
Lovelace – The Origin (2009) - bootload
http://sydneypadua.com/2dgoggles/lovelace-the-origin-2/
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jordigh
The printed book is truly delightful. It contains a mostly complete
explanation of how the difference engine worked and how the analytical engine
was supposed to work. It's also full of scholarly footnotes to primary sources
of everything she put into it. And it's fun! Steampunk fantasy of what could
have been. I hope it gets adapted to a movie or TV series some day.

~~~
toyg
I have the book too and it's great, but it's not complete - I'm pretty sure it
lacks the bits with Babbage fighting street musicians.

~~~
gknoy
That sounds vaguely familiar, so I think that it does have it. If not, it has
to be at least mentioned in the footnotes. In fact, I think it might be one of
the first pages of the alternate-universe section?

The footnotes in Ms. Padua's book are _AMAZING_. More entertaining than the
book itself at times. I have never enjoyed reading footnotes so much. That
sounds like faint praise, but I mean it as real praise. ;) She has multi-page
footnotes, breaks the fourth wall in HILARIOUS ways, and introduces you to
characters like I. K. Brunel.

This is a book that I treasure, and I wish I could explain why I love it. It
is a comic book about Nerd Things, with footnotes, and footnotes for
footnotes, and so on. It's a labor of love, masterfully executed, and I feel
like I want to read parts of it again for the fun of it.

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acqq
The comics explaining the background of this comics and the book:

[https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/oct/11/ada-
lovelace-d...](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/oct/11/ada-lovelace-day-
sydney-padua-babbage)

I like them so much.

(And I really don't like the Nicholas Lezard's comment on the Guardian site).

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tehwalrus
Her book (graphic novel) is worth it for the footnotes alone (some of which
take up more than half a page), even if you _don 't_ like steampunk fantasy
with Lovelace, Babbage, Boole, Brunel, and more... And who wouldn't?

~~~
jordigh
I love the depiction of Brunel as some kind of 19th century steampunk
Wolverine. And those badass boasts! Some of them based on real historical
boasts! "I smell... steam!" "Looks like you need an engineer." "With all the
steam I can command, your ladyship." I hope the mythology around these
characters keeps on growing.

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kqr2
Link to the completed book:

[https://smile.amazon.com/Thrilling-Adventures-Lovelace-
Babba...](https://smile.amazon.com/Thrilling-Adventures-Lovelace-Babbage-
Computer/dp/0307908275)

~~~
Jaruzel
I have the book, was a present last xmas - it's a great read! Not all of it is
in Comic book form - there's a lot of well written content as well.

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randomstring
I desperately wanted to love this book as it has all the right elements:
Lovelace, graphic novel, Babbage, the difference engine, steam punk...
However, I felt the number of footnotes were excessive. The footnote material
was excellent, but it felt like when movies resort to using a voice over to
explain the plot.

I bought and read the book hoping it would be suitable for my kids (10 & 13),
but having half its content in footnotes killed it as a kid friendly book.

If you are looking for a good book for kids with smart female leads (a
fictionalized Ada Lovelace and Marry Shelley) I highly recommend The Case of
the Missing Moonstone (The Wollstonecraft Detective Agency #1) by Jordan
Stratford. Probably best for ages 6-10.

~~~
acqq
> hoping it would be suitable for my kids (10 & 13), but having half its
> content in footnotes killed it as a kid friendly book.

I remember being exactly that old as your kids, absolutely _hating_ the books
that were specially made to be "kids friendly."

Because I was aware that the books existed that weren't dumbed-down. That the
grown ups were reading. And of course I wanted as soon as possible to be one
of those. And I liked to see and learn the details when the topic interested
me. That included pictures, diagrams and footnotes.

So from the point of view of me, age 10-13: I hate your approach to your kids
(that were the words of me then, maybe I'd more polite now).

I can imagine that your kids actually _need_ some "kids friendly" books as
seen as such by the parents, but you should honestly ask yourself if there's
your responsibility for that too. I know my nieces also prefer the material
for grownups, if it interests them.

I know what I didn't like at that time: the long fiction books about some
people who lived hundred years ago, at the times when everything was
different. I didn't care to read about what some lieutenant of some non
existing army said to some young aristocrat woman in some country I never saw,
at the ball that actually never happened, but that the author invented to pass
the point and obscure the relation to the now long-dead people he knew, and
how the author thought the woman thought about it etc. But reading details
about something, if I was interested at the topic, more of that please.

So if something is not kids friendly, it's more that the kids don't care too
much about history, and they even more can detect if something is "modern" or
not. You know, the parents are already the generation that "doesn't get it."

My position: if the kids don't like something, fine. But don't decide for
them.

