Alan Turing: The Enigma: The Book That Inspired the Film The Imitation Game

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Andrew Hodges's biography is a meticulously researched and written account detailing every aspect of Turing's life. . . . This account of Turing's life is a definitive scholarly work, rich in primary source documentation and small-grained historical detail." Mathematics Teacher

The Imitation Game by Jim Ottaviani | Goodreads

A captivating, compassionate portrait of a first-rate scientist who gave so much to a world that in the end cruelly rejected him. Perceptive and absorbing, Andrew Hodges's book is scientific biography at its best."—Paul Hoffman, author of The Man Who Loved Only Numbers Most of the technical stuff went over my head. But it was also really fascinating even when I couldn't understand it. In 1952, Turing is convicted of gross indecency and, in lieu of a prison sentence, undergoes chemical castration so he can continue his work. Clarke visits him in his home and witnesses his physical and mental deterioration. She comforts him by saying that his work saved millions of lives. Jim Ottaviani writes books that I love, even if the math's way above my head. He has a way of making you appreciate something you can't quite grasp that I love bumping into while I'm reading. I remember the same feeling reading Feynman. I'm sure the same thing will be true of Hawking when I get my hands on it. The book has been widely reviewed by newspapers and magazines [1] including The Guardian, The Independent, [4] Los Angeles Times, Nature, New Statesman, New Yorker, The New York Times, Notices of the American Mathematical Society, Physics Today, [5] Sunday Times, Time Out, Times Literary Supplement, The Wall Street Journal. [6] Influence [ edit ]This biographical graphic novel is one of my favorite reads ever. It describes the life of Alan Turing, the father of computer science. I can’t tell exactly how accurate this is, but it’s fascinating and heartbreaking to read. The Imitation Game will open the 58th BFI London Film Festival". British Film Institute. September 3, 2014 . Retrieved September 10, 2014.

The Imitation Game by Jim Ottaviani | Goodreads The Imitation Game by Jim Ottaviani | Goodreads

The New York Observer 's Rex Reed declared that "one of the most important stories of the last century is one of the greatest movies of 2014". [58] Kaleem Aftab of The Independent gave the film a five-star review, hailing it the "Best British Film of the Year". [59] [60] Empire described it as a "superb thriller" and Glamour declared it "an instant classic". [61] [62] Peter Debruge of Variety added that the film is "beautifully written, elegantly mounted and poignantly performed". [63] Critic Scott Foundas stated that the "movie is undeniably strong in its sense of a bright light burned out too soon, and the often undignified fate of those who dare to chafe at society's established norms". [64] Critic Leonard Maltin asserted that the film has "an ideal ensemble cast with every role filled to perfection". Praise went to Knightley's supporting performance as Clarke, Goldenberg's editing, Desplat's score, Faura's cinematography and Djurkovic's production design. [65] The film was enthusiastically received at the Telluride Film Festival and won the "People's Choice Award for Best Film" at TIFF, the highest prize of the festival. Hirst, Christopher (15 June 2012). "Alan Turing: The Enigma, By Andrew Hodges". The Independent. Archived from the original on 17 June 2012. The book, A Guide to Codes and Ciphers, is likely a prop. The contents shown, however, are clearly identical to those from Simon Singh's 1999 book The Code Book. Solve Alan Turing's Actual 1942 Crossword Puzzle Published in the Telegraph to Recruit Codebreakers Top 10 Best Movie Performances (#1 Benedict Cumberbatch as Alan Turing in The Imitation Game)". Time. December 4, 2014.When Britain declares war on Germany in 1939, Turing travels to Bletchley Park. Under the direction of Commander Alastair Denniston, he joins the cryptography team of Hugh Alexander, John Cairncross, Peter Hilton, Keith Furman, and Charles Richards. The team is trying to analyze the Enigma machine, which the Nazis use to send coded messages. The depiction of Commander Denniston as a rigid officer, bound by military thinking and eager to shut down the decryption machine when it fails to deliver results. In reality, Hilton had no such brother, and while difficult decisions about when and whether to use data from Ultra intelligence were made, they were decided at much higher administrative levels and not by the codebreakers themselves. [84]

