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Salon Interviews Neal Stephenson

Posted by timothy on from the whose-books-bring-me-joy dept.

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...""

4 of 256 comments (clear)

  1. Neal Stephenson... by FrYGuY101 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Neal Stephenson rocks. Seriously. If you haven't already, read Snow Crash. You'll be glad you did.

    Now that the fawning and praise and adoration is out of the way... He did an interesting essay a while back called In the Beginning was the Command Line. It's a good read.

    --
    "If we let things terrify us, life will not be worth living."

    - Seneca
    1. Re:Neal Stephenson... by nessus42 · · Score: 3, Informative
      Not even close to believable.
      Clearly you just didn't get the aesthetic -- it wasn't supposed to be believable. Snowcrash was originally supposed to be a graphic novel -- i.e., a comic book -- but the artist bailed or flaked out, so Stephenson decided to make it into a text novel instead, while keeping the comic book sensibility. That's one of the reasons why the book is so interesting and groundbreaking. This crossbreeding of mediums had not been attempted much previously. Or at least not so successfully.

      |>oug
  2. Good Baroque Cycle Resource by palutke · · Score: 4, Informative

    Metaweb - A wiki about the Cryptonomicon/Quicksilver Universe, with contributions fro Mr. Stephenson

    --
    'I ain't a liar, baby, and I ain't proud I just want what I'm not allowed.' -- Violent Femmes, 36-24-36
  3. Why is he still considered Science Fiction? by jeblucas · · Score: 3, Informative
    Seriously. I was at my local library the other day (picking up Fedora Core UNLEASHED--who dl's ISO's?) and saw his books over in the SF section. This is an -ahem- colorful area populated by Jedi School books and assorted crapola that the library doesn't want to taint their Fiction stacks.

    Snow Crash, OK. Diamond Age, yes yes. But Cryptonomicon is not very science fiction-y. It's more Tom Clancy than SF--I mean these are computer scientists and all, but they aren't neutronic worms living on the surface of a star. And I just know the librarians are going to toss Quicksilver over there once it's off the "New" shelf. This book is historical fiction-- albeit about nerds, but it's "HF" none the less. (I can't wait for the next Con! Ye Olde Renaissance Faire!).

    When's this guy going to get some credit for moving on?

    --
    blarg.