Slashdot Mirror
Ask Neal Stephenson
Our latest Slashdot interview victim... err... guest... is Neal Stephenson, author of (among others) Snow Crash, CRYPTONOMICON, the much-discussed essay, In the Beginning was the Command Line, and more recently a series of books he calls The Baroque Cycle. (Last month Slashdot reviewed the series' third volume, The System of the World.) Now you can ask Neal whatever you want. As usual, we'll send him 10 -12 of the highest-moderated questions and post his answers verbatim when we get them back.
Science fiction writers are my favorite sources of predictions for the futre of technology. So, if you had to make one predicition related to technology - something we don't entirely have now but will be ubiquitous ten years from now, what would that be?
http://www.busyweather.com/
In any event, the question: the first book of yours I read was Snow Crash, followed by Diamond Age and Cryptonomicon. This earned you a spot in my head as an excellent author of techno/SF/cyberpunk (for lack of a more definitive, preferably singular, term). While I've enjoyed the Baroque Cycle (though I admit to not having read the The System Of yhe World yet), I also look at a novel like Snow Crash with an almost wistful nostalgia. With all that said, do you have any plans to write anything else in that genre/style, or do you feel you've explored it as far as you're interested in doing?
Reality has a conservative bias: it conserves mass, energy, momentum...
Hiro Protagonist and Y.T.
What was going through your mind at that moment?
Do you think that hacking tools should be protected (in the United States) under the second amendment?
Neal, what's your Slashdot account name?
May we never see th
Do you ever wish you'd ended any of your books differently? Your books are usually fast paced, but as you reach the last 5-10 pages a reader begins to panic. The thought that always goes through my head is "He doesn't have enough book left to explain it all!" and usually I'm right.
I mean, I don't want to know that Princess Nell had two kids and lived in a trailer park for the rest of her life finally dying of emphezema, but it'd be kinda nice to get just a bit more detail before being dropped off with only a bare explaination of events.
I love your work. But will you be getting an editor anytime soon? Please?
Love,
Gonzo
Gonzo Granzeau
"Nothing the god of biomechanics wouldn't let you into heaven for.." -Roy Batty
Do you ever plan on writing a sequel to Cryptonomicon?
I did not think you would get into the sequel thing, since most others have trouble pulling it off. However, you did a brilliant job of it in the Baroque cycle.
Personally, I thought Cryptonomicon ended wehere it had to, and the Baroque Cycle provided a nice view of the history behind the origins of the characters. However, I'm more curious about how you would take Cryptonomicon in the future, if you were to do so.
Also, I'd asked you this in person when you had given a talk at Georgia Tech - about the endings of your books, to which you had replied that you were quite happy with them the way they were.
But -- if you could have ended them differently, what kind of alternate endings do you think you would have come up with?
Thanks.
Science Fiction is normally relegated to the specialist publications rather than having reviews in the main stream press. Seen as "fringe" and a bit sad its seldom reviewed with anything more than condecesion by the "quality" press.
Does it bother you that people like Jeffery Archer or Jackie Collins seem to get more respect for their writing than you ?
An Eye for an Eye will make the whole world blind - Gandhi
Can you give us any details on what you're currently writing and a guess as to when we'll see it?
Neal,
A lot of us fans loved it when you were in the world of pure sci-fi, though we appreciate the Baroque Cycle, we were wondering if you are going to get back into the world of cyberpunk, or future worlds, or what have you, like in The Diamond Age and Cryptonomicon. What are your writing plans when the Baroque Cycle is complete?
Enoch Root - WTF?
Your books always seem to go on forever, and then rapidly accelerate and then just *stop*. What's the deal? I love the prose, love the ideas, and have read all your stuff - but this sudden impact always leaves me a bit... stunned, like a cow who's just been air-hammered between the eyes... when I finish one of your books.
Since I can't tell them apart, I treat all ACs as the same person.
Cryptonomicon was fantastic, the Baroque cycle is terrific - what's next?
It's all very well in practice, but it will never work in theory.
Can you detail which pieces of Cryptonomicon's WWII history is factual and which are fiction? How much of the team that did information hiding (leaking the code books so as to have a legitimate reason to change codes) was real?
What are your thoughts on Veror Vinge's Singularity prediction. Is it inevitable? Will humans become a part of it or be left behind by this new "species"?
Typically most on Slashdot love your books, but are not happy with your endings, citing how they often come to a very swift, and some may say, abrupt, conclusion.
Do you feel this is an accurate portrayal of your books' endings, and would you like to address this issue?
For brevity, I will cut this question short.
Ironically, the word ironically is often used incorrectly.
Of your novels, there seems to be a certain chronology. You've written novels set far in the past, like the Baroque cycle; in the present, such as Cryptonomicon; those set a decade or so into the future, like Snow Crash; and a novel set roughly half a century from now, with the Diamond Age.
Do you plan to fill in the gaps? Will we see how the formation of a data haven specifically leads to the abolition of the government as we know it, or are these novels not meant to reference each other?
Pax Digitalia
Not only what will we have 10 years from now - but what major item will be gone? [Cars? TVs?...]
Also as a science fiction author - when you write, do you try to paint a realistic picture of the future or simply one that will suit the needs of your story?
There is always a frontier where there is an open and willing mind
Neil,
Please give us some more details about Enoch Root. He's quite an amazong character, but you leave us really guessing about him. Is he the same person throughout the years? Is he the embodiment of the biblical Enoch?
...
In a fight between you and William Gibson, who would win?
I have asked both William Gibson and Hunter S. Thompson a question that seems especially relevant to your work, as you have combined technology with politics in the immanent future in several compelling stories. As corporations move into power vacuums vacated and created by governments, especially globally, who are the new political criminals? Do we already have corporate political prisoners? And how can we change corporatism as we slowly changed politics, to protect the rights of these criminals, and the rights of the rest of us treated as such, without justice? If we hear your answer, I will share the answers from Gibson and Thompson, each as revealing about the writers as about crime.
--
make install -not war
I mean, really?
Do you think computer hacking tools should be protected (in the United States) under the second amendment? Our right to "bear arms" is designed to defend against internal tyranny as much as external invasion. With the world built around information and its interpretation, to certify accountability it will remain necessary for individuals to have the ability to subvert (when necessary) the gatekeepers to popular exposure if those gatekeepers are to be kept honest.
If as much license were applied to the second amendment as has been claimed under the first, we would all be packing hand-held nuclear weapons. Is a port scanner or code disassembler too much to ask?
Do you read Slashdot?
Hello Neal,
You have made a point of studying aspects of the history of science and scientific thought. Would you aggree that with the onset of ARPANET (the world wide web..) much of our great minds are constrained themselves to a subset of potential breakthroughs based on our mimicing of real world metaphors via the web as opposed to genuinely original work?
(On behalf of my brother, who first started pushing your books at me years before I finally read any ...)
Mr. Stephenson:
In some of your books, your action scenes are far detailed (and better informed) than are those of many authors, who gloss over the ways that actual physical objects, including people, interact at close range (including skateboarding, diving, fighting, and the awkwardness of in-car sex with Amy Shaftoe).
This leads me to ask, Are you a skateboarder? Surfer? Martial Artist, and if so of what variety? (Or Rock climber, spelunker, etc.) If Yes in a general sense, how often do you participate in such things now?
More generally, what physical activities that you find especially invigorating mentally?
Tim
jrnl: http://tinyurl.com/c2l8yr / foes: http://tinyurl.com/ckjno5
You must be aware that some of your fans are disappointed with the way you consistently flake out at the end of a really good story. Can you shed some light on your process for ending a novel?
Speak truth to power.
First off, a hearty thank you! In The Beginning Was The Command Line was what initially got me to try Linux back in 1998 - I wanted a free tank! :o)
Second...
It would sem that your father was a big inspiration for Command Line. What has inspired you for your other works? I've always been fascinated by the inspirations of an author's particular works, as they usually give a deeper insight to the work than just the included text.
...Rob
The American Dream isn't an SUV and a house in the suburbs; it's Don't Tread On Me.
you know, before the command line?
The difference between spam and poop is that you don't have to dig through septic tanks looking for real food. -- Me
I'm curious about your take on the commercial spaceflight. First, would/will you go up to space? How do you think this will impact Sci-fi writing. Its been a prominent theme in sci-fi for quite a while, but in reality, very slow to take off. So do you think it will push more stuff to looking at a "star trek" like future? Or do you think its already overemphasized in the literature?
Dear Neal, If given the chance in the future, would you go from being a 100% biological human to a cyborg? If the technology was available would you consider transforming yourself into a fully non-biological entity?
Also, do you think that going from human to non-biological entity would be like going from an LP to a compact disc in the sense that just the platter and fidelity would change and not the tune, or would a person's humanity be replaced with something entirely different? Thanks,
macshune
I recently re-read your article "Mother Earth, Mother Board" in WIRED magazine, and it seems that a lot of research that you did for that article inspired you greatly. Many things that are touched upon in that there crop up throughout CRYPTONOMICON and the Baroque Cycle, are you planning on ever publishing a revised or expanding that article? I would love to about the research that went into the backround/backstory of those books.
ttyl
Farrell
CAN-CON 2019 - Ottawa's only book oriented Science Fiction Convention! October 18-20, Sheraton Hotel, Ottawa, Canada h
I notice most of your work is actually in the past/present and of note, Snow crash and The diamond age are the ones that stick out for me of your works as my personal favorites.
I have to admit that I enjoy reading works set in the future to see how an author envisions the future at our current pace.
Obviously nanotech is an interest of yours and I admit I would like nanotech books (primers ala diamond age) for any future kids I might have.
Are you planning on continued work in the alternative past/present or do you have any plans for future-based works?
Thanks
anime+manga together at last.. in real time.
Since you're Neal Stephenson, I suspect the answer could be something like "surveys of ancient Sumerian accounting systems".
:)
If that's the case, please include a work of modern fiction or two in your list; something you think that a fan of your work might also enjoy.
Read Cryptonomicon and Snow Crash. And in both cases when approaching the last pages I wondered if my copies had pages missing. My sister agreed on Snow Crash case, and decided to ignore Cryptonomicon as soon as I said it was similar. Maybe we should collect some money so we can buy some extra paper for Neal, or more floppies o bigger HD, IMHO he is always rushing the endings (or slowing the beginings).
Neal, In interviews I have read you have stated that during the writing of Cryptonomicon you discarded a third 'future' timeline. Is there any possibility of someday bringing that timeline to light? Do you feel that the contents of that timeline still pass muster given the changes in Cryptography and official power concentration since you wrote the novel?
I've read most of your books, and in each of them (I believe) you refer to "Japan" as "Nippon" and "Japanese" as "Nipponese". Is this purely an affectation, or do you seriously walk around around day to day and say, "Dang, those Nipponese cars sure have swell handling." Do people look at you funny when you toss that around? Is it an icebreaker? What's the deal?
blarg.
You programmed computers before you wrote novels. Greg Egan shares that hyphenated career, and continues to illustrate his stories with Java applets. Do you still program, possibly targeting the same subjects with your word processor as your compiler? As _Snow Crash_ was originally designed as an interactive game, and such landmarks as _Myst_ have regenerated as (usually bad) novels, do you see the arrival of a truly multimedia story, delivered simultaneously in multiple media, anytime soon? By whom, specifically or generally?
--
make install -not war
Neal, I would rather simply read your books than to try to independently model your brain through ontological questioning; however, if you were to suggest some unusual reading to a much younger version of yourself, what would it be?
One of the major themes in Cryptonomicon that carried over (in a big way) to The Baroque Cycle is money. You introduced some "futuristic" views of currency and of where money might be going in Cryptonomicon, and you skillfully managed to do the same thing, while explaining some of the history of modern monetary systems, in the most recent books.
