Name: The Singularity
SKU: 56220460
Price: 559.00 TWD
Availability: InStock
Author: Dino Buzzati

Type

Physical Book

Author

Dino Buzzati

Translated by

Anne Milano Appel

Publisher

New York Review of Books

Language

English

Pages

136

Format

Paperback

Weight

0.37 kg.

ISBN13

9781681378008

Synopsis "The Singularity"

In this prophetic allegory about artificial intelligence by a renowned figure of twentieth-century Italian literature, a modest university professor becomes involved in a remote and enigmatic project in the middle of the Cold War. At the beginning of Dino Buzzati's The Singularity, Ermanno Ismani, an unassuming university professor, is summoned by the minister of defense to accept a two-year, top-secret mission at a mysterious research center, isolated from the world among forests, plunging cliffs, and high mountains. What's he supposed to do there? Not clear. How long will he be there? No saying. Still, Ismani takes the mystifying job and, accompanied by his no-nonsense wife, Elisa, heads to the so-called Experimental Camp of Military Zone 36, wondering whether, in the midst of the Cold War, it's some sort of nuclear project he's been assigned to. But no, the colleagues the couple meets on arrival assure them, it's nothing like that. It's much, much more powerful. At the center of the research complex is strange, shining, at times murmurous, white wall. Behind it, a deep gorge drops away, full of wires and radio towers and mobile sensors and a host of eccentric structures. A question begins to dawn: Could this be the shape of consciousness itself? And if so, whose? Buzzati's novella of 1960, a pioneering work of Italian science fiction, is published here in a brisk new translation by Anne Milano Appel. In it, Buzzati explores his favorite themes of love and longing while offering a startlingly prescient parable of artificial intelligence.

Dino Buzzati

(Author)

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Dino Buzzati (1906-1972) was a prominent Italian writer, journalist, and painter, known for his ability to blend magical realism with elements of the fantastic and the existential. His literary style is characterized by a deep analysis of the human condition, often addressing themes such as loneliness, fate, and time. Buzzati was an influential figure in 20th-century Italian literature.

Among his most famous works is The Tartar Steppe (1940), an emblematic novel of existentialism that reflects the endless wait and the fight against inertia. His literary legacy also includes short stories and tales that explore the absurd and the symbolic, establishing him as one of the great masters of contemporary narrative.

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