Salon Interviews Neal Stephenson

edibleplastic writes "Salon has a great interview with Neal Stephenson, author of such science fiction favorites as Snow Crash, Cryptonomicon, and Quicksilver. He discusses his views on the scientific community (both past and present), the world of science fiction, and writing in general. "I think there are common threads between writing and programming... All I'm saying is that the thing you're making -- the novel or the computer program -- has got a very complicated and finely wrought hierarchical structure to it. The structure has to work right or the whole thing fails. But the only way you can work on it is by hitting one character at a time...""

Comments

Re:Writing != Programming

[sbma44]

You're absolutely right. A program can be beautiful, and its creators can take pride in it. This is the same pride a bricklayer might take in a well-built wall. That doesn't mean it's a creative endeavor.

I think it's hilarious that the article includes an edited version of Stephenson's comments comparing programming the writing. He was led into that question by the interviewer and he heavily qualified his answer, to the point where it basically boiled down to "both involve typing". Yet we Slashdotters are ready to jump all over it -- "OMG Neal and I are exactly the same we'll be best friends 4EVER!!!"

Stephenson's awesome: an entertaining writer and a geek to boot. Let's not forget which one comes first.