MACHINERY AND INTELLIGENCE | Mind | Oxford Academic I.—COMPUTING MACHINERY AND INTELLIGENCE | Mind | Oxford Academic

Jim Ottaviani's The Imitation Game is the fascinating story of Alan Turing's amazing intellect, awkward and eccentric behavior, his homosexuality and his tragic end. I haven't seen the film, but I felt like this graphic novel gave me lots of pieces about Turing, from early pivotal friendsships to his role in breaking the enigma code in WWII to his trial for homosexuality. I thought it was a bit slow-moving at times; however, that's possibly because so much was covered so it was sometimes difficult to have the depth one wanted. Still, I enjoyed this book and came away with a greater appreciation for Turing and his achievements. The graphics are in general very good. We get to see many of the key pieces of equipment of the era, particularly the code-breaking machines at the Bletchley Park during WW2 and the first computers built at the University of Manchester just after the war. The colors are muted, but fitting the topic. The lettering is diverse and good at expressing who and in which way talks. I also liked how the change of camera angle (point-of-view) is smooth, rather than abused as it often happens in modern comics (possibly because the software for making them has become so accommodating of tracing 3d scenes). The Imitation Game is quite complicated. I would have lost the thread of the story if I hadn't already watched the movie. There are three main sections: pre-war, Turing's war work, then post war. Anyone who already has knowledge about the Enigma machine might enjoy the middle section. Today, Alan Turing is considered the father of theoretical computer science and artificial intelligence. The mathematician, born on June 23, 1912, was a brilliant World War II codebreaker and parlayed that insight into theorizing and creating the first stored-memory computers. Unfortunately, this Officer of the British Empire was persecuted by the British government of the time for his homosexuality and suffered through chemical castration before ending his life.

The epilogue reveals that after a year of government-mandated hormonal therapy, Turing died by suicide on 7 June 1954. In 2013, Queen Elizabeth II granted Turing a posthumous Royal Pardon, honouring his work which would eventually go on to create the modern computer.

Alan Turing – The Enigma – The Book That Inspired the Film Alan Turing – The Enigma – The Book That Inspired the Film

The format is a bit strange, in that, as mentioned above, the story follows Alan's voice as well as that of another person (his mother, his friends...) and an interrogator. It is disconcerting at first, however the use of different colours (Alan's voice in yellow, his mother's in pink, for instance) allows to differenciate between them. Obviously enough, this format follows that of the Imitation Game itself, where a man A has to convince an interrogator that he's not a man, while a woman B has to convince the same interrogator A is lying and she's telling the truth. (I say obviously, because I just can't see how such a narrative set of voices would've been chosen at random.) Disclosure: I received a copy of The Imitation Game from the publisher (via NetGalley) in exchange for an honest review. Robey, Tim (September 9, 2014). "The Imitation Game, review: 'clever, calculated' ". Telegraph.co.uk. London. Archived from the original on September 9, 2014 . Retrieved October 7, 2014. Based on a True True Story? Scene-by-scene Breakdown of Hollywood Films". Information Is Beautiful . Retrieved July 28, 2019.As for the art, it wasn’t the most beautiful art I’ve seen in a graphic novel, but that’s to be expected for a non-fiction story with real people. The prettiest art was in the more imaginative scenes where he was explaining his theories - those were my favorite parts of the book, between the art, the concise explanations of complicated concepts, and the cameo by Ada Lovelace. O'Connell, H.; Fitzgerald, M. (2003). "Did Alan Turing have Asperger's syndrome?". Irish Journal of Psychological Medicine. 20 (1): 28–31. doi: 10.1017/S0790966700007503. PMID 30440230. S2CID 53563123. The other characters are captured very well, and their feelings about Alan Turing are not only recorded with surprising detail given the space dedicated to this endeavor, but also motivated with (visual) finesse. Davis, Clayton. "Film Review: The Imitation Game (????)". AwardsCircuit.com. Archived from the original on September 19, 2015 . Retrieved October 7, 2014.