You've obviously spent a lot of time thinking about money lately. Is there anything going on in the modern world with monetary systems (barter networks, for example) that you find particularly interesting? What do you see on the horizon with respect to money?
PS -- thanks for the great books!
When you wrote "In the Beginning was the Command Line" you were very much in love with BeOS. As nice as BeOS was, it is now mostly gone. Do you still use BeOS 5, or have you aquired YellowTab from Zeta? Or, instead have you embreaced the new UNIX based MacOS X as the OS you want to use when you "Just want to go to Disneyland"?
Jedidiah.
Craft Beer Programming T-shirts
I thought it was really interesting in Snow Crash how Juanita (a Catholic) doesn't believe the story of Jesus's resurrection. She claims that it was the Church's attempt to wrest back control of the religion. I'm not Christian but the very idea is really intriguing. Was there a particular source or research for this theory? What about your perspective on religion in general?
Classic era science fiction (Heinlein, Asimov, etc.) was notably more humanistic and positivistic in tone. In works from that era, the future was bright, challenges were overcome by clever individuals, and technology and science led humanity towards ever greater accomplishments. Now, however, science fiction tends to paint a much bleaker picture of the future (and present). Why do you think this is, and do you think this is an accurate representation of potential futures?
is going on 5 years old. The books investrigation into the history and utility of the various OS choices seems to have been inspired by your own search for a dependable word processor. Although it was widely reported that you reverted to pen (or quill) and paper for The Baroque Cycle, have your OS preferences and evaluations changed over the last 5 years? What OS do you personally find the most value in today?
Neal,
How do you deal with the tumultuous hordes of fanboys on Slashdot relating their every waking moment to some aspect of your novels? What's it like to have to deal with that amount of slavering attention?
+1 Insightful, -1 Troll. What can I say, I'm an Insightful Troll.
Mr. Stephenson:
I greatly enjoy your travel stories, both non-fiction (Mother Earth, Motherboard) and in particular your descriptions of the Philipines in Cryptonomicon.
Can you share some of the ideas you've developed for savvy trav'lin? For instance, how do you deal with carrying sufficent technology (whatever level you deem this to be) while minimizing the risk of theft, breakage, or loss by other means? Do you dress native or carry your entire warddobe? [And broader, do you travel with something close to nothing, picking up necessary items as the need arises? What do you not leave home without?]
Do you carry any sort of self-defense means in some places, and if so What and Where?
Tim
jrnl: http://tinyurl.com/c2l8yr / foes: http://tinyurl.com/ckjno5
I've always admired writers whose style implies a certain work discipline, and I may be wrong but it seems as if you have a writing environment that does you wonders. As a world famous author, you have had the opportunity to work in some very interesting places.
My question(s) is(are) this: what is your ideal writing environment? Have you been to anywhere in particular in your travels, or have a writing setup/gig that has compelled you to really get words down, physically, ready for someone else to read?
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
Do you ever plan to do another book with gritty and over-the-top descriptions, along the lines of Snow Crash? I apologize for not being able to characterize the style used in this book better, but I think you know what I mean...
May we never see th
The technology climate has changed dramatically since you wrote In the Beginning was the Command Line in the late 90's. How do recent phenomena (particularly the economic recession) alter the conclusions you drew in that essay?
------- Was it just a coincidence I got moderator points the first time I logged on to
There's really only one inconsistency that bothered me in Cryptonomicon, and that is the character of Enoch Root. Do we have enough evidence by now (I haven't yet read books 2 and 3 of the Baroque Cycle) to solve this conundrum? Would it be solvable?
Finally, was there any particular reasoning behind using "Finux" and not "Linux" as a mythical OS in Cryptonomicon? Or is this an alternate reality where Linus Torvalds went to work for Microsoft?
Thanks for a great and entertaining read!
The end of the story just stopped abruptly and suddenly. Do I have some missing pages, or did you just decide to stop writing at an arbitrary point?
How can we coax intelligent, thinking types like yourself and Lessig onto the ticket?
Get thee glass eyes, and, like a scurvy politician, seem to see things thou dost not.--King Lear
How do you deal with questions from sycophantic slashdot fanboys drooling all over you?
Do you believe things will get better in our lifetime (or ever) through the use of technology ... or do you think as human beings we will continue to strive against one another?
I mean, if slashdotters can rail against a perfectly good OS just because it 'aint perfect/open-source, what hope is there that humans can agree to share food, cure deadly diseases, elect responsible leaders, leave the planet in better shape than we found it and love our fellow man woman xp-user?
BTW
Thanks for the great reads.
Sincerely,
Scott
EE
CU-Boulder '04
First off, thank you for taking our questions; my wife and I are both big fans of your work. The Baroque Cycle is our bedtime reading material du jour, and we're eagerly awaiting your next book.
The endings of your book always seem to strike rather suddenly--once a resolution has been reached, your books simply stop. Setting aside whatever opinions people have about your distinct closing style, could you give us a bit of a glimpse into how you craft the endings of your books? Do you put a lot of work and thought into the final chapter of a book, or does it simply reach a point where you stand up and say, "there, it's done"?
Obliteracy: Words with explosions
There are a few virtual worlds right now, which are trying to become the "metaverse". The two well-known ones are Second Life (www.secondlife.com) and There (www.there.com). Have you tried either of them, and if so, which one do you think does a better job?
Mr. Stephenson,
I have found your works to be both illuminating and invigorating. Having said that, why do you write? That is to say, Is there an overall guiding influence to your craft as a whole, and does that somehow inform what you set out to accomplish in each novel?
Kind Regards, Sergio A. Mora
Trust The Computer. The Computer is your friend.
Mr. Stephenson,
I have been reading and finding your books interesting. However, I was wondering if there was a prediction that you felt was going to happen, but didn't...and this surprised you to no end. Was there such a prediction and what was it?
Thank you.
Do you know why the road less traveled by is littered with the bones of the unwary?
How do you deal with the groupies? The people who nitpick technical details you missed, or simplified for plot reasons? How many non-spam emails from fans do you get on a normal day? How often are you recognized on the street?
In short, what's it like being a Rock Star to the Nerds?
Neal, at one point you were a coder. Eventually, you became a writer. There are many programmers on Slashdot -- do you recommend this path to them? How do you find writing English as a profession versus writing code as a profession?
May we never see th
Mr. Stephenson:
...
I've read that you wrote your most recent books, which have plenty of words, in longhand, with a fountain pen.
What kind of pen (or pens) could you put up with for so long? Did it make you write more slowly? Did you turn in long-hand manuscripts to your editors / publishers, or decant first into a text processor?
I enjoy writing longhand, but even my favorite pen (Lamy Safari) gets a bit much to hold for more than a few hours
Tim
jrnl: http://tinyurl.com/c2l8yr / foes: http://tinyurl.com/ckjno5
Earlier in your career, I heard you compared to Arthur C. Clarke for your ability to present the thoughts, fantasies and concerns of the tech-bubble-white-collar in ways that not only entertained but enlightened (where Clarke was doing the same for the aerospace and technology engineers of the 50s). This was abstract and entertaining in Snow Crash, speculative in Diamond Age and bitingly believable in Cryptonomicon.
So my question is this: were the Baroque Cycle books just an excursion away from that synergy that you had with the high-tech common man, or the start of a long-term trend? Don't get me wrong; I'm not saying they were bad books (far from), just wondering how it fits in.
Will you have my children?
Greetings to you in the name of the most high God, from my beloved country Nigeria.
I am sorry and I solicit your permission into your privacy. I am Barrister Leonardo Akume, lawyer to the late Dr. Koffi Abachus, a brilliant Nigerian mathematician.
My former client, late Dr. Koffi Abachus, died in a mysterious plane crash in the year 1994 on the way to a scientific conference to make an announcement of the utmost importance to mankind.
He was planning to present a paper regarding his extensive work on data storage. It is said the data storage device he had developed, would be roughly ten times more secure compared to the latest quantum excyption techniques. The device was about the size of a steamer trunk, and stored on a privately owned island close to the coast of Nigeria. Dr Koffi Abachus is also the King of the local tribe by heritage...
Oh well.. Should there BE a data haven? If so, where?
"/Dread"
Do you have a favorite musketeer?
I'm given to understand you wrote the Baroque Cycle entirely in longhand to force yourself to be more succinct.
:)
What are you going to try now?
Seriously, can you comment on this experiment? Do you plan to continue it in the future?
Do you think Linux is totally awesome?
Why do you write the way you do - long-hand, typewritten, word-processed, or dictation?
...an Englishman in London.
As a historian it has been interesting for me to see you tackle historical subjects (and from my period to boot). Something which often pops up when I debate with my colleagues is the constraints that our profession puts on how we portray history in writing. The demand for concrete sources for everything we write often leaves us unable to put into writing some of our understanding and conceptions of historical societies and events.
So I wonder, how do you see us? Having gone from science fiction to historical novels, how do you view historians and how we write history?
It appears to me and many of my friends that you develop this great story and characters, then you pull a "Bladerunner" on us and toss a dove up in front of the Bonaventure and the book is over. Cryptonomicon is better than Snow Crash, but it still relies on the final few pages to pull the 900 pages together in the end. Do you get this kind of feedback ever, or notice it yourself?
man rtfm
Your books always seem to be painstakingly researched. Which comes first, the desire to write the book which creates the need for the research, or the research inspiring you to write the book?
www.linux-skunkworks.com
Neal, what is your favourite non-science fiction book?
Do the books you read affect to your writing and if they do then how?
When describing (or defending) Science Fiction to readers of other genres, I often say that Sci-Fi is the only genre (actually, "setting", but that's a digression) in which authors pose the question "What if?" and give readers the chance to look ahead and choose to do or not to do, for fear of an apocalyptic future, or what have you.
In your works of fiction, what lessons do you most hope that we readers will learn?
Coffee is my drug of choice.
Does Yevgeny, by any chance, bear the last name Ravinoff?
(Do not sign anything.) -- Fell, Planescape: Torment
You are the only science fiction author whose books I buy on sight, in hard cover, price-be-damned. That probably makes me a fan.
Whats books or authors do you consider invaluable to a person's accurate understanding of American history?
Eugene Debs: "Money constitutes no proper basis of civilization"
Who would you have RIPPED OFF if WILLIAM GIBSON never existed?
But -- if you could have ended them differently, what kind of alternate endings do you think you would have come up with?
Moderators and editors - PLEASE add this thought to the highly-moderated question earlier about Neal's endings. I'd rather hear this followup, rather than waste one of of 10-12 questions on a reiteration of "I'm happy with them the way they are".
----
WWJD...For a Klondike Bar?
What is the best - or most inspiring - book you ever read?
Follow-up question: what are you reading right now?
How did you like it when I gave you the bone hard and fast last night? I was the one in the sombrero...
To expand a smidge further: as covered earlier on Slashdot, the problem that the singularity presents to futurists is troubling. By definition the singularity is the point at which the rate of technological change is faster than can be imagined.
How does that sort of thing bother you as an author of futurist/speculative fiction? Wouldn't you rather there be a nice crash of civilization to keep the pace of technological advancement slow enough so that predictions in your books get outpaced by the march of technological "progress"?
Of course, given said crash of civilization, you'd best have most of your assets in gold. And it might be unlikely that your publisher would continue writing you checks, but that's a different story.
When?
How do you cope with the blank-page problem and times when the story seems to dry up in your mind? Does it ever happen to you?
