Everything and More: A Compact History of Infinity Reissue Edition

by David Foster Wallace (Author), Neal Stephenson (Introduction)

74 customer reviews

ISBN-13: 978-0393339284

ISBN-10: 0393339289

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"A gripping guide to the modern taming of the infinite."―The New York Times. With a new introduction by Neal Stephenson.

Is infinity a valid mathematical property or a meaningless abstraction? David Foster Wallace brings his intellectual ambition and characteristic bravura style to the story of how mathematicians have struggled to understand the infinite, from the ancient Greeks to the nineteenth-century mathematical genius Georg Cantor's counterintuitive discovery that there was more than one kind of infinity. Smart, challenging, and thoroughly rewarding, Wallace's tour de force brings immediate and high-profile recognition to the bizarre and fascinating world of higher mathematics.

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Editorial Reviews

Review

“[Wallace] brings to his task a refreshingly conversational style as well as a surprisingly authoritative command of mathematics. . . . A success.”
- John Allen Paulos, American Scholar

“Wallace is the perfect parachute buddy for a free fall into the mathematical and metaphysical abyss that is infinity.”
- Dennis Lim, Village Voice

About the Author

David Foster Wallace (1962-2008) is the author of Infinite Jest, Girl with Curious Hair, Everything and More, The Broom of the System, and other fiction and nonfiction. Among his honors, he received a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, a Lannan Literary Award, and a Whiting Writers' Award.

Paperback: 384 pages
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; Reissue edition (October 4, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0393339289
ISBN-13: 978-0393339284
Product Dimensions: 5.4 x 1 x 8 inches
Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 74 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #88,505 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #4 in Books > Science & Math > Mathematics > Infinity
- #41 in Books > Science & Math > Mathematics > Pure Mathematics > Logic
- #95 in Books > Science & Math > Mathematics > History

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Stephen Armstrong

Very very funny

October 17, 2013

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

I read math only when I can enjoy it; this book is enjoyable. Wallace is funny, iconoclastic, and over-the-top. He freely acknowledges that modern math is not intelligible to the layman (thank you!) because it is so abstract (yes!) but it can be understood in terms of its progress toward abstraction, set theory, and how infinity (or nothing) fit into the scheme (or don't).

As I was reading this book I thought, "This guy must be bipolar." It wasn't until afterward that I learned he suicided because of an untreatable affective disorder. How sad, totally sad.

Along the way I realized the importance of stuff I had been taught (but hadn't really absorbed) in my Fundamental Concepts of Math class at college (like, Oh, wow, that's why Professor M. kept saying that...) ; and some important concepts that I didn't really learn because, well, you know, I'm a layman.

So, this was fun (for me at least).

I was also amused that Wallace calls his book a "booklet." It is organized around concepts and sections and paragraphs (and his footnotes, also a couple of Emergency Glossaries), not around chapters. I guess chapters implies a book, sections implies a "booklet." Some booklet.

5 people found this helpful

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November 18, 2012

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

This book is well written in a conversational tone that makes you feel like you're sitting down, talking with the author. The level of detail was just right -- enough to appreciate the complexities of the problems with enough proofs to make you understand without going overboard. (And, where appropriate, just sketches without formality)

I also really like how the author traced the history of math through the greeks and into modern math, showing deep connections between Pythagoras, Plato, and Aristotle, and how they influenced (and continue to influence) math today. Many topics from school came back and seemed much more alive as the metaphysical impact was explained.

If you survived college calculus and still retain some basic understanding of it, then you probably won't struggle to get through this book. If you stopped after high school math then you'll struggle.

I'm a computer scientist by trade, and I found many interesting connections between computability, decidability, complexity theory, recursion, induction, countable vs. uncountable, etc. It was a great way to further my education in my spare time.

The only thing that drove me nuts is the author's chapter/section writing style. Why can't he just use normal chapters like the rest of the world? ...And a table of contents. If he had been a little more conventional then it would have been perfect.

3 people found this helpful

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K. Reinhard

Clear historical intro to set theory

August 17, 2018

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

David Foster Wallace’s prose is at times stunningly clear, at others frustratingly loose and vague. His idiosyncratic use of abbreviations is occasionally irritating. But in general, this is a really helpful and extremely fun not-quite introductory account of some key ideas in the history of set theory, culminating with (of course) Cantor, Godel, and the most astonishing Paul Cohen.

