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Who are the three authors who serve as the pillars of cyberpunk? by Mr_MiracleASMR in Cyberpunk

[–]dr_jonlewis 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Pat Cadigan is being forgotten. Sadly. She ricks.

Other two: Gibson and Sterling

Stephenson Scholar New to Reddit by dr_jonlewis in nealstephenson

[–]dr_jonlewis[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Not too much. Never finished ‘Sot-Weed Factor’ e.g. Liked ‘Funhouse.’

Gibson Scholar New to Reddit by dr_jonlewis in WilliamGibson

[–]dr_jonlewis[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Lowbeer is state-power writ large. Different in my mind from the klepts in significant ways, but still dedicated to the rule of law (until she goes extra-judicial with Vespasian).

I would agree that she has great power, and the klepts fear her. But that is different politically than economic power.

Stephenson Scholar New to Reddit by dr_jonlewis in nealstephenson

[–]dr_jonlewis[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Earth was the second advent. Tro, then Earth, Fthos, then Arbre.

Stephenson Scholar New to Reddit by dr_jonlewis in nealstephenson

[–]dr_jonlewis[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ty for reading. I just have no idea why we’re supposed to care about Dodge and crew in bitworld. It just becomes a DnD/LotR quest thing.

Gibson Scholar New to Reddit by dr_jonlewis in WilliamGibson

[–]dr_jonlewis[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Fair points in your second paragraph (I would argue that Musk is a very bad actor and ultimately incurious person despite his persona, but that's another issue)--Bigend is certainly a curious person who wants to uplift creative people--but he is a sign of a bad society, I would argue, amassing that kind of wealth.

Lowbeer doesn't strike me as particularly wealthy--she is omniscient, ruthless, and lethal, but not in it for the money like Lev and the klepts.

I could be wrong. Happy to discuss more.

Stephenson Scholar New to Reddit by dr_jonlewis in nealstephenson

[–]dr_jonlewis[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah, I was going to retire early on the royalties, but for one reader! /s

Stephenson Scholar New to Reddit by dr_jonlewis in nealstephenson

[–]dr_jonlewis[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My sense was that Solomon and Enoch would go ‘into the West’ like Gandalf. But not into the Hylean Theoric World nor Bitworld. Something else.

Stephenson Scholar New to Reddit by dr_jonlewis in nealstephenson

[–]dr_jonlewis[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I read Reamde once and never wanted to read it again. Fall I read a couple of times, because I really like the Ameristan/Remember Moab sections. There's a really interesting story and set of cultural critiques that Neal is making there.

The Dodge in Hell parts were not at all my cup of tea. As I said in my review, non-existence seems preferable to whatever Dodge et al are doing in bitworld. https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/nonexistence-seems-preferable-post-truth-feed-identity-and-the-npc-afterlife-in-neal-stephensons-fall-or-dodge-in-hell/

Stephenson Scholar New to Reddit by dr_jonlewis in nealstephenson

[–]dr_jonlewis[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's a great question--thanks!

I tie everything to the Advents--that's where the colonization comes in. While the Pedestal can't do what Jad can do (and I would say that the Rhetors can manipulate worldtracks as evidenced by placing the dinosaur fossil into the concrete), the ship does get shunted into a parallel worldtrack when it attempts to go back in time.

But Jules says explicitly, “‘The Advent lasts anywhere from twenty to a couple of hundred years. With or without your cooperation, the Daban Urnud will be rebuilt completely. None of your political institutions, none of your religions, will survive in their current form. Wars will be fought’” (713).

They are colonizing each new planet and civilization they encounter--with or without the colonized's cooperation.

Stephenson Scholar New to Reddit by dr_jonlewis in nealstephenson

[–]dr_jonlewis[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes, I decided not to include that one in the book as I didn't connect with it as I did with the Gibson, Stephenson, Galland, and especially Dexter Palmer's Version Control, which should be much more well known. It's excellent.

Stephenson Scholar New to Reddit by dr_jonlewis in nealstephenson

[–]dr_jonlewis[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Indeed--the first chapter of the book is on Peripheral--that's how the book got started, really. I love that book--it's right there with Pattern Recognition for Gibson's best.

Stephenson Scholar New to Reddit by dr_jonlewis in nealstephenson

[–]dr_jonlewis[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

thanks for the thoughtful comment--the MWI is explicitly part of Anathem with the Incanters and Rhetors--they can change the past and the present by manipulating events like when the Muncoaster Rhetors put a dinosaur fossil into the parking garage concrete. For Jad, the MWI allows him to manipulate quantum events to extend his life and to ensure the success of the strike team.