...an Englishman in London.
there have been speculations here on /. that you might suffer from certain neurological disorders such as Asberger's syndrome or such. If the question is not too personal, is that true to what extent and do you have any types of autims that you are aware of?
but could Neal just go back to writing shorter novels with some sort of believable plot closure. I notice that a lot of extremely long novels end abruptly because the author appears to have forgotten what the overall plot was, what with keeping a small army of characters and subplots going for 800 pages. By that point the auther to too fatigued to figure out a logical resolution to the plot and just ends it.
There seems to me to be a trend in popular geek culture towards ever larger and more grandiose tales - Lord of the Rings and The impending Chronicles of Narnia series in the film Genre, epic video games that can absorb people's entire lives like Everquest and Star Wars Galaxies, and of course your own Baroque Cycle and Cryptonomicon being examples of the trend towards longer books/series. Is this a trend that will continue indefinitely? Will you ever write a novel as short as Zodiac again?
A pizza of radius z and thickness a has a volume of pi z z a
After reading half a dozen complaints about the Neal Stephenson blurb in a story posted earlier Feather-based Jacobean Space Chariot, now we have an entire article about him.
Dan East
Better known as 318230.
I really liked your novel NEUROMANCER. When are going to write a sequel?
Is there such a thing as an ending consultant? Could you perhaps employ one? I'm sure that your books would sell much better if the author line was "Story by Neal Stephanson, Ending by Whots Hisname."
-russ
Don't piss off The Angry Economist
(insert all the usual kudo's here)
Neal, I read a lot of science fiction (yourself, gibson, asher, mm smith, banks...to name a few) and as much as enjoy reading the genre I can't but help get mildly depressed by the fact that I know that all this stuff will eventually happen in some way/shape/form and I won't be around to experience it.
And I'm not just talking about tech (eg. molly's eyes in Neuromancer) here, I'm also talking fundamental societal shifts and advancements that often underpin the great SF works.
Do you ever get depressed or get this sinking feeling that you were born a century or two too early, and how do you deal with it?
Neil,
How do you see your books (Snow Crash in particular) fitting in with the greater social criticisms of our time? Is there a over arching point that you are trying to convey? How do you see your novels fitting in with the greater commentary of our culture as portrayed in cyberpunk?
Mikey
I've always been the kinda guy to fall for the girl dressed like an eskimo.
Do you think that your style has changed from cyberpunk/Snow Srash into a more historical fiction as in The Baroque style?
Will we see another future/cyberpunk novel, or is this a permanent change and if so, what would you attribute the change to?
There are very few novelists these days who write their novels in the present tense ("He gets up, goes to work"). Most people write in the time-honored past tense ("He got up, went to work.") style.
Why did you start using the present tense after writing your first two books (The Big U, Zodiac) in past? What does it do for you that past tense does not? Was it hard to get your novels accepted by the publisher because of the unexpected tense?
Editor Emeritus and Senior Writer, TeleRead.org
In The Diamond Age, you make a couple of fundamental biology errors.
At one point Victorian-man is looking in on his daughter sleeping and thinks about how the air entering her lungs is being incorporated into her body. If anything, the exact opposite is occuring, humans are slowly burning away thanks to the air they breathe in and she must eat to replenish the fuel and body. Oxygen she breathes in is exhaled as CO2, so instead of adding molecules, breathing removes them.
In another section, Victorian man is riding his horse and you make some comment how the old growth forest is denser and harder to ride through then the stuff that grew up after the clear cutting (someone find this passage please). Seems like you've never seen an old-growth forest (wide open), or what grows up after a clear cut (dense thicket).
In Snow crash, Hiro asks skater-chick to pull his avatar onto the motorcycle and take it back to the club. How did she do that? You made a long drawn out point earlir in the book about how avatars couldn't touch each other and that's why they bow instead of shake hands. They can't shake hands, but they can drag each other around???
Also in Snow Crash, you talk Hiro up like he's a sword-master god who thinks outside the box and looks down on people who can only do Kendo. So, during the sword/knife fight on motorcycles, why did Hiro drop his katana in favor of the short sword? Are you telling me that he's some loser in-the-box thinker who can't wield a katana one handed? Are you saying he was using *both* hands before he lost his arm? During a high-speed motorcycle chase? Who the hell was driving the motorcycle? Why is he such a fool to give up the obvious advantage of a long sword versus a knife?
Oh the knives... wtf? Made from plate glass? That's the stupidest fucking idea I've ever heard. You could have at least given him a good ceramic knife. A plate glass knife would last maybe one encounter. I've made knives from glass-- they aren't durable.
You describe the eight-foot bamboo harpoon that Raven fashions in the field as "heavy" when Hiro deflects it. I have an 11 foot (4 inch tapers to 3 in diameter) bamboo staff that I use to warm up with before moving on to the heavy wood staff. The 11 foot bamboo staff weighs less than 1.5 pounds (and it's still green). What kind of magical heavy bamboo were they using in that field?
I thought you hand a bunch of smarty pants professors reviewing your books. Why do you make such stupid mistakes?
becaus eyou spell your name wrong? You know like: OK so you want your plaque engraved N E I L.
This
Dear Mr Stephenson,
I'd like to take this more as an opportunity to make some comments on sci-fi as a whole, and i would be interested to hear your reactions to those comments.
i have read every decent sci-fi book i can get my hands on - yours, hamilton, bear, banks, card, macleod, reynolds, clarke, asimov to name a few - at one point i ran out of books and had to start reading the scifi masterworks series like psychoshop and last and first men.
from a materialistic point of view, the subject matter ranges pretty much the whole gamut of timespans as outlined by "last and first men" by olaf stapledon: i.e. all other sci-fi books pretty much "fill in some of the gaps" on a timeline scale of 2*10^^3 years ("snowcrash" by yourself) up to about 10^^8 years ("the end of eternity" by asimov).
from a spiritual point of view, the subject matter is fairly coarse: wars, lawlessness, alternative laws, politics, sex, intrigue, science projections come true - very few authors - orson scott card, ian macleod, peter f hamilton being amongst the notable exceptions - have anything that sets stable or benign higher consciousness [than humans] at the forefront of their storylines.
even iain banks, who introduced "the culture" to us, with the [real intelligence - bugger the "A" in AI] "minds" going far beyond human baseline consciousness, couldn't, i don't think, quite come to terms with the magnitude of what he was describing: just at the point where his "culture series" books began to touch on the "sublime" races, he himself xxxxed off on a motorbike pub tour of scotland (or so i heard).
so, if there _is_ a question, it's this: why is there so much "soul-searching" going on in sci-fi books that doesn't really hint, except in macleod's "dark light" and a very few others, at the underlying spiritual and god-quantum-ridden nature of the universe??
to make that slightly clearer than mud: recently, stephen hawking had to announce that he was wrong in his belief about black holes not having memory: i am sorry, but that's just so obvious to me that in a universe where dimensions are strings (and where most dimensions are temporarily of zero or near-infinitesimally-zero length) and the number of dimensions is infinite, the ability of black holes to store information seems abundantly clear: the collapse of matter into a black hole merely transforms that matter up the chain of higher dimensions (into its "memory"), where three of those dimensions (which we know as x y and z) simply have the same value - for all the matter at the centre of the black hole.
if _that_ is possible, then certainly a hell of a lot more is possible than what even sci-fi books are only hinting at!
Okay. What is the air-speed velocity of an unladen swallow?
Lars T.
To the guy who modded me down from perfect to terrible Karma - Apple haters still suck
The Wikipedia lists you as a part-time advisor for Blue Origin, a company that is working to "develop a crewed, suborbital launch system." What is it that you do for them and has the recent winning of the X-Prize by the Spaceship One team had any effect on Blue Origin's plans? What are your visions of future private space flight?
http://www.rootstrikers.org/
Are there any plans to include Feather Based Jacobean Space Chariots http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/10/1 1/1219218&tid=134&tid=160&tid=14
in future works. If so, will you be giving Slashdot a mention in the credits?
Do your friends call you Mirrorshades Stephenson?
First off-- thanks for coming to the national book fair. I enjoyed your talk and thanks for signing my copy of system of the world.
your 5 major works explore the rise and fall of the modern nation-state. The Baroque Cycle shows its genesis and rise (esp. vis a vis the development of centralized banking and modern financial systems), Crypnotomicon sows the seeds of its fall (untraceable tax havens through strong crypto and electronic "money") and Snowcrash and Diamond Age show a "post nation-state" world.
Was it always your intent to explore this theme way back when you were writing Snowcrash, or did it grow "organically" as you started working on new books?
Now that this theme has a beginning, middle and end, do you intend to continue exploring it in future books, or is it now "done" and time to move on to new subjects?
Have you ever seen a Science Fiction Convention?
The best way to deal with Sci-Fi groupie girls is distract them with some cookies or donuts and then run like hell!
Here we are, over a decade later Snow Crash was published. MMORPGs seem to have brought the metaverse into reality yet it is not quite the metaverse we imagined. Other virtual worlds such as Second Life and Moove seem to be a step closer to the metaverse, but both lack the simplicity and core elements to attract a huge market on the same level as instant messaging has.
Without question, text based chat on IRC, AOL, instant messaging and elsewhere has played a major role in bringing the masses online. Ironically, in an age of high-powered video cards and broadband, internet communication it seems text-based communication still works the best. While text-based communication unquestionably has advantages over graphical forms of communication (ie, I can search usenet postings from years ago) there still are some disadvantages. Flame wars erupt on message boards over the misinterpreted connotation of an otherwise benign comment. The lack of body language and tone of voice seem to be the primary causes. In many cases, "call me now" is the only option to prevent a disaster.
What do you feel is standing in the way of the "true" metaverse becoming reality? Or is it only a matter of time before an innovative developer brings it to us? Also, how would you feel about Digital Rights Management in a metaverse? Do you think that DRM would encourage artists to create their own works, leading to a more diverse and vibrant metaverse, or would the world be better off without it?
Err, I hate to put it this way, but the endings of most (2/3) of your books I have read (Cryptonomicon, The Diamond Age) have been an unequivocal disappointment. Ex: I got to the end of 1000-something pages of Cryptonomicon and said, 'eww.' Is this something you find particularly hard, or put less effort into, or is it a time crunch at the end of your writing cycle due to publishing pressures?
I have to say I admire your lack of 'series' work - most science fiction writers end up falling into a rut and digging through the gold vein there. (see: Herbert, Asimov, Anthony, Niven, etc.) Have you ever been tempted to make a series out of a particular book, and which one?
My little site.
How many times have you gotten a pizza for free because it took over 30 minutes?
And a follow-up, what do you take on it?
Are you still investing in geoduck futures? And when can we expect geoducks to play a prominent or supporting role in one of you novels?
Predestination or freewill?
I love your work. Is there an intravenous version of any of your books?
Anyway, my question is this:
When staging a piece in a phantastic world, I'm sure you go through a tedious process of creating a lot of background, technological aspects and their social implications, etc.. But taking into account that any person can only alter and recreate impulses he has previously absorbed, DO YOU SEE YOUR WORK IN THE HERITAGE OF OTHER WRITERS AND THINKERS? What inspires your characters's personal choice, social expectation, their inner world? And which is more fun to write: The cool techno-babble up front or the story behind the lines?
sincerly
Benjamin H. from Hamburg/GErmany
mhack
Building a better ribosome since 1997
Quicksilver seemed polymathic, almost Pynchonesque, to a degree. By the time of The System of the World, the Cycle seemed to me to have changed to a good yarn about old friends. To what extent was this pre-planned (the change in style, not the Pynchonesque business), and to what degree did it naturally evolve while writing?
sorry, wrong story.. mod parent down its offtopic
The war with islam is a war on the beast
The war on terror is a war for peace
I am currently reading The Diamond Age.
And i've recently finished Highschool.
