Status
Available
Genres
Publication
London : Secker & Warburg, 2001.
Description
Ralph Messenger is a man who knows what he wants and generally gets it. Approaching his fiftieth birthday, he has good reason to feel pleased with himself. As Director of the prestigious Holt Belling Centre for Cognitive Science at the University of Gloucester, he is much in demand as a pundit on developments in artificial intelligence and the study of human consciousness – “the last frontier of scientific enquiry.” He enjoys an affluent lifestyle subsidized by the wealth of his American wife, Carrie. Known to colleagues on the conference circuit as a womanizer and to Private Eye as “Media Dong,” he has a tacit understanding with Carrie to refrain from philandering in his own back yard. This resolution is already weakening when he meets and is attracted to Helen Reed, a distinguished novelist still grieving the sudden death of her husband more than a year ago. She has rented out her London house and taken up a post as writer- in-residence at Gloucester University, partly to try and get over her bereavement. Fascinated and challenged by a personality radically at odds with her own, Helen is aroused by Ralph’s bold advances, but resists on moral principle. The stand-off between them is shattered by a series of events that dramatically confirms the truth of Ralph’s dictum, “We can never know for certain what another person is thinking.”… (more)
Media reviews
Je weiter das Buch "Denkt" voranschreitet, desto positiver macht sich an ihm bemerkbar, dass es darin nicht nur um das Denken geht. Im letzten Drittel des Romanes schichten sich über Ralph Messenger, dem bis dahin in der Wissenschaft und im Leben wie durch ein Wunder wirklich alles gelang,
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gewaltige Türme des Schicksals auf. Es droht die Diagnose Krebs für ein Geschwür an der Leber; es droht die Anreise einer Studentin namens Ludmila Lisk aus Prag, die ihn aufgrund einer gemeinsam verbrachten Liebesnacht bei Frau und Freundin kompromittieren könnte; es droht das finanzielle Aus für das Forschungszentrum und eine geheimpolizeiliche Durchsuchung sämtlicher Computer: Ein kleines Teufelchen hat dem Engel mit großen Buch ganz offenkundig ein paar Kinderpornos untergejubelt. Wirklich spannend, wie David Lodge diese Dinge entwickelt und auflöst. Show Less
User reviews
LibraryThing member atheist_goat
Oh, David. Why must you repeatedly settle me in nicely with a chapter about academic discussions and interesting ideas, and then give me, without warning, a chapter that is literally porn? Jeez. And your womanizing hero? In real life, none of those women would have been at all attracted to him. He
(Not mere porn, either; British porn. Dear God. I don’t pretend to have any answers as to why British sex writing is so appalling, I just know it is.)
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was realistic and they were realistic and the idea that they would want to be around him for more than five seconds at a time was insane. Just saying. (Not mere porn, either; British porn. Dear God. I don’t pretend to have any answers as to why British sex writing is so appalling, I just know it is.)
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LibraryThing member vixen666
Is ok, but not that impressive. Seems to be an overlong creative writing challenge, such as that prescribed by the "heroine" for her class. Someone tried to show off a little too much.
LibraryThing member fpagan
I don't read much non-SF fiction, but issues of AI and consciousness feature prominently in this one.
LibraryThing member ehines
This is a really fine book. All of the humor and observation of his more satirical efforts (e.g. Small World) with a greater intellectual seriousness and a more charitable spirit.
LibraryThing member anandrajan
A total riot of a novel which nevertheless manages to sneak in quite a bit on the mind-body problem.
LibraryThing member RussBriz
More like an advertorial for quasi scientific mind theory. Merged with an unlikely male fantasy. Easy to read though and enjoyable if you like English University soap.
LibraryThing member Philogos
This is a well written book, written as two diaries and a third person narration (also, I nearly forgot, some amusing pastiche of current writing), it is the story of high jinks and adultery in an imaginary university in Gloucestershire.
The two main characters present an interesting contrast - a
In the end, it is the ending that lets one down with all the bits tied down, every punishment fitting every crime - although some may be a touch draconian - and a rather facile endorsement of the idea that what's sauce for the goose...
The two main characters present an interesting contrast - a
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professor of machine intelligence (or therabouts) and a novelist teaching a writing course. Their different points of view are well articulated and the slightly seedy social scene is amusingly described.In the end, it is the ending that lets one down with all the bits tied down, every punishment fitting every crime - although some may be a touch draconian - and a rather facile endorsement of the idea that what's sauce for the goose...
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LibraryThing member TimBazzett
David Lodge's book, THINKS..., is a puzzler. (Okay, I'm stealing this comment from a Darwin quote found in the book: "Crying is a puzzler.") I remember being captivated by his DEAF SENTENCE, a later book I read a year or two ago, but this one was quite different. I mean it's good, but I had trouble
The narrative felt a bit slowed down by all the information about this obscure science, but then really picked up steam in the last hundred pages or so when Ralph became concerned that he could have a terminal illness. I kept thinking, "No! Don't kill the messenger!" Although the truth is, Ralph Messenger was not a very likeable or sympathetic protagonist. The female lead, Helen Reed, was eminently more likeable. But the truth is, Lodge is perhaps one of the most skillful living practitioners of the art of fiction, and, despite Messenger's reprehensible and rather predatory behavior toward women, this was another darn good read.
I was surprised to note in his acknowledgements page that Lodge was inspired to write this book by an article written by John Cornwell, a name I knew from reading Cornwell's memoir, SEMINARY BOY - an excellent and absorbing look at the Catholic Church's 'priest factories' in the 1950s. Since Helen Reed is a lapsed Catholic still clinging to fragments of her faith, learning of Cornwell's influence provides an intersting twist. Or maybe that's just me. In any case, THINKS... is a fascinating look at all the nooks and crannies of what it means to be a thinking human being.