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February 16, 2016

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

It's a really good an interesting book about a fascinating subject.

I'm not super thrilled about the writing style, favouring aberrations such as parentheses inception and overly long paragraphs. As a mathematical paper, the style is quite OK. As a novel, it's kind of an eye sore.

In any case, I enjoyed it plenty and wish more literary authors were as passionate about mathematics as DFW, or more mathematicians were inclined to share about their subject and create pieces such as this one. Math history is a gripping, wonderful area not nearly enough covered, and set theory is one of its more fascinating topics.

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Nancyhua

didn't think it could be done, but he almost did it

December 23, 2010

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

This book is not for everyone. I have a math degree from MIT and although I was definitely not the greatest math student in the world I felt like I was probably above average in terms of what DFW expected his audience's math education to include. I had no idea how he was going to write a non-textbook style book on this topic.

He almost succeeds in writing a popular book on this branch of math but it doesn't actually succeed in that I think most people will leave this book, if they even get through it at all, still confused about much of this topic and not really understanding a lot of his proofs or the full significance of many of the ideas. That being said, he still does a really good job. I think his goal is basically unachievable because math requires you to read like 1 line of information, then think for a while, and probably write some stuff down to make sure it makes sense, and then read another line. This is a tall order for people reading a popular book and I think these ideas can only be absorbed at a normal reading pace, which is what people expect of a popular book, if you can think of really clever examples that make each unit of information obvious so that the reader doesn't need to stop to think, so that the reader just understands and absorbs the information as they're understanding the words. That's not what happens here. What's impressive is that DFW describes the whole history of ideas, includes the proofs, and fits the parts of the story together so that they lead to the bigger ideas.

I'd recommend this book to people who enjoy DFW's writing style, know high school level math, are wiling to put thought into the ideas that he goes through or are willing to just accept his assertions of various ideas being true. I do not recommend this book to people who want something easy to read and don't have the time or the patience to invest in being pretty active about understanding some complicated ideas. I think the ideal audience for this book is people who would describe themselves as loving both DFW and math, or someone who already knows all of these ideas really well and just wants an amusing little recap.

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Steven E. Buster

Excellent review of math

July 9, 2015

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Excellent review of math. If this is not a review of math for you and math is of no interest to you, just enjoy the writing and go as far as you can. Feel free to bail out with not the slightest twinge of failure. Math at this level is a fortress to be scaled at your peril, but the view gets better the higher you climb.

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Most recent customer reviews

Daniel Matos

Five Stars

The book is as described.

Published 4 months ago

TwoMetreBill

Journalists shouldn't write math books

If you know enough to recognize his mistakes then you won't learn anything otherwise you will be fooled by his mistakes.Read more

Published 1 year ago

S. Ramachandran

Well written

..with characteristic DFW flourishes, this book is definitely approachable by someone with passing knowledge and comfort with math (like me.Read more

Published 1 year ago

Ishmael

Don't let it kill you.

Nothing compares to reading a grab book about the question and troubles that presents to the world we live in. David gets to that inside the book without telling you.Read more

Published on August 21, 2016

Robert E. Litchfield

Fine vendor! No problems whatever

Fine vendor! No problems whatever!

Published on June 28, 2016

William S Jamison

an exciting narrative

Best philosophy of mathematics book ever. Granted Philip Kitcher is more serious and Russell and Whitehead more wordy and symbolic, and Alain Badiou more leading edge, but DFW...Read more

Published on June 20, 2016

...Max...

Great book, now I want a sequel -- how about Godel?

Great book if you're into math & philosophy. Definitely requires remnants of college math to enjoy, but not too hard for a lowly software engineer.Read more

Published on October 29, 2015

Michael Bates

Five Stars

Great book!

Published on August 4, 2015

J. Mcdonald

brilliant

Brilliant beyond words. As expected

Published on July 31, 2015

LOG

... the summer after my first calc class and have loved the mathematics of infinity ever since

I read this the summer after my first calc class and have loved the mathematics of infinity ever since.Read more

Published on June 29, 2015

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