I was wondering what you think are the major flaws in the current western educational system.
And in what ways do you think it could be improved?
A while back there were rumors of a Snow Crash movie. Which, if any, stage of production is it currently, and will you consider writing a sequel?
-Christopher Wu
http://www.christopherwu.net/
Neal,
I admire your work not just for its intense ingenuity, but also for its over-arching consistency -- a feat all the more impressive because your books are so sprawling. So I ask:
How do you revise? I mean, do you go back over your work with a fine-toothed comb, trying to find all the "perfect" words, or do you incline your ear toward polishing the rhythms of your sentences? Do you rearrange whole chunks of your narrative? Do you look for plot holes after the fact or just try to avoid them in the first place -- some of both seems necessary, but which strategy dominates?
Also, I've read that you write out your first drafts longhand before typing up your later manuscripts. Is that just what you're most comfortable with, or does it serve a specific purpose in your creative process?
Finally, how do you know when you've finished a book?
Answer as many or as few of these questions as you please. Thanks.
Your most recent set of novels is based largely on historical events, but you also take liberties with the history. Did you choose a set of guidelines on when and where you would deviate from historical fact? If so what were the guidelines?
this is not a sig
Thanks!
Am I the only person who purchased the book Diamond Age, read it from cover to cover, and thought it was the best piece of writing Stephenson ever did?
Read any good sonnets lately?
How do you seem to write faster then I can read?
[place
I believe that was a common usage previously, and Neal's are period books.
-Looking for a job as a materials chemist or multivariat
First, THANKS for your work! What I am curious about is the synergy that (at least to me) seems to exist between SciFi writers and real world technology. Writers can be inspired by new technology for creative ideas for stories, and at the same time, writer's imaginations seem to fuel a part of the creative/imagining process of technology. I guess my question would be: Do you see this happening, or is my own imagination running amuck? I read some of the older SciFi and see (and USE) some of the technology imagined by those writers, hear about astounding advances now, etc., yet I wonder Where do you (SciFi writers) see SciFi heading in view of TODAY'S technolgy?
Down With Slashdot BETA!!! I've been around the corner and seen the oliphant; you can only abuse me from your perspecti
Being a Slashdot editor already gives you advantage to ask *your* questions (instead of the Slashdot readership), must you post multiple questions that you could mod up yourself?
I have enjoyed reading the first two books in the Baroque Cycle and I am now starting on the last in the series. My question for you is, how do your works relate to Thomas Pynchon's Mason & Dixon? There are commonalities of style and theme in both of them: they follow pawns from the Royal Society involved in events that they don't fully understand, they are set in the same time period, they both use the same linguistic style, they both take us all over the world at the time, they are both heavy on retro-science, and finally they are both about individual freedom and the role of the state and science in freedom.
Thank you
I read it from cover to cover, and think it's the best piece of writing Stephenson's done. However, I did not purchase it; instead, I used my local library. =]
But it's definitely his masterpiece, IMO.
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
Which author most influenced you to begin writing, was it even scifi?
Dude, WTF?
Before you became well known, did you (or do you still?) take part in writers groups or other resources? When did you know you were a writer?
Coming from a tired system jockey who wants to write, what are the best avenues at fine tuning a writer's voice?
Thanks
that you are a Thomas Pynchon imitator for people who are not otherwise very well read?
Snow Crash draws a picture of a highly commercialized future, with countries being replaced by large cooperations. Do you think this is a direction mankind is currently heading to? If yes, what should be done in your opinion to reverse this trend?
Over the last few years, your primary fiction writing focus has changed substantially. From early works such as
'Snow Crash' which fall into the more hard core genra of science fiction, to the recent release of 'System of the World' which along with the 'Cryptonomicon' and the rest of the Baroque cycle lead more towards a historical period when technology was just beginning to enter the age we know today. What caused this change? Are future works going to stay in this current type of setting or will they return to the near future with the grim outlook you seemed to hold in earlier years?
01:36AM up 426 days, 2:46, 1 user, load average: 0.14, 0.11, 0.05
...Cryptonomicon is 'Gravity's Rainbow' with some nerd references added, literary allusions removed and the serial numbers filed off. Stephenson has based his career on ripping-off Thomas Pychon for the mass audience so I think its unlikely at this late stage he is going to own up to a M&D comparison (although I can see where you are coming from on this obviously).
VI or EMACS
Sleep is for the weak!
I was just browsing through some old issues of Wired and came across that article you wrote about laying cable in the pacific. ITBWT Command Line is also noteworthy nonfiction; do you have any other exercies in journalism or nonfiction in mind?
// I will show you fear in a handful of jellybeans.
As someone who switched majors from Comp Sci to English (Creative Writing), after reading Snow Crash, I'm interested to know how you view the novel in hindsight. In reading it the first time, I was blown away -- at the time it felt very much like that world was only a few decades a way, at most -- now, I re-read the book (about a dozen times now) simply for the fun factor and to study your style and the construction of your story, and I'm struck by the fact that I view a world like that as being highly highly unlikely. I'd be curious as to your opinion as to how the novel has stood the test of time, and what you'd do differently this time around.
blog |
It appears that you're slightly confused on the whole sex issue. Usually there is some fumbling around and coaxing and attempts to excite a woman at which point the guy humps for a while until she finally achieves orgasm at which point he lets go and explodes and it's all over. Where did you meet these women who get all excited and have an orgasm as soon as you slide into them? Is this based on real life or is it an extension of the same syndrome that causes you to hurry the endings of your books?
Is the rush to climax pervasive across everything that Neil Stephenson does? Do you spend hours cooking a meal and scarf it down in less than a minute? Do you fill a bathtub, jump in, and scrub in less than five minutes? If so, do you blame television?
Neal,
Is there any chance we will see more of the characters from Zodiac?
This is your one book I REALLY would like to see more off.
G/
My Paintball Pics
In Cryptonomicon, what was the information contained in the punched sheets of gold foil? I never could find the answer to that question, and I've never run across anyone else who knew either.
In the Cryptonomicon, sometimes you use titles like Electric Till Corporation (IBM) or Finux(Linux), other times you just used the real world name like Microsoft or Mitsubishi. Were there a legal reason for using ETC instead of IBM, or was it a whim? What was the rational? Sangloth I'd appreciate any comment with a logical basis...it doesn't even have to agree with me.
My question to you is : Will we see a sequel to Cryptonomicon? I think it would be fascinating to observe the birth of the crypt and how it would change the world.
I'm a big fan of your work. Your prose style has always reminded me of V/Lot 49 era Pynchon, which always left me wanting more. In fact, other than subject matter, your writing has always seemed a lot more like "serious" fiction than scifi to me. Who are some of the writers outside of scifi who have influenced your writing?
Good point.
... I understand the semantic sensitivity, and don't want to touch off a firestorm over a nuance I forgot to consider.
Moderators: Feel free to change "hacking" to "cracking" or "hacking/cracking"
I never know when I am getting to the end - a lot of books now seem to have copious amounts of ads at the end, sometimes the entire first chapter of some other book!
Now I have a double panic - "Oh no, is there enough to finish this up to my satisfaction? Oh, what if the last 10 pages are really ads!"
This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
I meant to put in some break lines....
In the Cryptonomicon, sometimes you use titles like Electric Till Corporation (IBM) or Finux(Linux), other times you just used the real world name like Microsoft or Mitsubishi. Were there a legal reason for using ETC instead of IBM, or was it a whim? What was the rational?
Sangloth
I'd appreciate any comment with a logical basis...it doesn't even have to agree with me.
You have often been compared to authors like William Gibson and Thomas Pynchon. How much did these authors influence your writing? Who else do you draw upon? Do you get sick of being called "Pynchon Lite" or "Gibson-esque"?
Snow Crash was one of the first times I have seen a description of virtual worlds described. One of the realizations of those virtual words for me have been the MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Role-Playing Games) and I would like to know if you have had any experiences with them and what those experiences have been like.
Do you think that if anyone created a successful data haven now (Sealand is not really successful), they would end up being invaded by the major powers for supporting terrorism?
Do you have to fight your editors to let you publish such long books? If so, I'm glad you won the fight in Cryptonomicon, but in Quicksilver I wish your editors had fought a little harder.
My questions have to do with the state of political/civic life in the United States: Where does your interest in American politics lie? If given the opportunity to make changes to the American systems of government, where would you begin? What are the most important civic problems the United States is facing? How are those problems best addressed?
Thanks for your body of work.
sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.
Being an artist, does your ego permit you to acknowledge that, beyond the life lessons and philosophy that good writing inherently conveys (Lawrence and Randy Waterhouse spewed more life-affirming mindfucks than any ten Hemingway protagonists), your fiction gives people a better (intuitive, if not specific) understanding of relevant technical fields than years of classes?
Of course, this queston is just a thinly veiled contrivance to gush to you about how your books have personally effected me, for example:
I could go on, but I have to catch a bus back to school. In closing, you are easily my favourite author (among cyberpunkers, sci-fi classics, historical fiction writers, modern 'bestselling list' whores, old classic authors, anyone), and I go all "Neal's Witnesses" on people whenever they bring up literature.
Also, why have you all but disowned The Big U? It's a great book!
This post by dupper (470576), stopped by the 2 post daily terrible karma limit (only so because 'Overrated' counts as -1, while 'Funny' does nothing; stop the hate!)
After reading the Baroque Cycle and Crytonomicon, the fanatical reader can begin to lace together almost every major character from Cryptonomicon to an historical predecessor in the Baroque. Some connections, like Avi's crypto-jew ancestry to Moseh's departure into the american southwest, can only be made speculatively by aforesaid fanatical reader. But the question is, did you, the author, write cryptonomicon with all of the centuries-old backstories prefigured? or in writing the baroque did you ideate the history which would land more contemporary decendants appropriately? Will it matter? (in the later books we all want to read so bad!) Or are these just easter eggs for those who bother to think about it?
Subquestion: do you believe in genetic determinism?
Dear Sir, I sincerely write to seek your co-operation and trust to enable my colleagues and I carry out an urgent business opportunity in my department. I work with the Quantum Encryption Company of Nigeria PLC, currently I am the senior manager of bills and exchange at the foreign language encryption department of my company. I have an urgent and confidential business proposal for you. etc ...
I enjoyed Cryptonomicon very much but I was constantly struck by similarites in theme and style to Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow. Are you familiar with the book? Do you feel that Pynchon has had a significant effect on your work? Are the similarities intentional?
But I didn't get the chance. You seem to have a really excellent eye for culture in each of your books. The Victorians and Chinese in Diamond Age, the British in the Baroque cycle... Is there any culture in particular that's piqueing your interest right now, or that you feel more of an affinity for than any other?
To truly understand recursion, you must first truly understand recursion.
Hi.
I noticed in the first two Baroque cycle books that you're enchanted by the distillation of phosphorus from urine.
As a matter of fact, it is described in both books with a level of detail that suggests, shall we say, first hand knowlege of the process.
How much alchemical (and mathematical) tinkering do you do when researching your books? How do you go about researching such things...
solo binges of ravenously devouring of source materials, or do you seek out experts early on the process to point you in the right direction?
-Sgt.P.
Growing up as you did in Ames, IA, home of Iowa State University and the Atanasoff-Berry Computer, where do you weigh in on the debate about the winner of title "First Electronic Computer"?
"Secrecy is the Beginning of Tyranny" "No intelligent man has any respect for an unjust law" -Robert Heinlein
Why is such a mediocre writer so adored by slashdot drones?
(watch this get modded troll by the fanboys)
http://slashdot.org/~GuyFawkes/journal
Here's mine:
The world is a vast shitpile populated by an even vaster array of troglodytes, losers, meatheads, jackasses, ignoramuses and low wattage fumblementalists of every political and theological stripe.
