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Stephenson On His Novel In Progress
Nathaniel Wice writes: "The latest newsstand issue of TIME Digital includes a Lev Grossman interview with Neal Stephenson but the full text is online. Lev tries to push Stephenson on how he feels about the sci-fi ghetto, yielding my favorite line: Stephenson says the best-selling Cryptonomicon was 'an experiment... Can you make a Unix systems administrator into a fictional character who people will find compelling?' There's also some hints about his 'related' follow-up, Quicksilver."
The frog spoke up again and said, "If you kiss me and turn me back into a beautiful princess, I will stay with you for one week." The Unix System Administrator took the frog out of his pocket, smiled at it, and returned it to the pocket.
The frog then cried out, "If you kiss me and turn me back into a princess, I'll stay with you and do anything you want." Again, the Unix System Administrator took the frog out, smiled at it, and put it back into his pocket.
Finally, the frog asked, "What's the matter? I've told you that I'm a beautiful princess, that I'll stay with you for a week, and that I'll do anything you want. Why won't you kiss me?" The Unix System Administrator said, "Look, I'm an Unix System Administrator. I don't have time for a girlfriend; but a talking frog, now that's cool!"
When you are dancing with wolves, never limp
It's like when JWZ said "Linux is only free if your time is worth nothing."
I have always hated that quote for a bunch reasons:
1) It completely ignores the difference between "free"="libre" and "free"="gratis", which is an important one. More importantly, however...
2) It leads the uncritical observer to conclude that only linux suffers from this problem -- it is just as true that a "retail value $99" piece of closed-source software costs $99 only if your time is worth nothing because...
3) Both closed-source and open-source software alike require upkeep by the user; and in fact, since there often aren't as many bugs, open-source software requires less maintenance. Which is made worse by the fact that...
4) When an open-source program needs maintenance in order to work properly, the solution is usually to fix it directly in the source, in which case the problem is solved permanently and the time spent coding has actually generated something of value that remains with the user thereafter (and usually is given back to the community). In contrast, tending software like Windows is like throwing money into a hole in the ground, since the problem is usually never truly solved and will require an equivalent amount of work in the future. And don't forget that closed-source bugfixes are often charged for and encourage endless upgrade cycles.
I could go on, but hopefully you see the point.
"If one is really a superior person, the fact is likely to leak out without too much assistance" -- John Andrew Holmes
Cryptonomicon had a great ending. The others I'm not so sold on, but they aren't as bad as the majority of drivel that makes its way into a hard binding.
The ending to Cryptonomicon was subtle.. moreover, it emphasized the continuation of the characters life, rather than the standard "and everyone lived either happily ever after, or in an appropriately fitting physio-emotional state congruent to the moral lesson of this text; thank you for reading, and for your $24.99". (As a humorous bonus, Randy throws in a few lines about how he doesn't really like the looks of his future; and he'd prefer a 'happy-ever-after' himself)
Doug's resolution was great too, what with his fragmented tale of his father being appropriately broken up by helicopter noise; and I sort of got the point that he never knew his dad, and he followed his own path, but just the same he's going to try to tie the lessons from his father into his own great achievements, eg, Golgotha.
The book was great, and how would you have ended it? It felt kind of like reading a history book, what with the hordes of people dying and information lost, for usually no good reason.
So I dug the quiet moment at the end, where Randy sees the stream of gold; it made me sort of subjective to all the characters who were involved in Golgotha, whose stories we read, but IRL, no one would.
I dunno, you can read the ending several ways; which these days is how I define good fiction. (of course, you can read most tech documentation several ways; that is obviously a Bad Thing.)
I've ranted enough for now, but it seems most readers have something against non-conclusive fiction. So I draw from the film library to give a memorable example:
It's too bad she won't live -- but then again, who does...
From the interview:
Vernor Vinge leaps to mind...who else? Surely most of the physicists who've written SF (Brin, Sagan, Benford, et. al.) probably at least cobbled together a few lines of FORTRAN over the years.Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | my blog
You cannot wash away blood with blood
It's important to remember that the viewpoint of characters in a novel is *not* always the viewpoint of the author. If you've read Zodiac, do you think Stephenson's a left-wing eco-terrorist as well as a right-wing dittohead?
Secondly, in regard to WWII Japan, I don't think you can find much that wasn't true in Cryptonomicon. Rape, murder, and slave labor were all par for the course in the Japanese Empire. If I were a member of that culture, I could only hope I'd have the strength to reject it. (More likely, I'd simply try to ignore the evil around me and go about my business like everyone else, though)
Mercury also directly relates to cryptography 300 years ago because of John Wilkins' 1694 book on the subject "Mercury or the Secret and Swift Messenger".
