Neal Stephenson responds with wit and humor (2004)(slashdot.org)
58 pointsby jdkee3 hours ago8 comments
  • __rito__2 hours ago
    Neal is one of two living authors whose all books I buy. Happy to have found him during Covid, thanks to HN comments. I found Greg Egan during that time, and I am grateful to HN threads and comments on books.
  • nickmonad2 hours ago
    My first exposure to Neal was through Reamde and it's definitely the fastest I've managed to get through a novel relative to length. I really enjoy his style.
    • hungryhobbit2 hours ago
      I recommend his older stuff to anyone else looking to check him out: Snow Crash is an undeniable classic, Diamond Age was absolutely incredible, and even Zodiac and In the Beginning Was the Command Line are both very good (although the last one is obviously more for computer people).

      His newer stuff is very ... verbose. It started with Cryptonomicon (not sci-fi and WAY longer than it should have been) and by the time he got to Anathema he was so full of himself he not only wrote a giant text ... he wrote it in a made-up sub-language he created (and expected you to learn) just to enjoy the story.

      He's one of my absolute favorite authors ... or at least he was for the first half of his career.

      • water-data-dude33 minutes ago
        Anathem was my favorite book by him. It has a lotta re-read value, I appreciate the work he did to make it feel like a complete, fleshed out world. But different folks have different tastes, and that's ok.

        I also liked Seveneves, but it should have ended 2/3 of the way through. There was a point that would have made for an excellent ending (which is something Stephenson famously struggles with IMO), but then he forced in another 1/3 of a book that didn't engage me and which felt like it just petered out.

        • mwigdahl29 minutes ago
          Anathem and Seveneves are my favorites of his, in that order. The orbital launch and operation in Anathem is probably my favorite piece of writing ever.
      • shawn_wan hour ago
        Anathem is written in English. There's just some made up words that are generally easy to figure out the meaning of.
      • adolph18 minutes ago
        Anathem, please reconsider. Do you remember the part about Artificial Inanity? Right before the entire book is revealed as an elaboration of Everett's MWI? It's right up there with Snow Crash's reflection on Jaynes' Origin of Consciousness.

        https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14554592

      • VirusNewbiean hour ago
        The “made up language” is directly tied to the plot and overall themes, and leads to an “aha” moment.
        • whyenotan hour ago
          It was still an awful lot to ask of a reader, and IMO, not worth the "reward." I agree with the person you are responding to. His early works are really amazing, but beginning with Cryptonomicon he became increasingly verbose and I found his later books a lot less fun to read.
    • odirootan hour ago
      Tastes are interesting. I sprinted through Snow Crash and Cryptonomicon because they were so good. I struggled to get past the first few chapters of Reamde. Didn't engage me at all.
      • Fellshard32 minutes ago
        The 'sequel' that does lean on some of Reamde's worldbuilding, 'Fall; or, Dodge in Hell' is much more oddly ambitious. But it is a very strange work. You have to be on board for the literary direction.

        It's also concerningly prescient, as he often has been, especially in an early scenario in the book that shapes the world so the rest of the book can happen.

    • chrisjj19 minutes ago
      > ... Reamde and it's definitely the fastest I've managed to get through a novel relative to length.

      Same here. But I skipped far fewer paragraphs of his earlier works.

      :)

  • NickDouglas2 hours ago
    That was the best explanation of litfic vs. commercial/genre fiction I've ever read.
  • acheron3 hours ago
    Ah, a classic. This was Slashdot’s high point.

    Note: (2004)

    • jjs2 hours ago
      I love this site, but I miss classic Slashdot
      • hungryhobbitan hour ago
        Slashdot is still there.

        It's kind of tiny compared to here (<1/5th the articles maybe?) but it still has an older/Slashdot-y crowd.

      • fragmedean hour ago
        Oh man, remember when getting a BMW was the high of excessive greed?
    • jdkee2 hours ago
      Noted!
  • _whiteCaps_an hour ago
    Another classic of his, Mother Earth, Mother Board: https://www.wired.com/1996/12/ffglass/
  • buildbot2 hours ago
    Ah, I always wondered how Vancouver Island came to be - a fight between Stephenson and Gibson makes perfect sense.
  • dfxm122 hours ago
    Perhaps the biggest loss of cryptocurrency being branded as "crypto" is losing the Matt Blaze's thoughts on cryptography (and in turn, how this informed Stephenson's thoughts on these topics).

    Anyway, in case you were curious:

    Hobbs: https://web.archive.org/web/20041204055248/http://www.crypto...

    Master Key: https://web.archive.org/web/20041022021127/http://www.crypto...

  • yipinwong2 hours ago
    given how Neal never goes online, i wonder how long he sat on this to reply