The Imitation Game

Even after reading the massive biography by Andrew Hodges, and seeing the movie “The Imitation Game,” I am still eager to learn more about the life and work of Alan Turing. “The Imitation Game: Alan Turing Decoded” is a graphic novel (biography) somewhere between those two, and continues to tell his story in an entertaining and informative manner.  This medium, too, is one I am growing very fond of, for its creativity and ease of presentation, in a series of frames like comics, its ability to demonstrate in ways that written text alone cannot. So, do we need more biographies of this man? Yes, and “The Imitation Game” is one of them.

One innovation in this presentation is that people who knew Alan appear to be interviewed, though by whom is not shown. More than any of these people is Alan’s mother, and in memories or flashbacks, we see the people relive their experiences, and Alan himself is the central narrator. At first, I wondered if some pages were missing, the sequence seemed jumpy, and, sketchy (pun intended). If you were not familiar with Turing, many allusions might not make sense, or come across as inside jokes (or similar). Some of the more technical ideas are given more explanation, which is not bad. Another trend is the dodging around his homosexuality, which is more openly discussed as the book goes along – an interesting technique, I like how that was done. Also, those who worked at Bletchley Park during World War II remain unable to speak of their work, which carries historical significance to Turing’s legacy.

Sara Turing, Alan’s mother, is inexplicably interrupted and asked to leave; then, one of the “computers” or “wrens” – women who operated the machines at Bletchley – is brought in, followed by Joan Clarke, Alan’s co-worker and one-time fiancé; Don Bayley at Henslope Park, where Turing went after his second trip to the U.S. and his departure from Bletchley – he was working on radio-transmitted voice decryption at that time; his friends, David Champernowne and Robin Gandy, visiting him at the University of Manchester, after the war; Arnold Murray, whom Alan took a romantic interest in, yet who may not have robbed Alan but blamed someone else he was seeing, the whole incidence leading to their arrest and Alan’s unjust punishment; and Alan’s brother John. Some people even appear as ghosts. Dear Professor Max Newman, one of Alan’s mentors and colleagues, was called in to the court as a character reference, as was chess champion and fellow code-breaker Hugh Alexander, but again, it was Alan’s mother more than anyone who had something to say. I have not read her biography of her son, but I would like to, to further complete the picture. With so many accounts coming forth, there are inconsistencies. For example, Sara Turing says Alan never returned to the U.S. after his time at Princeton, but during the war, he was a sort of ambassador, working with scientists at Bell Laboratories. Also, I don’t know if he wrote quite as many letters in these times as people felt he did (I could be wrong), and he did really like literature and theatre, especially works by George Bernard Shaw. The “Keep Calm and Carry On” signs in background are nice touch, but I thought those weren’t used at that time; however, the activity was off the record, so who knows (and I could be wrong again). But this book picks up on things that the long biography and the movie did not, and focuses on different people, such as Dilly Knox, and events like Winston Churchill’s visit to Bletchley, where Joan Clarke explained their whole operating process. For accented visual and auditory plays, the “bombe” machines are churning away, and generating heat too, such that the computers often worked in their underwear. This book then, like Alan himself, does have some humor.

One thing I find so fascinating, and elegant, about Turing is how the questions that burned inside him came to be part of all the work he pursued or took part in. “The Imitation Game” is such an appropriate title, a thread running through everything – and, Alan loved games, from chess to those he invented, described here like his other experiments. In the author’s note is a fair suggestion to maybe not read this as “pure and objective history,” but it is a fair representation from many perspectives. This is a well-researched and well-crafted book that is a welcome addition to our understanding of Alan Turing. He had a beautiful mind, a beautiful life; so brilliant, so human, and, so tragic and triumphant.