Why should I care about the future? Give me one reason to give a damn about what happens anymore.
--- Ban humanity.
Do you have plans to write any more novels under the Pseudonym Stepehn Bury with your uncle? It seems that in todays political climate both The Cobweb and Interface seem to have a renewed relevance without taking a partisan stand.
I enjoyed you more when your stories were more concise. Is your current trend of longer stories a permanent fixture in your writing?
meh.
Um, did I use the words "ripped off" anywhere in my post? I just said there are many parallels. All great innovation is based on what came before. Without Shakespeare there would be no Ran by Kurosawa; it's not a rip-off, just bring it into another form. I'm bringing up this question because I haven't seen it brought up anywhere else. And yes, I have read and enjoyed both M&D, and the Baroque Cycle (just started on the System of the World).
It almost seems like you're embarrassed as your descriptions get very vague.
"I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey
Dear Neal,
What cool gadgets do you carry around? How should I go about mugging you?
Tim
To what extent do you think the influence of technology affects peoples' view of current events? Does the immediacy of today's media bring us closer to the world around us, or push us further away?
Dear Neal,
:)
The Diamond Age is my favorite novel of yours. I was wondering if you could talk about this book - what you were thinking as you wrote it, what ideas or events inspired it, how it came into being.
thanks,
Anon. Coward
P.S. to Slashdot: I am the same Anonymous Coward who asked Rob Glaser of Real "what the hell he was doing." I never expected my off-the-cuff remark to get modded all the way up and eventually submitted to him! This kind of stuff can only happen on Slashdot. To his credit, he responded with aplomb, which I greatly respect. Sorry if I sounded like an ass, Rob.
Mr. Stephenson,
In your books (Snow Crash and Diamond Age particularly, because they deal with the future) you discuss moral and physical systems of the world - how people organize themselves to optimize their well-being or achievement or how groups work to do so. How do you think the world will organize itself in the future?
How do you respond to the common criticism that you need to find a stricter editor to pare down your writing?
It's come up several times here on Slashdot when your books are discussed, so I assume you've heard the comment too: That you've gotten overly wordy to the point that you seem to be just rambling to fill the pages and amuse yourself. You've sort of made a reputation for yourself as being a clever or intellectual sort of writer -- could not brevity contribute somewhat to the overall impression of wit?
... I'm just curious.
In addition, many people have commented on errors (spelling and otherwise) in your recent works. It seems to many of us that you desperately need an editor. How would you answer that charge? No offense intended, I'm sure you'll continue to do what you like to do
Breakfast served all day!
Stephenson: Do you think, someone could make a Cryptonomicon movie or is the book too complex, has too much storry to fit in a 90 minute film?
Hi,
Snow Crash shaped my idea of technology, at least what I wanted to create in it. Likewise Diamond Age. I think many toolmakers look at fiction and think, can I make it so? Or, know how to make but not what to make. It seems like we technologists have made much of the tech from the science fiction of the past a reality. (ok, cept for space colonies and the cure for cancer :-)
I haven't really found much good speculative fiction lately, or rather, I don't want to make distopian visions true. I found it interesting that you go back in time, and write about the past. Did you decide this was the way to write a better future?
Many people don't have any inkling of the history of natural philosophy, and if you write about it as fiction, are you not reprogramming the past to make a different future? I kindof feel like the baroque cycle is like the primer in diamond age: what will the kids make if this is what they assume the past to be. How do you feel about programming the minds of geeks? Have you discovered a way to debug the logic flaws in English?
Anyway, I guess the question is, do all stories have to have a beginning, middle and end?
Having read both Snow Crash and Cryptonomicon, I get the impression that you are aware that, as our society becomes more information-oriented, there will be more public and larger battles over the future of open information: both legally, as universities and companies are driven to protect (with patent and copyright) all discoveries and socially, as Peer-to-Peer and portable computing transforms the way we connect to one another.
May we hear what your opinion is over "intellectual property" -- copyright, patents, and so forth?
Do you like Japanese imports?
What are your speculations as to the role of Cognitive Science in the long term development and/or survival of our species.
I believe the connection between the Past (Baroque Cycle), the Present (and recent past) in Cryptonomicon, and the Future (yet to be written?) will be made -- we're just in the middle of it. Enoch Root *is* the same character in the Baroque books and Crypto -- that's what makes them all sci-fi. My guess is that he's a time traveler, though others have their opinions.
The intricate family connections also lead me to believe that the story will continue in the future, not only with the Shaftoes and Waterhouses, but the Kivistiks, von Hacklhebers, and the owners of the Bomb and Grapnel as well. In all, Enoch is the key.
So, my question to Mr. Stephenson: Neal, can you confirm or deny?
I'm that anonymous coward who said 'rip-off'. Your example is all very well, but it lists genuine influences rather than convientient cribs. Gravity's Rainbow is not clearly that similar to Ullyses. However Cryptonomicon does very much feel like a watered down GR. I assert it is more than just some passing influence at work. Most remiss, Stephenson goes on to make an airport thriller, not a great piece of art. You can mention Pynchon and Joyce in the same sentence without sniggering, but Pynchon and Stephenson? I'm not so sure.
The question: Children today interface more directly with technology by bypassing some of the metaphor elements of a GUI (i.e. kids learn how to use a computer without ever touching a typewriter and know that the "desktop" is really just a folder in a file directory). Where do you see this phenomenon leading, as younger generations learn to work with technology and associated concepts with less "intermediation"? Is this something "new", or is this the classic "older people are less willing to adopt innovative technologies"?
Would you buy one if it was availble. I would in a heartbeat.
"Stylistically innovative"? Despite the list of names your provide as evidence of your knowledge of art, it is very clear to me that you don't read very much. Put down the Star Trek novelisations and read some proper novels. Stephenson is anything but a stylist or an innovator. He follows the standard recipe for writing thrillers. If that language is new to you, you need to step outside the tie-in sci-fi/Linux manual genre.
What about his endings he likes, or how he feels is the proper way for a story to end. I think he might have some strong feelings about this, or maybe he has a unique persepective on things since he must grow very close to the worlds he meticiously creates. I'd like him to share this.
THIS THING CAN TURN ON A DIME, MACROSSZERO STYLE ALSO FUCK BETA, ~NYORON
Dear Mr. Stephenson,
Is it true that your books were not in fact written by you, but by another man of the same name?
(With apologies to The Bard.)
What are your writing plans when the Baroque Cycle is complete?
I was under the impression it is complete. Does that mean the answer to your question is that he plans to answer Slashdot interview questions?
Neal,
Do you write towards a goal or is the goal, the completion of a book/series, formed as you write?
Regards,
Scott.
I love your books and I am delighted that you are so highly-thought-of by one of my other favorite authors, Neil Gaiman. Before I ask this question, I want to reiterate that in my opinion, all of your books are splendid.
All of that said then, why do your books tend to degenerate into senseless violence half to three-quarters of the way through? The first half of Snowcrash makes my short list of the best books I've ever read, but then sometime in the middle everything goes kerplooey (kerplooey in a fascinating and interesting way, but kerplooey nonetheless). Diamond Age, Cryptonomicon and Zodiac do not make that short list, but they are great books, and they share the same sort of end. Do you write these amazing books and then decide at some point that it is just time to end it, at which point you tear down what you've built up (or perhaps start books and then finish them much later), or are those plot-lines ones that you had all along? Either way, your prose is ingenuitive and captivating; I am just curious about the origin of the end-stories to these pieces.
Thanks.
Liora
Mr. Stephenson, I've read nearly everything you've written and enjoyed my time engrossed in your books. One thing has always bugged me about Cryptonomicon though. Why was the ending so poorly written? It has always seemed to me, like you decided it was time to end the story and just threw something together as quickly as possible.
I would love to hear the true story behind why the ending was written the way it was.
Thank you,
-Chuck
*Condense fact from the vapor of nuance*
One of the things I've seen in many of your books is the disconnect between an engineering mindset and a business/marketing mindset. Few characters (and few real people, IMHO) have the ability to think in both of these fields.
How far back do you think this disconnect goes? Were there, (in your opinion), badly socialized Cavemen engineers inventing wheels, and Pointy-Headed Caveman Bosses who grabbed those wheels and rolled them down on top of the Cavemen of the Valley?
Or was the "engineer" mindset created only with the rise of business/industry in the modern style; akin to the theory that Serial Killers are a creation of the 19th/20th century ?
Neal: why you do make so much money when you're no better as a writer than 99.9% of all other science fiction writers? Also, why aren't there any talented science fiction writers? I tried buying a few Hugo winner books and, while the story ideas were GREAT, the writing was so poor that it was a real effort to finish any of them. Admittedly, most of the bestseller "mainstream" authors are pretty bad too. But, hell, isn't there even ONE writer active today who's any good?
I completely agree, there have been many interesting occurrences with Enoch. At one point in Cryptonomicon, he actually dies during WWII, but is alive and well to point Randy in the right direction. Then he appears in all three of the Baroque Cycle, and at one point "brings Daniel Waterhouse back to life". So what is he? Did he find the philosophic mercury, the elixir of life so to speak? Or his he the manifestation of an idea, something that floats around in an "unreal" state and is only personified when he is needed? The second idea appeals to me a little more because of the way that he seems to bounce in and out of the story line and only shows up when something important happens, or when he must perform some action that allows the story line to progress.
From the beginning of the Internet, information has gone from being open to proprietary to closed. The DMCA has made more information illegal due to locking it and making keys illegal instead of establishing the trade secret status or copyright of the information inside. As predicted by many SF writers, people have begun to trust computers to keep real secrets. Hackers, once lauded for their abilities, are now feared for them. Diebold, for example, got embarrassed badly by having their secrets uncovered. How do you believe governments will deal with unpredictable hackers who suddenly have such powers?
-Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase temporary safety deserve neither. -Ben Franklin
Mod this question up. I'm interested in his influnces as well. Also, what technology or technologies influenced him.
Is "Cryptonomicon" in any way inspired by Thomas Pynchons "Gravity's Rainbow"? While reading "Cryptonomicon", I noticed that some aspects of the book resembled some parts of Thomas Pynchons book "Gravity's Rainbow", they share parts of the humour (Cryptonomicons Giant lizards during the drug/dilerium trips) or the WW2 timeline, and both are written in a postmodernistic style. After searching a bit on the net I saw that many other people noticed this. While "Cryptonomicon" being not so philosophical and linguistic complex structured as "Gravity's Rainbow" (and thus IMO not in the same class as "Gravity's Rainbow"), it still gives a feeling of allusion to "Gravity's Rainbow" to me.
I was jolted by the ending too, but then I realized he really did end it the way it should be ended. I'll explain my take on it below, but first let me point out that I'm going to be discussing major spoilers, so if you haven't read the book--- WHY ARE YOU READING THIS ANYWAY?
OK, with that out of the way, here's the ending: Nell, Miranda, and Carl are pulled out of the water by the mouse army. A church bell rings. The end.
Now here is what happens next: The Celestial Kingdom achieved its goal and equilibrium begins again between the phyles. Miranda marries Carl, they both become the parents for Nell she always wanted, Nell is now queen of a brand new phyle, and she can go on to whatever she wants to do as she deals with the other phyles in trade and negotiations. Hackworth is no longer needed and the book wasn't about him, a big hint for which is given in the subtitle of the book that talks about a "Young Lady."
All of the above is implied in the book. Nell was trying to find her "mother." She found her. Carl was trying to find Miranda. He found her. Nell was trying to solve the primer. She solved it. The mouse army needed to find their queen. They found her. The struggle between the phyles needed to move to a new level of equilibrium. It did. Finkle-McGraw wanted to figure out how best to use the primer. He figured it out. The end.
