Yeah, probably, Hofstader is like an essayist (He wrote Godel, Escher, Bach which I haven't read but is obviously like famous or whatevs... ;))

I kind of don't like "they", but I agree that introducing a gender-neutral pronoun would be good (and as China said, it is generally acceptable, I think.) Because I don't like "they" and am too nervous to use "zie", I usually go for "she".