Tod author: Patrick Süskind publisher: Overlook/Rookery year: 2005 start: 2009-10-12 stop: 2009-10-15
The books open with this passage:
If no one asks me about it, then I know what it is; but if someone asks me about it and I try to explain it to him, then I do not know what it is.
St. Augustine
I just love Patrick Süskind.
The opening quote is about time. Süskind co-opts it to talk about love. When I first read it, I thought it applied equally well to good programming. I think it really applies to any process of the mind that is deeply grounded in our personal experience. Each one of us has certain thoughts that we understand intuitively, through our unique experiences. When we try to explain these thoughts to someone else, we fail utterly because we cannot reason objectively about them and the other does not share our experiences.
This book is very short. Too short, actually. He starts down a number of promising avenues, but stops way too short. And, in the latter parts, he gives a very one-sided opinion in his comparison between Orpheus and Jesus. I would have liked a slightly longer, more balanced exposition. He can still come to the same conclusions, but it would feel less forced.
I enjoyed reading the book. It brings up interesting questions. But I was left wanting for more. It felt a bit like a broken promise.