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.

Comments

Editor

[GoNINzo]

Neal,

I love your work. But will you be getting an editor anytime soon? Please?

Love,

Gonzo

Were the giant mutant sewer rats really necessary?

[swm]

I mean, really?

A Serious Question

[fizban]

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?

Hi!

[HarveyBirdman]

I've enjoyed your work, but I'll skip the fanboy fellatio, if that's OK. Not my style.

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.

Re:Genres of future works?

[Billy the Mountain]

I enjoyed all of Snow Crash, in fact I re-read it a couple of years ago. What didn't you like about the last third of it? Was it the setting change from dystopic suburbia to the sea world and the shift away from Hiro Protaganist to shifting the point of view to Aleut bad guy Raven? Or what?