The only thing Neal Stephenson didn't do was spell all this out at the end. He merely implied it by noting what the characters were seeking, and then showed they each found what they sought. Bells play. The end.
(Please note that I've not finished the System of the World yet)
The conspiracy in the World War II period of Cryptonomicon travels halfway around the world with a large amount of solid gold punch cards. While the cards are being transfered, Rudy notes that the information on the gold is quite valuable; this makes sense as one wouldn't use gold to make punch cards unless the information you wanted to put on them was more valuable than the gold. These punch cards go down with their submarine, but are then later brought up by the Saftoes. Randy notices that the gold has been punched, but no mention is made of the cards after that point.
What's on those cards?
How can the same guy who wrote Snow Crash, Zodiac (one of the best books ever written IMHO) and Cryptonomicon have written the 'Baroqe Cycle'? In my opinion its the most bloated, wirthless piece of fiction to cross my self in recent years. I almost never put down a book once started but a couple of exceptions are Cujo and Quicksilver. I'm not buying any of the others in the series.
bcl
Neil-
Are you happy with the way the Internet has been developing over the years since you first wrote about the metaverse? While we have yet to interact with the internet through some sort of virtual reality interface, community sites (moveon, slashdot, etc) and online gaming (among other things) are currently pushing that boundry now. Is it growing like you expected it? What future internet related developments are you excited about?
-Thanks,
troy
When reading good books, I like to complement them with good music, and occassionally, the music matches up quite well, as a soundtrack for the book. When I read "Snow Crash", I was listening to The Orb's "Cydonia", among others.
Do you listen to music while writing? Do you find yourself listening to the same small group of CD's, to help build a mood? If so, which ones?
It would be nice to find out what albums, songs or streams (who listens to radio anymore?) my favorite authors listen to while working, so I can listen along, and have the same listening soundtrack as you did in writing it.
In my view, In the Beginning Was the Command Line is one of the most important documents of hacker culture ever produced -- it endows hackers with a sort of technological cosmology, explaining our activity in terms of broader cultural trends (in the real world) and consequently giving us a rather privileged position in the universe. I periodically re-read it, devotionally, as if it were a religious text. I sent a copy to a non-technical writer and she described it as "downright erotic".
Apart from the sacred text, your novels also serve as a shared hacker mythology, honestly capturing the experience of being a geek in the midst of stories that are just really really good.
Contrasted with the works of more consciously self-important hackers (eg. esr), your writings seem even more important because you don't seem to intend them to be. If hacking is a meritocracy, then so is writing about hacking, and your place in the pantheon has undoubtedly been earned.
My question, then, is how you view your own relationship to the "hacker community", especially vis-a-vis esr and others who explicitly position themselves as "hacker anthropologists", and whether you consciously conceive of your role as storyteller and mythmaker... or whether you're just an geek who writes geeky things and happily discovered that other people wanted to read them.
when that skateboard girl latched onto the car using that big suction cup thing?
That was cool.
And, and, and remember in Cryptonomicon when that guy said you could map out a city by watching men's hats go up and down?
That was cool too.
Evil is the money of root.
I see a number of common threads between the Baroque Cycle and Cryptonomicon and wonder if your writing plans include extending into a future society with these threads (precious metals/economy, Europe/Southeast Asia, science/information, and of course Enoch Root)?
What do you mean "advantage to ask [my] questions"?
:)
I haven't modded up any of my own questions (it's a no-no), and I also am not using my karma bonus. If they get modded up, it's not through any conspiracy.
I'm a reader, too -- just like the Hair Club guy. No special advantage in this context
Cheers,
Tim
jrnl: http://tinyurl.com/c2l8yr / foes: http://tinyurl.com/ckjno5
NealStephenson:
Q: So it is the same Enoch Root in both of the books?
NealStephenson: Yes
Taken from a 2003 interview of Neal. http://www.scifidimensions.com/Oct03/nealstephenso n.htm
One of the things I enjoy most about your books is the amount of detail with which you describe history, technology, events. I think this is most prevalent in Cryptonomican so far.
How do you go go about researching for your books and what kind of sources do you use?
All interpreted languages are abstractions over Lisp
I just have to know, is Harry going to die?
A couple of questions: 1) You say on your website that you think it is more productive to write novels than to interact with the public. Since I think that your novels are spanking fantastic, I would tend to agree with these sentiments. In light of this, what the hell are you doing answering these questions? Get back to writing immediately!!!! :-)
(The above comment meant in the nicest and politest possible way - apologies for the smilie, btw. :-) )
I never had a problem with the ending in "The Diamond Age". Who cares about the stuff you described above?
The point IMO was that technology shapes culture. The central feeder system led to the Vickies with their rigorous self-discipline to become a dominant phyle. But their culture is inadequate to deal with the more powerful tech of the seed. So confucianism will be the next dominant culture.
The point is made. Story ends.
I have enjoyed your books, especially Snow Crash, but it seems like you are falling prey to "Fired the editor Wheel-of-Time-itis", meaning the story begins to become muddled in the massive page count. Have you considered taking steps to prevent this, including giving up more control to your editor?
Power appears as a broad theme in much your writing. You repeatedly show the deep impact on individuals (and groups, cultures, religions, etc.) from the direct use of influence, secrets, technology, ideology and capital.
Have you developed any theories or ethical guidelines that you believe make power effective or not effective; and has your perspective on real life has been influenced by your own research/work in this area?
What non-science-fiction writers have influenced you the most?
What is your favorite novel, album, and movie in the 21st century?
The only true currency in this bankrupt world is what we share with someone else when we're uncool. -Crowe
Any interest in possible future movie deals? Are you in talks with anyone at the moment? I imagine a SCIFI miniseries of cryptonomicon would be quite well received; though my secret wish is to see Snow Crash incarnate (without looking like a cheap attempt to work the words "Virtual Reality" into the plot as much as possible)
If you were looking at a visual representation of any of your fiction, which would you choose to pursue, assuming that the studio was adept enough to render any of your works true to your vision? What format (feature-length / mini-series / series) ? Any favorites for leading roles? Would you retain creative control? Would you update any story elements? (for instance, the MetaVerse)
I am disrespectful to dirt! Can you see that I am serious?!
Neal,
Let me say I appreciate your novels tremendously.
Assuming that being successful as a published novelist is at least as much about self-motivation, focus and hard work as it is about creative inspiration, what do you do or think about that makes you sit down and write every day? How do you maintain that drive over the length of time that it must have taken to write _The Baroque Cycle_?
How do you think your Car Analogy in "Command Line" would stand up to /. scrutiny? Would it pass (that is, leave the /. audience dumbfounded in the presence of a Successful Car Analogy), or fall by the wayside like most others as Yet Another Failed Car Analogy (that is, generate about 575 comments pointing out all the ways the analogy fails)?
Slashdot: Failed Car Analogies. Amateur Lawyering. Anecdote Battles.
Most of the other posters are asking about the fiction books, or sci-fi in general. I would like to ask you about current events and the supposed "clash of cultures" (Left/Right, West/East, CLI/GUI etc) that are going on right now.
From "In the Beginning was the Command Line" -
Quote - "Orlando used to have a military installation called McCoy Air Force Base, with long runways from which B-52s could take off and reach Cuba, or just about anywhere else, with loads of nukes. But now McCoy has been scrapped and repurposed. It has been absorbed into Orlando's civilian airport. The long runways are being used to land 747-loads of tourists from Brazil, Italy, Russia and Japan, so that they can come to Disney World and steep in our media for a while.
"To traditional cultures, especially word-based ones such as Islam, this is infinitely more threatening than the B-52s ever were. It is obvious, to everyone outside of the United States, that our arch-buzzwords, multiculturalism and diversity, are false fronts that are being used (in many cases unwittingly) to conceal a global trend to eradicate cultural differences. The basic tenet of multiculturalism (or "honoring diversity" or whatever you want to call it) is that people need to stop judging each other-to stop asserting (and, eventually, to stop believing) that this is right and that is wrong, this true and that false, one thing ugly and another thing beautiful, that God exists and has this or that set of qualities."
- Unquote
Given the current "war on terror", do you think that conflict between Islamic cultures and western cultures was inevitable? Is the U.S. really an image-driven culture that has no values?
You do not appear to be a very religious person, and have made some rather disparaging depictions of religion in your works. There seems to be an assumption in much of cyberpunk and even leftist politics that assumes that people will naturally become secular as technology becomes more advanced. Yet currently we have a president who considers Jesus to be his guiding philosopher, and applies faith-based beliefs to almost every descision he makes, and his avowed arch-enemies are people who want to establish the rule of Islamic law across the world. Do you think that religion will diminish in importance and everyone will become mostly secular capitalists as in your books, or do you think faith will be an important issue for people in the 21st century?
Lastly, you write about other nation's cultures very well. What do you think it would take for the U.S. to win proverbial "Hearts and minds" in the rest of the world, Islamic and otherwise? Is that even a desirable thing to do?
References:
1 2 3
When I first read Snow Crash, I was struck by the use of "Nippon" and "Nipponese." In my ignorance at the time, someone had to tell me that Nippon is the "real" name of what most Americans know as Japan. In the Snow Crash universe, I assumed that using the name Nippon instead was a bit of cleverness, revealing that, in this version of the future, the island nation had gained enough international influence to get everyone to call it by the preferred name.
However, in Cryptonomicon you keep up the pattern despite the novel being set in the past and present. Even if soldiers in the Pacific theater of WWII preferred the slang "nips" to "japs," I find it difficult to accept that Randy Waterhouse and his techie friends not only say "Nippon" and "Nipponese", but that Randy even thinks in those terms.
Do you know something that I don't about how people think and talk about Japan/Nippon, or are you trying to bring your readers around to your own preferred terminology through good, old-fashioned immersion?
I wish that my inferiority complex were as good as yours.
-RenderHead
There has been a lot of talk recently about SF dying. It seems that reality is progressing so fast that SF authors are unable to follow it. Your books are all about a relatively near future. Would you like to change some of your books, based on how the "future" turned out to be? Do you think any of your predictions were not exact?
First off, I want to thank you for taking the time to answer a few questions for the slashdot crowd. Most of us know from reading your web page that you take your time very seriously, and rarely respond directly to inquiries from fans.
That being said, is this the best way to intelligently interact with your fans? In other words, do you believe that the slashdot moderation system, with which I'll assume you are familiar, truly pushes up the most interesting questions to the fore? Can you imagine an alternative way for a celebrity to engage in profound discourse with his fans in this many-to-one relationship?
The only true currency in this bankrupt world is what we share with someone else when we're uncool. -Crowe
About "System of the World"... We never do find out why Daniel Waterhouse is so dead set against Newton getting even a tiny sample of heavy gold -- nor why his punch-cards have to be made out of it, particularly. (Surely Newton would have been happy to swap regular gold, straight across.) Anyway, Newton himself says he has found counterfeit guineas in circulation made out of it; what happened to them? Futhermore, Daniel can't have got *all* of it; surely van Hoek and others kept back a bit for themselves. Knowing how keen Newton was on the stuff, why wouldn't they have offered to sell him some at usurious prices? And, what finally happened to the tiny scrap after the assay?
Hi,
You've written about computing, hackers, Turing (et al), and the future. You've also written about the moment in the history of 'science' when Newton (etc) were starting the separation of physics and maths from astrology and alchemy.
So where is computing, on the spectrum from superstition to proto-science to applied engineering? Are hackers like engineers and alchemists of 1600 - with coherent, well thought out theories about the world that we use becuase they work sometimes, but which will turn out eventually to be based on completely wrong ideas? Or do we really know what we're doing?