The pain text version of this posted there is plainful. Go read the full HTML/CSS version here.
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How am I supposed to fit a pithy, relevant quote into 120 characters?
Well, I would take it with a grain of reality. Linux is more difficult for most people out there to understand and work with. It's also his opinion about Linux in a very short, very shallow interview. It's like when JWZ said "Linux is only free if your time is worth nothing." I can't say I totally disagree with that idea. But the issue and intent are always more complex than a sound bite can ever convey.
Bad Mojo
Bad Mojo
"If you can't win by reason, go for volume." -- Calvin
The best quote from the essay is a fictional conversation between a potential user and a member of the Linux faithful...
"The group giving away the free tanks only stays alive because it is staffed by volunteers, who are lined up at the edge of the street with bullhorns, trying to draw customers' attention to this incredible situation. A typical conversation goes something like this:
Hacker with bullhorn: "Save your money! Accept one of our free tanks! It is invulnerable, and can drive across rocks and swamps at ninety miles an hour while getting a hundred miles to the gallon!"
Prospective station wagon buyer: "I know what you say is true...but...er...I don't know how to maintain a tank!"
Bullhorn: "You don't know how to maintain a station wagon either!"
Buyer: "But this dealership has mechanics on staff. If something goes wrong with my station wagon, I can take a day off work, bring it here, and pay them to work on it while I sit in the waiting room for hours, listening to elevator music."
Bullhorn: "But if you accept one of our free tanks we will send volunteers to your house to fix it for free while you sleep!"
Buyer: "Stay away from my house, you freak!"
Bullhorn: "But..."
Buyer: "Can't you see that everyone is buying station wagons?"
Priceless... =)
Yes, I read it and I think that its quite funny. Of course spending a lot of time at big research universities helps to get some of the inside jokes.
I had the get the book from inter-library loan, since Stephenson refuses to let it be re-print. It was worth the effort, though.
Preventive War is like committing suicide for fear of death. - Otto Von Bismarck
I know this has been posted to previous N.S. threads, but check out this Stephenson article titled "In the Beginning was the Command Line". It gives a little more background on his thought process for a few of the things in this interview.
The Answer is 'yes'. Ever heard of the BOFH? 'nuff said :-)
"See, we plan ahead! That way, we never have to do anything now."
Sure you can. The problem with the sci-fi / cyberpunk (sciberpunk?) scene is that, with notable exceptions such as Stephenson's Snow Crash, too much emphasis is put on the technology.
It's like those Harlequin novels - it's cyber hokey, the scene generally lacks dimension. The same problem plagues the romantic novel genre, and especially adult entertainment. The same thing can be found in 'action' films. All guns and explosions, and little of anything else. One-dimensional stories suck, no matter what - even sciberpunk stories.
As for the question, well, now that I've provided my own version of a solution, let me give you a scenario as an example of how to apply it (hey I'm starting to sound like a real blowhard here, hehe):
Let's say this sytsem administrator's life revolves around computers. Why not explore what got him into computers? You'd have to look into his heart and see what enamored him to this hobby, people do this in stories all the time, it adds dimension to the character. Maybe he admires the consistent behavior of computers, maybe he is avoiding the treacherous pit of snakes that is what we call the 'modern American social life'. Maybe he's about to learn some social skills and come out of his shell - or maybe he is about to open someone's eyes to the 'romance' and excitement he enjoys in pursuit of his work. Explore that. Or why not make this guy a well-rounded character? Think outside the one-dimensional box. That would grab people's attention.
Why not put this Unix systems administrator in a whole new world that you've built? Or in a version of this world? Paint some elaborate scenery around him - throw in culture, religion, politics, and social issues. Don't just trap him in front of a keyboard and base a story on the premise that he is saving the world in 101 keys or less.
I think Neal Stephenson's writings represent a good example of an affirmative answer to that question. Snow Crash's Hiro Protagonist, and especially his partners in crime Juanita and YT, were multi dimensional characters. Juanita, heck, she was an expert on religion and Sumerian culture.
BTW: Who else besides me was wowed by that Snowcrash line "Jack the sound barrier. Bring the noise" ?
(Now all the Neal Stephenson haters are gonna kill me. Hooboy. Fan wars. I'm outta here. Ciao!)
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63,000 bugs in the code, 63,000 bugs,
ya get 1 whacked with a service pack,
--- Grow a pair, liberals... stop letting the Republicans bully you!