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at times wading through the pseudo-scientific jargon, and kept wishing he'd get back to the "story-part," about the affair between Ralph Messenger and Helen Reed. But it is all connected, so I suppose I shouldn't fault Lodge for including all that stuff about cognitive science and consciousness. The narrative felt a bit slowed down by all the information about this obscure science, but then really picked up steam in the last hundred pages or so when Ralph became concerned that he could have a terminal illness. I kept thinking, "No! Don't kill the messenger!" Although the truth is, Ralph Messenger was not a very likeable or sympathetic protagonist. The female lead, Helen Reed, was eminently more likeable. But the truth is, Lodge is perhaps one of the most skillful living practitioners of the art of fiction, and, despite Messenger's reprehensible and rather predatory behavior toward women, this was another darn good read.
I was surprised to note in his acknowledgements page that Lodge was inspired to write this book by an article written by John Cornwell, a name I knew from reading Cornwell's memoir, SEMINARY BOY - an excellent and absorbing look at the Catholic Church's 'priest factories' in the 1950s. Since Helen Reed is a lapsed Catholic still clinging to fragments of her faith, learning of Cornwell's influence provides an intersting twist. Or maybe that's just me. In any case, THINKS... is a fascinating look at all the nooks and crannies of what it means to be a thinking human being.
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LibraryThing member cogarch
Entertaining interactions and comparisons between a novelist and a cognitive scientist written at just the time I was on my own CogSci course. Most of the well-known thought experiments and counter-intuitive research findings of the time are included: Lodge also manages to throw in some game theory
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and quantum mechanics for good measure. Like other books I have read by this author it tails off towards the end though with its characters, after a brief kerfuffle, more or less plodding on as normal. Show Less
LibraryThing member jayne_charles
David Lodge's books go a long way to dispelling the myth that university lecturers are bearded relics that sit gathering dust in small offices. Here we have the terminally randy Ralph Messenger, professor of Cognitive Science, making it his mission to get the visiting Creative Writing lecturer into
I got the feeling the author was experimenting with styles here - mixing up third person narrative in which the reader has no insight into the characters' inner thoughts with first person narrative and "stream of conscious" narrative (and that last one could be testing at times, until it settled down later in the book and paragraphs were included).
It was clever, it was gripping and above all it was funny: "What it's like to be a bat" in the style of Irvine Welsh was the funniest thing I've read this year.
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bed. This opens the door to plenty of educational cross-pollination as arts clash with sciences, and yet even the high minded lectures on consciousness etc work, leavened as they are by the laugh out loud humour lots of sex, and a plot surprise or two. I got the feeling the author was experimenting with styles here - mixing up third person narrative in which the reader has no insight into the characters' inner thoughts with first person narrative and "stream of conscious" narrative (and that last one could be testing at times, until it settled down later in the book and paragraphs were included).
It was clever, it was gripping and above all it was funny: "What it's like to be a bat" in the style of Irvine Welsh was the funniest thing I've read this year.
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LibraryThing member motorbike
Thinks is just as entertaining as the one other of his books (Therapy) I read some time ago and remember little of. If Thinks was a movie it would have been "made for television" with a small thread of life philosophy. The essence of the novel is a discussion of what is human consciousness. Is it
There are a few different styles in this book which may unsettle some readers. Ralph is revealed through his new thought experiment - recording on tape his reflections of the day, to eventually analyse it to get more insight into human consciousness and help get his work over the hurdle of artificial intelligence only reproducing monkey behaviour, and at best an autistic child, and produce results that are more like normal functioning humans. Helen starts writing a diary to help her get over the death of her husband and to find her writing impulse again. A third 3rd person view of the story is used sparingly and helps the narrative unfold. Overall it did give you the "view from the trenches" of each camp.
The book is full of a lot of cliches and predictable situations and outcomes - the one exception was Helen discovering some facts about her married life. But that is not where the action is - its in the exchange of ideas. issues are raised but not really resolved, so the author needs to "pull a rabbit out of the hat" to bring the narrative to a conclusion, in a somewhat stock standard manner - and that was disappointing as no new understanding of consciousness emerged. Or maybe that is the point of human consciousness - no answers, just a way of getting around.
A good, worthwhile read.
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merely an outcome of normal human physiological functioning (Ralph Messenger, the cognitive science point of view), or something about meaning of one's existence (Helen Reed, the novelist view teaching a creative writing course). As opposite the viewpoints on consciousness so are the two protagonists, the philandering Ralph and the recently widowed and still getting over it Helen. There is an attraction between the two - not surprisingly for Ralph, but strange for Helen, who likes Ralph's wife and enjoys their family company. Through their interactions various points of consciousness are discussed - narrative to make sense of personal experience, differentiating fact and fiction, of truth and lies; sensations, affect, meaning, death, memories.There are a few different styles in this book which may unsettle some readers. Ralph is revealed through his new thought experiment - recording on tape his reflections of the day, to eventually analyse it to get more insight into human consciousness and help get his work over the hurdle of artificial intelligence only reproducing monkey behaviour, and at best an autistic child, and produce results that are more like normal functioning humans. Helen starts writing a diary to help her get over the death of her husband and to find her writing impulse again. A third 3rd person view of the story is used sparingly and helps the narrative unfold. Overall it did give you the "view from the trenches" of each camp.
The book is full of a lot of cliches and predictable situations and outcomes - the one exception was Helen discovering some facts about her married life. But that is not where the action is - its in the exchange of ideas. issues are raised but not really resolved, so the author needs to "pull a rabbit out of the hat" to bring the narrative to a conclusion, in a somewhat stock standard manner - and that was disappointing as no new understanding of consciousness emerged. Or maybe that is the point of human consciousness - no answers, just a way of getting around.
A good, worthwhile read.
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