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Neal Stephenson's "Anathem" Due In September
Alexander Rose writes "Neal Stephenson's new novel, ANATHEM, germinated in 01999 when Danny Hillis asked him and several other contributors to sketch out their ideas of what the Millennium Clock might look like. Stephenson tossed off a quick sketch and promptly forgot about it. Five years later however, when he was between projects, the idea came back to him, and he began to explore the possibility of building a novel around it. ANATHEM is the result, and will be released on September 9th, 02008." Read Rose's complete posting for more information about the release of the book, which he describes as set "in a genre bending alt-future-retro world where mechani-punk technology meets space opera in a blend of the best of Snow Crash and the Baroque Cycle."
Will he write an ending for it, or will it just sort of stop in mid-page?
"Seven Deadly Sins? I thought it was a to-do list!"
"a genre bending alt-future-retro world where mechani-punk technology meets space opera in a blend of the best of Snow Crash and the Baroque Cycle." Sounds horrific.
Read Rose's complete posting for more information about the release of the book, which he describes as set "in a genre bending alt-future-retro world where mechani-punk technology meets space opera in a blend of the best of Snow Crash and the Baroque Cycle."
My god, I've gone cross-eyed.
Why would we? We don't prefix years before 1000 A.D. with a 0.
The problem of Y2K wasn't that we didn't have enough extra digits reserved, but the fact that we were lopping off significant ones and storing the year incorrectly (e.g. as "99" when the actual value was 1900 off from that).
Padding years with a leading zero isn't forward-looking, it's naively self-centered, assuming that people will still be using our silly "Anno Domini" year-counting system eight millennia from now. (I mean... don't you people even watch Star Trek?)
http://alternatives.rzero.com/
But the Baroque Cycle was nearly flawless.
Having enjoyed Snow Crash and Cryptonomicon, I really wanted to like the Baroque Cycle. After trudging through the first 200 pages that practically dared the reader to continue, I gave up on it. Where was the hook that made Snow Crash and Crypto such page turners?
(and don't say page 201)
Where does the school board find them and why do they keep sending them to ME?
Stop wooshing. If that many people didn't get 'it', you had to be clearer.
Will all the leading-zero whiners please take 0.5 fucking seconds to think about what a "millennium clock" might be?
Seriously, get your act together, people. This is supposed to be news for nerds, here.
sudo ergo sum
And allow me to blow your mind by predicting that one day we will reach 100000 and that therefore we might as well start right now writing it 002008!
No one now writes 100 A.D. as 0100 A.D. Why do you predict they'll change this in the future?
The Diamond Age had the same problem.
Reading a Neal Stephenson novel is like strapping yourself into the back seat of a converted jet trainer to tour the Grand Canyon. For a lot of people, by the time they've gotten used to dodging pillars of rock at half the speed of sound and they're really enjoying the view the pilot flips over the rim and... that's all, tour's over.
I get used to the view pretty quick, and I've come to accept the endings, so I'll be picking up ANATHEM anyway.
The guy still doesn't have an editor with the balls to say no
Sorry, no. He's got a publisher with the balls to let him write what he wants to, and willing to sell it to people who appreciate it. I would have missed any single paragraph removed from the Baroque Cycle, and remain grateful that he won whatever stare-down might have been necessary to get an editor or publisher to let him have it his way. It's wonderful work, and if you're in such a hurry to get back to your Wii, just limit yourself to comic books or something you can handle while in the bathroom. I hope that he doesn't give a moment's thought to lightening up. 960 pages? What's the big deal? Maybe for people with gnat-sized attention spans and shallow vocabularies. It's not meant to be fast - his stuff is meant to be savored.
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
So would the whole of Russia. Honestly, you're just too lazy to try to sit through 1000 pages. Which is why you sit on Slashdot and read paragraphs that hardly begin to cover what they're talking about. So, if anything, modern writers do exactly the opposite of this: try to skim something down into a soundbite instead of giving it proper, deep treatment. Thank God some people can keep the fire alive.
Sorry, no. He's got a publisher with the balls to let him write what he wants to, and willing to sell it to people who appreciate it.
I don't buy it. Although I loved Snow Crash, I think there were editing problems all over that thing. And for Diamond Age, any editor with starch would have looked at the last chapter and said, "Seriously? That's how you're going to end this? Take two weeks of vacation and then we'll talk." That wasn't meant to be savored; it was meant to get him done with the book ASAP.
The upside of a weak editor is that we get a lot of nice bits that another editor might have cut. The digression in Diamond Age into the label of the steak sauce in the pub during lunch with Napier and the Duke was one of those that pleased me particularly.
However, at some point one has to trim enough to get a manageable book out the door. A fine French meal is meant to be savored, too, but there's a reason none of them run to a 230 courses over a continuous 48 hours at the table. I know a lot of heavy readers, serious readers, and 75% of them didn't even bother starting the third volume of the Baroque Cycle. After two volumes, they'd had more than their fill.
just limit yourself to comic books or something you can handle while in the bathroom
Was there some particular need to be a prick about this? The other guy's comment seemed like a reasonable statement of personal preference.
Was there some particular need to be a prick about this?
Maybe not. I guess I'm tired of people who see a long book (which they haven't even bothered to pick up!) and simply default to saying it, or the author, or editor have failed. It's what's wrong with a great deal of our culture these days, and speaks volumes (if you'll pardon the pun) about the diseased state of our collective attention span. It's why people can't get through a two-page science article and draw some useful conclusions. It's why people can't vote sensibly. It's why so much potentially great entertainment - in all media - is chasing its own tail down the drain, searching for the lowest common denominator. Spanking Neal Stephenson and his editors for the length of the Baroque Cycle is to utterly, completely miss the point of that piece of work (and indeed of Stephenson's purpose for writing it and his choice of style).
I loved Snow Crash, I think there were editing problems all over that thing.
Yup. Likewise with Cryptonomicon. By the time he got to the B.C., he'd come a long way, I think. Greatly improved. I'll always admire T.S. Elliot for saying, "I'd have written you a shorter letter, but I didn't have time." Brevity - well used - can be a delight. But that isn't the only delight. People who don't like the Baroque Cycle probably couldn't make it through a Dorothy Dunnett novel, either (to say nothing of the series of them needed to actually tell a complete tale). It's a style one likes, or one does not. But not liking something meant to last you through many long evenings of reading doesn't mean that the author or his editor have somehow failed.
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
Stephenson's detractors are just pissy because Stephenson stops right after the climax and doesn't bother with a denouement. They're like women who complain that the guy just leaves them after he's gotten his rocks off, and doesn't stick around to cuddle so they can pick the pimples on his ass while he's dozing.
I write sci-fi for metalheads
Endings are for children. The Little Engine That Could has an ending. I don't mean to insult you for preferring that the narrative wraps itself up in a tidy package. There is something satisfying about that, but I think that more adult and more complex stories don't lend themselves to that kind of storytelling. Endings, whether happy or sad, are always somewhat artificial. There is always more story to tell. I really didn't mind the way that Diamond Age ended at all. Sure, there were plenty of narrative loose ends to wrap up, but from a thematic standpoint, the story was over. The author's point(s) had been made.