Either way - what does that mean for the future of computing?
Sean
In your opinion, why have your books increased in length?
Logic, macros, and more
As you're well aware, the most "dangerous" aspect of strong crypto isn't it's use at the hands of Osama Yo Mama and company, it's in the ability to do private unregulated and international wire transfers that could cripple the US income tax system.
The question is, how far will the US Gov't go to cripple crypto, and what are they doing now?
Item: we know Microsoft got off way light at the hands of the US-DOJ. Is that because the gov't wants to encourage and popularize the sort of pathetic security Windows is famous for? Was there a quid pro quo between M$ and the NSA involving Windows backdoors?
Item: voting machines. The top four vendors of electronic voting systems (ES&S, Diebold, Sequoia, Hart Intercivic) all run Windows as components and they all...well, suck. We know more about Diebold because we actually have the code available for download and test (google my name "Jim March" and "Diebold") due to an idiotic open FTP site on their part. The point here is that even in this app that screams "security!", piss-poor or completely missing crypto was tolerated and even promoted.
We could go on for days.
Thoughts?
(And a followup: given that Cryptonomicon brought this issue to public view more than any other document in history in my opinion, have you been pressured officially as a result? I consider it one of the two most "wonderfully subversive" novels written lately; the author of the other (John Ross of "Unintended Consequences") has indeed been harassed (by the BATF).)
A Novel Idea Have you ever considered a novel that would dramatize 17th century plans to build a space chariot out of springs, feathers and gunpowder? The design could be based on the idea that gravity disappeared at an altitude of 20 miles, which was called into question by Hooke and Boyle.
Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
When Be gave up the ghost, one of the fre innovators left in the OS market died, but at the same time Apple moved to its BSD-based OS X.
Do you think that OS X, with Aqua and apple's many consumer-friendly apps, in combination with the BSD-based Darwin is the present-day successful analoge to Be?
And just out of curiousity, since you had a BeBox at the time, what do you use now?
e to the pi i plus one equals zero
In light of the fact that you wrote Command Line, I would like to know what operating system you are using today and how you selected it. I would also like to know what you think of the current state of operating systems, and if you have an opinion on the current SCO vs. Linux battle.
Snow Crash seems to be the best known, if not the most popular one of your "pure" sci-fi books. Do you have an understanding of why this is? Is it because the release of Snow Crash was perfectly aligned with the rise of the cyber-punk genre? I always found Diamond Age to be a much more fascinating and visionary novel than Snow Crash. Do you happen to like any one of these two books better than the other one? Or asking an author to choose between to books is like asking a mother to choose betwen two kids?
What is your favorite word?
What is your least favorite word?
What turns you on?
What turns you off?
What is your favorite curse word?
What sound or noise do you love?
What sound or noise do you hate?
What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?
What profession would you not like to do?
If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?
Finally, what the f*ck is the deal with Enoch Root??
Neal, would you be interested in a project like this that can spread the popularity of the Baroque Circle series beyond the current set of fans? Or are we going to have to wait until the ages between The System of the World and Cryptonomicon are bridged by some of your future works?
How (much) do current events play a role in shaping the different aspects of your works-in-progress?
and now back to the fallout shelter...
...and not a computer geek?
I immensely enjoyed Snow Crash and The Diamond Age as offering both believable perils and possiblities for the present and future world(s). However, as a scholar in a admittedly little-known interdisciplinary field called Social Foundations of Education, I took your treatment of humanities academics in Cryptonomicon as an unfair slap in the face. I felt that you were trying to "boost up" Randy Waterhouse's refusal to acknowledge that his race, gender, and previous educational opportunities might have had something to do with his position in life in order to play to many (if not most) of your readers' attitudes. Maybe this is unfair too, but hackers and even run-of-the-mill coders are notoriously hostile to the acknowledgment of social inequality, especially in ways that implicate them and morally demand their participation in reducing it, however minimal. Instead, taking potshots at the messengers as pseudo-intellectual pricks who would put make-up on a WWII soldier's face for a "War as Text" conference poster seemed to be a way to duck the issue.
At any rate, I'm not a literature scholar, and I am a proud product of a Southeastern state university. I consider myself a die-hard geek in my love of sci-fi, fantasy, anime, technology, i.e., the usual categories of interest. Yet I saw myself in those Bay-area/Ivy League literary scholars. The message I got was that there was no room for me amongst the "real" movers and shakers because I'm an academic who studies people, not a hacker running a business. I felt marginalized, tossed aside, and yes, hurt because an author who I admired and respected so much just told me that my type not only doesn't matter in this new world, but doesn't get it.
So my question is, if I'm taking Randy's dinnertime chat with the academics entirely the wrong way (and I hope I am), then is there a place for humanities and social science academics in the worlds that you envision? If not, then what exactly makes us irrelevant, and where are we to go?
"Anonymous Coward" is for whistleblowers, not unpopular opinions.
I notice that Enoch Root and various Waterhouses appear in several seemingly unrelated books. Is there a reason for this? Are they reflections of real people, or do you just love the names?
In the time of R.A. Heinlein, Zelanzny, Assimov, and the other cornerstone writers, people would read SF who would not normally read fiction set in a different world or fiction that required a suspension of disbelief simply because the books were well written, had good story lines and interesting social ideas. It seems that today, writers like that are increasingly rare. As a writer, what can be done to improve the standards of quality writing in the SF world, either by yourself or the community as a whole?
Honor belongs to those who dare, not to the critic who sits by and stares
I wouldn't be surprised if it actually did exist. At least it would partly explain the fact the Hiro Protagonist is maybe the lamest name for a character I've ever come across. Seriously, I just about put the book down from that alone. I'm glad I read the whole thing, but I'm even gladder that Neal is picking better names now.
As an aside, you know why the made-for-TV Incredible Hulk is named David Banner rather than Bruce Banner (the original name)? The TV execs thought the name Bruce was too gay. No joke.
c-hack.com |
Why is "The Big U" not in any of the 'also by' lists? And what the hell happened at the Top Hat in Missoula that was so great?
This post approved by Shampoo.
I liked Snow Crash for its speed and chaos. The Diamond Age came close. I thought Cryptonomicon slowed down a bit, and I'm slowly making my way through Quicksilver. Was this hyperness a passing fad, the folly of youth, or a valid style you might return to one day?
Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
Dear Neal,
In The System of the World you have the confrontation between Leibnitz and Newton (or rather their worldviews) with Princess Caroline as referee and Waterhouse as linejudge.
While Newton's is the best known, with a mechanistic world, set in motion by the great Clockmaker, (at least in my simplistic interpretation), Leibnitz's is not as well known, and much harder for me to grasp, not having been exposed to it in school. Leibnitz seems to imply a higher order guiding the interactions of things all the way down to atoms, or monads; with things knowing not only what to do, but perhaps the right, as in moral, things to do.
Princess Caroline properly fears the ruin of the world at the hands of Newton's disciples, in what seems to me to be a foreshadowing of the dangers of science run rampant, with nuclear destruction at the top of the heap.
Do you share Caroline's fears, and what do you see as the anodyne to the Newtonian worldview? Does Quantum uncertainty enter into the answer? Do you think that Leibnitz's worldview offers any insight today?
Finally, do you agree with Waterhouse that all the intellectual creativity of the people and times you present so well in the Baroque Cycle is merely the product of chemical processes, or do you feel that something more is going on, (which seems to be where Leibnitz, and Newton in his own way, were headed)?
Tom Porter
I understand that Snow Crash was initially to be a graphic novel. Has there been any consideration given to producing it as a movie?
How Politicians Lie: http://www.factcheck.org/
In your weblog and other interviews concerning the Baroque Cycle you mention that the genesis of the series came in part from a realization you had about uniqueness of the era of western history known as the Enlightenment. The Baroque Cycle as a piece of historical fiction easily makes the case for that uniqueness, but begs the question of the author: What other periods of history would you say merit the same examination? Do you believe we have or will see another time like that of the Royal Society and the birth of the modern monetary system where so many rules of science and society are negotiated, written, or discovered in such a concentrated space/time/mind space?
Do you believe, as Cryptonomicon suggests, that we are actually in such a time right now, and what do you see are the key differences? It seems to me that after the whirlwinds of post-modernism there will never again come a time when singular men will have such places to stand as to move the world. Perhaps there is evidence that with information and organizational technologies small groups can wield the power men of the Enlightenment are attributed, but the issue gets so confused when there aren't faces or even personalities to attach to these ideas and policies as the Baroque Cycle and even other historical non-fictions have done.
Please feel free to pick and choose which parts of that question to answer, but more to the point you are by far my favorite author and I thank you so much for your enriching literature.
I hope this is a joke (even though I don't see how it would be funny). He didn't write Neuromancer; William Gibson did. Also, there is a sequel, and a sequel to that sequel.
Are we ever going to find out the whole story of Enoch Root?
Will Enoch Root turn up in future novels?
Neal, With Gulf War 2 well underway, I was wondering if Desiree is back in uniform, and if Clyde Banks is up to anything interesting?
Your novel Snow Crash invites the question, because it suggests mere perception is able to crash 3 billion years of evolved neural net wetware by "introducing a virus." Was this just a gimmick?Do you subscribe to the doctrine that languages shape, distort, or render unintelligible to speakers of dissimilar languages, perceptions of the world? Is there a world separate from perception? Is there perception separate from language?
``Tension, apprehension & dissension have begun!'' - Duffy Wyg&, in Alfred Bester's _The Demolished Man_
I think I may know the answer to this particular question, but I'm going to ask it anyway: have you ever considered writing another novel in the Snow Crash universe, or are you beyond that entirely now? alternately What do you read? alternately Is it still possible for our own world to end up as the world portrayed in Snow Crash to end up like ours, or have we already arrived there and just haven't realized it yet?
Do you view yourself more as an entertainment novelist or an educational novelist? (Not that the two are mutually exclusive).
I ask this, because I always seem to come from your books with more knowledge then when I start. (Esp the Baroque cycle).
Do you subscribe to any of the Singularity theories of Vernor Vinge, and do you agree with his timeline estimates?
this isn't a sig. i type this (including the two dashes), every time i post, just to make it look like a sig.
Mother Earth, Mother Board -- i thought the same when i was reading cryptonomicon. I too would look to read an expanded version. It'd also make for a really good several-part doc (as long as it's not done like some of the latest Nova shows))
"Our interests are to see if we can't scale it up to something more exciting," he said.
Do you see yourself, primarily in the guise of an author, as a knowledge worker or intellectual?
Furthermore, do you see the general malaise that we seem to exhibit towards Knowledge Work, and if so, how do you deal with it? For instance, how do you deal with a (typical) assertion that "you just sit around and write books all day", and therefore do no "real" work - like building a house, say. Personally, I bloody loved Cryptonomicon - and am here in Ames - but it worries me that the global feel is not friendly towards authors/writers/scientists as a large generalized field.
First: my second copy of Cryptonomicon has been read so many times it's starting to fall apart. That is one damn good book.
Second: did you phant'sy that it would tickle our phant'sy if you beat us to death with phant'sy words like 'phant'sy'? I love it when authors bring contextual language into the writing, but what is it you were trying to express there? It looked to me like you just did a search-and-replace throughout the whole of Quicksilver, and as much as I've loved EVERY OTHER BOOK YOU'VE WRITTEN I couldn't bring myself to continue with the Baroque Cycle. One of the strengths of Cryptonomicon is that the voicing changes from era to era and from person to person, while in Quicksilver so many of the characters have the same voice; this can't be covered up with phant'sy words.
