kgdykes@watbun.UUCP (01/12/86)
> From: tim@unisoft.UUCP (Tim Bessie) > In article <467@hounx.UUCP> kort@hounx.UUCP (B.KORT) writes: > >Depression is a curious state, that frequently baffles and > >vexes the friends of the depressed person. One thesis is > >that the depressed person has lost touch with reality. > ... > >Imagine how Gallileo felt, or Spinoza, > >or Alan Turing, when, at the time they were active, their > >community failed to appreciate their work, rejected it, > >rejected them. I suspect they had bouts of depression. > >Turing committed suicide. Here we are thirty years later, > >and a tiny fraction of society are able to appreciate > >Turing's work. > > I'd always heard that Turing committed suicide because he was > a homosexual, and couldn't bear living that way (living, as he > did, at a time and place when it was considered a crime). > > --- > Things do seem to turn back to old topics. Last spring I brought up the subject of Alan Turing after reading an interview of the gay author of a biography of Turing (I finally got the book, but havent had a chance to properly read it). From the interview with the author, and scanning the book, I recommend it, depression and all. Alan Turing : The Enigma by Andrew Hodges Simon & Schuster, New York Library of Congress cat# QA29.T8H63 1983 ISBN 0-671-49207-1 I picked up my copy at Glad Day bookstore in Toronto (hardcover). The interview with Andrew Hodges appeared in an issue of "The Body Politic" but I dont remember when. - Ken Dykes Software Development Group, U. of Waterloo Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. N2L 3G1 (+1 519) 885 1211 {ihnp4,decvax,allegra,utzoo}!watmath!watbun!kgdykes