Neal Stephenson's "Diamond Age" To Be Miniseries

fmackay writes "Neal Stephenson's novel The Diamond Age is to be adapted for a Sci Fi Channel miniseries. George Clooney is producing and Stephenson will write the screenplay — the first time he has written for television."

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No thanks

[mollymoo]

I'll pass on the miniseries, thanks. I'm waiting for the ractive.

Teh awesome!!1

[inviolet]

Excellent.

Never mind the book's prophetic predictions about the impact of nanotechnology. Far more important, I think, is its identification of the "subversive" worldview. If only all parents and children were exposed to a book like Diamond Age, or anything similar, which gives a real defense of the subversive mindset. Perhaps then, more children might be rescued from becoming another generation of social ballast.

Diamond Age won a coveted spot in my "Thou shalt read and discuss" box of books for my sons. :)

Re:Teh awesome!!1

[inviolet]

I agree with the assessment, but disagree with the reason. More important still than the identification of the "subversive" worldview is the identification of that as a tool of the ambiguous worldview.

Interesting. I would've called 'subversive' the superset because it implies an understanding of the world's ambiguous nature -- that being a consequence of how small our total knowledge of the universe is. A subversive is then able to pierce social conventions because he or she sees them for what they are: simplifications for the benefit of simplified mindsets.

But good point either way.

I've given a copy of The Young Lady's Illustrated Primer to the elder of my nieces, with the absolute certainty that the younger will find it and read it.

I was just thinking how the book's title was meant both internally and externally. Because most of the protagonists are female, it will attract the female audience that (in the current state of affairs) needs it more than males. I say this because males tend to receive a much stronger "trust your mind, take action towards your goals, steamroll anyone who gets in the way" education. Whereas females tend more to receive training to be cooperators. And of course religion comes along and throws another heavy "thou shalt adhere to tribal custom!" blanket on everyone.

Ever read much about Kiersey and his temperament sorter (aka Meyers-Brigg) ? He identifies two fundamental axes of human mindset: cooperator ("how do others do it?") versus utilitarian ("whatever works"), and abstract thinker versus concrete thinker. Most slashdotters are probably abstract utilitarians (aka NTs), and so they may be the very people which Stephenson intended to wear the 'subversive' label. Whats-his-name, the artifex, was definitely an NT. But perhaps the concrete utilitarians (NFs) qualify also.

Alas, I wasn't able to find a copy of the faux-leather bound "monstrous chunk of rod logic" edition.

*golf clap*

Re:Awesome!

[nixkuroi]

Just play Second Life. Except for teleportation and the two dimensionality of the "Street", you're 95% there.

Re:Awesome!

[Snad]

Now if only someone would make a movie/tv series based on Snow Crash, my life will be complete!

Snow Crash would make for an awful movie. There's far too much expositionary material regarding namshubs and so forth that would be interminable on the screen and couldn't be cut without rendering much of the story incomprehensible. It (largely) works in book form, but its density would make it impossible to bring to the screen.

Zodiac, whilst perhaps not as good a novel, would make for a far better screen translation than Snow Crash.

Re:Fantastic!

[PopeRatzo]

This will give Stephenson a chance to write the ending he accidentally forgot to write for the novel!

Trying to tie a complicated story like Diamond Age into a neat, TV-friendly ending could be one of the worst things that could happen.

Either way, I'm glad to hear that some filmmakers are turning to good sci-fi literature for source material again. I can stand a break from sci-fi movies all being based on comic books.

Although I have to say the Russian Night Watch films were quite impressive.

Now that I think about it, as long as we're mining Stephenson, I could stand to play a good FPS or RPG based on the Baroque Cycle.

Re:'The Diamond Age' is Stephenson's /best/ ending

[Valar]

Thank god somebody finally said it. Upon reflecting upon the criticism that Stephenson and several other writers with similar style have received (about endings, exposition, etc) I've realized something. A lot of geeks don't want a novel, they want a mythology. They want a complete, well-fleshed out, extensive universe for a setting. As a result, they want to know what happens to every character, start to finish. Think about it-- star wars, star trek, and LoTR all have extensive backstory. It is basically posible to know what happens to every character, and every legendary sword/ship from birth to death. Tolkien, for example, had notebooks and notebooks of unpublished stories to flesh out his universe and even invented languages.

Re:I'm leary of the Sci Fi Channel.

[tillerman35]

For that matter, witness how much they fsck'd up battlestar gallactica. I haven't seen their version of Jim Butcher's Dresden Files yet, but from the promos it looks like they decided to fsck up that too (I should probably withold judgement since I haven't seen it, though). Sci-fi channel didn't do it, but look at how Eragon was absolutely destroyed.

I always wondered how the visual medium could be so obviously run by a group of illiterates with no respect for authorship. It's intensely bizarre. What puzzles me even more are the large number of people who just seem to accept it as a usual practice. Even when their favorite character/scene/plotline/etc is missing or replaced by something entirely different - for no reason the bears any resemblance to a valid purpose- they don't seem to mind. A vapid "oh, well you shouldn't get upset- it's a different medium after all" is the closest you'll get from them to an acknowledgement of the change. Where's the rage, people?

There have been notable exceptions. The Princess Bride was the best adaptation of a novel as I've ever seen. The screenplay was written by the author of the novel, who had previous screenplay writing experience. That probably explains why it was so well done. The Disney version of A Wrinkle In Time came close too- but proved that some books aren't suited for movies no matter HOW good they are. I'm sure others can name many more.

We want to be optimistic. We love the written works so much that we long to see them come to life. Sci-fi fans are like Charlie Brown, earnestly hoping for someone in Hollywood to hold that football down just long enough for us to get a kickoff. And the studio execs are like Sally- teasing us endlessly with the possibility of something that won't suck shiat and pulling the ball away at the last moment.

/Sorry- done now.
//Goes to the meds closet to get a dose of Myranta.

Re:I'm leary of the Sci Fi Channel.

[The One and Only]

For that matter, witness how much they fsck'd up battlestar gallactica.

The new series may have flaws, but anyone who thinks the original was better immediately proves they have no taste. Any series whose pilot episode follows the genocide of the human race (which happens for no reason) with a journey to the casino planet, and follows that up with a dozen episodes about disco Egyptians fighting robots in space, is a dumb series. It might be cheesy fun, but it doesn't hold a candle to the new series.

Cryptonomicon

[DieNadel]

I think Cryptonomicon would result in a wonderful movie. Parts of it take place in breath-taking locations and it's full of history trivia and important facts.

Also, the story is thrilling and more in touch with a regular audience, since it connects more cleanly with reality.