(1) There’s an interesting interview with Neal Stephenson on Slashdot.
(2) I recently finished reading his The System of the World and much liked it. The three books — Quicksilver, The Confusion, and The System of the World — are not as good as Cryptonomicon (at least on first reading). But I liked them a lot, and even Quicksilver, which I liked least of the three (though I still enjoyed it), is better in retrospect, now that I’ve read the other two. I’m looking forward to rereading all three in a few years.
(3) Reading the interview reminded me of one thing (though far from the most important thing) that I like about the triology and about Cryptonomicon: They aren’t just engaging books about ideas, but their core topics are chiefly how science affects society, commerce, war, and politics, and vice versa. As it happens, I’m a math-computer science undergraduate major and computer programmer who went into law and public policy commentary; one of the topics I write about is law and technology. Many readers of this blog — and many of my friends who have enjoyed Cryptonomicon — are lawyers with a technological bent, and many others are technologists who are interested in law or public policy.
It’s no surprise, I think, that “my kind of people,” the tribe I belong to, would find the books so engaging. And this is especially because such books — books that not only are well-written and have well-crafted characters and plots, but which also discuss these themes, themes that are as central to modern human existence as are love, grief, and the other overwritten topics — are so rare.
Comments are closed.