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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."
I realize I'll probably be labeled a heretic by some of you, but the Diamond Age is probably my favorite Stephenson book (Cryptonomicon and Snow Crash come in a close second and third, though). It'll be interesting to see how this whole thing pans out. Thankfully, even if it sucks, the book will still be amazing. However, with Neal handling the screenplay, there's a decent chance that he'll adapt it well. Then it'll all be up to Clooney to make it good...
This guy's the limit!
Apart from possibly changing the generation from grandfather to father, that IS exactly what happens in the book. Of course, a lot of other stuff happens *because of that* (the unauthorised copies, 256k mice etc.) but you are going to end up with a pretty convoluted press release if you want to cram the other stuff into the one sentence plot teaser that each of the new series announced gets.
You can't reasonably expect extrapolate from that one sentence to accurately predict anything after the 1st ten minutes of the first show, which is entirely to be expected from a document that is supposed to attract viewers who don't know about the book (and don't want spoilers) rather than fans who do know the book and want reassurances.
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'The Diamond Age' is Neal Stephenson's best ending. Anyone who says he can't write endings should be immediately pointed in this direction. Of course, this ending is probably detractors' biggest criticism, but I don't think any further denoument was necessary, and would probably have even greatly detracted from the emotional and powerful ending there was.
Cryptonomicon and Snow Crash could have used some [denoument], to the point where their endings even gave a bit of an impression of a "fuck it" or a deadline rush, so abruptly departing from the wonderful depth of the preceeding several hundred pages of those books. But the abrupt end here was utterly perfect and perfectly excecuted, and left me euphorically dazed for hours after reading it. I haven't been brought so close to tears by literature since Of Mice And Men, or maybe Charlotte's Web. This ending, in my opinion, truly solidified Neal Stephenson as a great Author of Literature, and not just brilliant, witty Geek.
Sure it leaves open ends (Hackworth, especially), but even with, perhaps even partially because of, that, it works. People hate it because it breaks the traditional form -- doesn't tie up every little loose, nitpicky plot end -- but seem to overlook the fact that, in this case, it was far more literarily effective than structural orthodoxy. It has /character/. A lot of people, many Geeks especially, don't seem to understand that novels, as art and beauty, are not a perfect and coherent system. Sometimes it's more meaningful and important to make that master stroke than fill in all the details.
I'll also go out on a limb and say The Diamond Age was not about Hackworth, at any point. It was about Neal's intricate thematic and philosophic exploration on Confucianism and Victorianism, and it was also a mother-daughter story about Nell and Miranda. Hackworth moved these things along, but to close his personal story neatly would have felt tacked on and barely emotionally or thematically relevant, and probably /ruined/ the ending.
Of course, Neal Stephenson reads Slashdot, and will definately read a story about his own work, and he'd probably be insulted by my dumb interpretation, so please mod me into unread oblivion.
I also have no fucking clue why he's disowned The Big U, which was a wonderful novel.