I rate Cryptonomicon as the best book I have ever read. I have reread it more than any other book. I lent it out a few years back and it got handed around Australia's Defence Signals Directorate in Canberra where the spooks loved it. I would love to see the thread of Randy and Amy picked up in a post .com world. I can imagine Randy, Avi, Tom and the gang riding high in Singapore with the Bio dollars being thrown around there.
My question is this: Though you may never write a sequel to Cryptonomicon, what would the first paragraph be?
In this famous essay you say "The ideal OS for me would be one that had a well-designed GUI that was easy to set up and use, but that included terminal windows where I could revert to the command line interface, and run GNU software, when it made sense. A few years ago, Be Inc. invented exactly that OS. It is called the BeOS." It seems that if you wrote the Command Line Essay now you would find Mac OS X to be you ideal OS. Is that true?
Do you have any plans to see your books being released as movies?
Dear Neal,
Could you tell me where I can download your books (Cryptonomicon, among others ) for free?:-p
Thanks.
Why does yahoo do this
I don't read that much, really. I've read everything Michael Critchon has written, and I enjoy Sophie Kinsella's Shopaholic books.
I picked up CRYPTONOMICON and I enjoyed the "Forest Gump"-like WWII encryption story the most. But the book sort of seems all over the place, D&D, shaving-videos, I had a hard time getting the flow.
So at about page 400 I got tired. Realizing this book was 800 pages (!) I put it down and never got around to picking it up again.
My question is, why don't you take the best elements of your vision and edit them down to a more concise read? You really had something there, but I wish it was one story instead of many.
Sam
Hi Neal!
I'm not a devourer of sci-fi, but I have read a few of your works, including Cryptonomicon.
I really enjoyed Shaftoe's thread in the story, and the whole wacky Misinformation Squad the WWII characters ended up in. I felt that you really portrayed the guts of our veterans in Shaftoe. Lots of people die in war, and Shaftoe seemed to be the romantic character who never hesitated to do his duty, and do everything with all the heart and gusto he had, though he was doomed to never enjoy what most of us take for granted. And spew some damn colorful language while he did so.
What was your inspiration for Shaftoe's character and that thread of the story?
Hi Neal!
Not a big fiction reader, but have consumed a few of your works this year.
You and I are similar in age I would guess, though I'm a little too young to have used paper tape. I bought a Commodore around '81 or so.
You are obviously interested in computing machine history, and are comfortable with the idioms of shells, ttys, and UNIX. At least you showed some insight in such things as Randy Waterhouse decrypting the punch cards by hiding his C++ code using X, job control, etcetera.
Also, the cryptography concepts presented in Cryptonomicon were my first more advanced exposures to crypto theory, and I found them fascinating. I recently have been trying to solve a problem using something similar to Turing's bicycle chain theories.
So, two questions:
Do you still study things like Perl and C?
Do you do any cryptography coding and tinkering?
Keep writing, and may I also cast a vote for more modern or futuristic material. Also the WWII threads in Cryptonomicon I found particularly rich, both the storytelling and the historical depth. I could read another 1,000 pages.
I've greatly enjoyed your Baroque Cycle, and find it especially refreshing that many of the details of the time period seem well-fleshed out - I'm not an expert on the time period, but the world is extremely realistic. The question is - how much time-period research do you do for your novels (esp. The Baroque Cycle)? Have you been nitpicked by experts on details? I find it exhausting to even imagine the amount of research that must go into works that are this vibrantly and painstakingly realized, and can't imagine how you manage to do all of that research and write 1000+ page novels!
Hot damn, that's great.
I saw you speak in NYC when you were promoting The Confusion. You mentioned that the book is 99% historically accurate and something along the lines of "If it sounds unbelievable, it's true. The inaccuracies are simply in little details."
I am not sure how literally that's meant to be taken. The vast majority of the trilogy and most of the "unbelievable" events revolve around the actions of fictional characters. All of the main characters are fictional, and the characters that are not fictional are brought into the plot by their interactions with the main (fictional) characters.
I found myself wondering - was there an actual woman in history who Eliza represented? I tend to think not as there is no Quelghm. Without Eliza, many of the book's "historic" events would not have existed.
Same for Daniel. Obviously SOMEONE founded MIT. Does the rest of Daniel's life parallel the founder's?
As much as I have been enjoying reading the trilogy, I keep being bothered by these questions. every time something interesting happens. In any case, historical or not, I am a huge fan of your writing and am constantly surprised by the direction taken by each new book you write.
Thanks - keep it up!
In the coming decades, it is a safe assumption that humans will continue their attempt to create artificial intelligence. Cool. Meanwhile, we will continue to store volumes of raw data in archives for generations to come. And of course, all the while, millions of songs will be traded.
As your cell phone conversation breaks up, you notice that distinct buffer-looping granular noise. It reminds you of a CD skipping or an old video game lock-up. It is a bit of a stretch, but you can see how it resembles the various block distortions on digital cable and dish TV.
And that is just the problem. Digital. It's all digital. When was the last time you heard radio or TV static? It is evident that the actual form of "noise" is changing for our cultures. How does this persistent presence of digital sampling butterfly into our cultural manner?
More importantly, how will the limitations of digital data influence our future? An immediate example is to see how the RIAA shot its self in the foot by convincing the world that a digitalization of an analog signal was the same as the real thing. Now they see just how worthless a hand-full of bits are when compared to a continuous physical fluctuation over the surface of a material.
A greater problem is the lack of resolution in data stored in archives. We create data records in our labs across the world and digitally sample them, fixing the resolution of the information forever. In ten years, a lot can be learned about how to filter broadband noise from an analog signal, but I'm afraid that there will be very little we can ever do to extract any data that was present between digital samples. So, in ten or twenty year, when we are sampling data ten or twenty times faster, isn't the stuff we're saving to disk today destined to be full of big gaping holes?
And the single most important question is what the moral implications will be if we proceed with our relentless effort to create artificial intelligence as finite state automata? How would you feel knowing you had to exist in a reality defined with a finite number of states? I realize that at approximately the atomic level, we too exist as states in a vast, but likely finite universe. Considering the orders of magnitude to which our digital creations would be restricted when compared to the resolution of the natural analog universe, how big of a god will we be?
Imagine for a moment, that a Lorenz attractor is an intelligent entity; consider how much better its quality of life would be, modeled in an analog computer as opposed to a digital one.
How many people out there, do you think, realize that there is a (astronomical) finite number of compact disks that can be made before you would have to repeat some pattern of 1s and 0s to make another?
But if you answer only one of the questions I pose, I believe that you are among the worlds most qualified to discuss whether digitalization will, can, and should increase its presence in our lives. How about Analog?
Should such tools have to be protected?
Are there laws to stop a company requiring cessation of production of all screwdrivers because of some obscure patent they bought 30 years ago? I hope not. There's something wrong with a system when such tools can be attacked and censored.
I was at a reading of yours recently, and only thought of this question after I left? You seem enormously taken by the stories and problems of the period of history of the baroque era. Why not write history about the time period rather than fiction? Why add characters -- however fabulously written they are -- to a tableau of already fabulous characters?
drain
You've enjoyed success with your increasingly lengthy and richly detailed novels, yet it's your short stories Hack the Spew and The Great Simoleon Caper that still resonate for me. Do you envision returning to the short-story format at some point?
"How many light bulbs does it take to change a person?" --BMcC-->
"...wraps around you like a nymphomaniacal gymnast."
Where the hell does Neal come up with this stuff? WTF? Such a seemingly mellow individual, the undecurrents are, let us say, seething.... He's talking about a motorcycle cowling fer Chris' sakes! If he needs some spare change, I suppose he'd do OK in ADWORLD.
Let my epitaph be. Karaaaaaaa. (JJ)
Haha, moderated by Stephenson fans. I knew it, I knew it.
Welcome, and thanks for all the books.
Do you have anything to say about synchronicity?
This is prompted by recent personal experiences. First, I just finished reading In the Beginning was the Command Line, which had been on my list since I first heard about it. Second, I just started reading Nicolas Freeling's novel One More River, when on page 38, I found a reference to Kipling's "Dayspring Mishandled", which I had just read, in the first volume of Kipling I have read in decades.
Why, in Command Line, did you persist in misrepresenting Microsoft's customers as the individual users, when their real customers are the computer manufacturers, whom they coerced into shipping (almost) exclusively Microsoft OS's by their pricing policy?
many of us will continue to read his stuff regardless of future subject matter. his prose has captured us. how did he develop his style? this just of this question is repeated in several others, but none are as concise and precise. being way better than the question i asked, this question could def use a higher mod score.
Eugene Debs: "Money constitutes no proper basis of civilization"
I'm curious, and perhaps this is a question better suited for a more general discussion on writing at some sort of book store workshop, but i don't have time for any of that crap.
What is the actual process (as far as you would care to share) in writing a novel as information dense as cryptonomicon or the baroque cycle books are ?
when coding, I start with an idea for a useful tool in a gestalt view kind of way, then slowly begin thinking of the various functions and calls that need to be made to get the job done, then i make big-assed charts that help me to get from point 'A" to point "Paycheck.."
I assume that you start with a few character concepts and an bigger idea of what the book is going to be 'about', but what is the pre-production organizational process like when you get to work?
how much time do you spend in this phase, or does it continue throughout ?
As an author you have certainly grown. Snow Crash was good enough to put you on the map, but you've since left it far behind.
Now that the Baroque cycle is over, do you have any interest in writing futuristic sci-fi any more, or have you left the entire genre behind? Will there be any more novels from you that are anything like Snow Crash or The Diamond Age?
My Karma: ran over your Dogma
StrawberryFrog
What is it like using historical figures in your novels? How do you figure out how they'd respond in certain situations, or what they'd talk like? Is there any sense of trepidation when penning a genius like Isaac Newton or Leibniz into your stories? What kind of research goes into developing their characters? Similarly, how intensively did you research London for the Baroque Cycle? When Daniel is strolling around the city, you go into such intricate details about, e.g., streets; is this all made up, mostly made up, or strict historical fact? I guess the thrust of the questions above is, what is the process for integrating historical past into your fiction? However you do it, the end result is fun to read--thanks for the books.
The character Eliza is one of the better female characters created by a man to appear in a recent work of fiction. Could you comment on how difficult it is to create a female character and make her realistic - especially a seemingly very modern female character plopped into eighteenth-century Western Europe? And is the Eliza character in the Baroque Cycle based on anyone in particular? (Aimée du Buc de Rivery seems a likely candidate.)
I have to add I've read everything you've written and the Baroque Cycle is the best so far! Please don't take eight years for the next one (though it was well worth the wait.)
Thanks,
Will
I was fascinated with your vision of a world finely split by so many moral and idealogical factions against the background of an emerging new technology which (almost) everyone feared yet wanted to control. In The Diamond Age, Nell finally succeeds in obtaining the key to 'Seed' [nano]Technology. Firstly, what do you think would really happen if Nanotechnology ever became so ubiquitous as to give the 'man on the street' the resource to create what he wants? Unbridled curiosity has given the world many nasty surprises - do you envisage a time where moral ideals are interwoven into the fabric of scientific pursuit such that we can have the foreknowledge to save ourselves from ourselves? (I think we would be dead within moments should 'Seed' technology become prevalent in the foreseeable future) Thanks for your work Neal - I love all of it! I Rate Snow Crash as one of the best works of SFiction ever :-)
Or, what about if Human Beings evolve into a macro-organism, where individual human beings begin to act like individual cells in a larger organism, each focusing on a particular speciality to enhance the 'group's' performance in the environment?
Autonomy and individuality are sacrificed in order to achieve greater survivability in the universe...
"Creativity is allowing ones self to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep" - Scott Adams