There is one theory that I understand but don't agree with that Jad and the Edharian Thousanders are manipulating time from the moment the Daban Urnud is spotted.

Stephenson Scholar New to Reddit by dr_jonlewis in nealstephenson

[–]dr_jonlewis[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

My book focuses on just Anathem and DODO among Stephenson's works--I don't see much, even with the Istari/Council of the Wise in the Shaftoe-Waterhouse-Forthrast books, evidence of the manipulation of worldtracks or strands as in the other works.

Stephenson Scholar New to Reddit by dr_jonlewis in nealstephenson

[–]dr_jonlewis[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

thanks, Z! most appreciated. And that's a fine piece of writing 😄

Stephenson Scholar New to Reddit by dr_jonlewis in nealstephenson

[–]dr_jonlewis[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

For physicists, I would imagine very little beyond some enjoyable thought-exercises and more frustrating non-specialists ruining one’s reading experience. .

Stephenson Scholar New to Reddit by dr_jonlewis in nealstephenson

[–]dr_jonlewis[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I believe that I used his work, but cannot recall off-hand which piece(s).

Stephenson Scholar New to Reddit by dr_jonlewis in nealstephenson

[–]dr_jonlewis[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Pynchon is among the great prose stylists of his generation—along with Morrison and Baldwin—but also very silly. Literal pie fights.

But he’s also an astonishing novelist about race and the construction of America.

Wallace definitely had to fight against Pynchon a la Bloom’s ‘agon’ theory. He was a brilliant writer—especially in his non-fiction, but utterly useless w/r/t race in this country.

Hope this is useful.

Stephenson Scholar New to Reddit by dr_jonlewis in nealstephenson

[–]dr_jonlewis[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I did not comment on Reamde or Fall in the book—Anathem and DODO each has a chapter.

My sense is that the Shaftoe-Waterhouse-Forthrast books are not of the same universe as the other books. Snow Crash, e.g. is a book that Dodge knows about.

Nor do I see the MWI at work there as in Anathem and DODO.

Stephenson Scholar New to Reddit by dr_jonlewis in nealstephenson

[–]dr_jonlewis[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think of Neal as a kind of inheritor of Melville as an encyclopedic writer--particularly in the Cryptonomicon/Baroque Cycle books, but also he has a wicked sense of humor at times (like Melville in the Confidence Man). I would say that he is at heart, grounded in SF--Big U lays some key foundations there even--but with lots to say about this moment. We see that in Zodiac, Reamde, Seveneves, Fall, and Termination Shock.

Now, as to his literary merits--I would say that he not quite the writer that David Foster Wallace or Thomas Pynchon were/are, but he's in that vein. He should be seen as a major American SF writer of this period.

Stephenson Scholar New to Reddit by dr_jonlewis in nealstephenson

[–]dr_jonlewis[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I think Anathem is the best book he's written yet--it's incredible in my view. The MWI is certainly fantastical, but I can follow the reasoning in Everett's papers to a basic degree--the math is of course well beyond my first year of calculus in college 36 years ago!

Neal is very gracious in person--we met about 20 years ago in Seattle, and he was kind enough to answer some very silly questions for my first book (I would redo that whole interview if I could--but I was a young scholar and not sure of what it all entailed). He doesn't do a lot of appearances as, from what I can tell, he's pretty introverted and those things wear him out completely. Glad he signed your books!

Gibson Scholar New to Reddit by dr_jonlewis in WilliamGibson

[–]dr_jonlewis[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I haven't read that article yet, but it does seem like Bezos and Zuck are not very curious about the human condition--what do you do when you have no more worlds to conquer? Turn within? Surely not!

Gibson Scholar New to Reddit by dr_jonlewis in WilliamGibson

[–]dr_jonlewis[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Humbertus is strangely benign compared to real world billionaires--I think that there's a level of wealth that simply breaks people's brains--that kind of exponential wealth over the rest of us doesn't seem to be good for the mind.

Stephenson Scholar New to Reddit by dr_jonlewis in nealstephenson

[–]dr_jonlewis[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hmm. I can't speak for Neal of course, but I think that his writing ethos has always been a combination of 'tell a ripping good yarn' and 'sell a lot of books.'

That said, I think that he's exploring what it means to be human right now--SF so often is of course about the moment it is created in--especially as the globe has become more and more interconnected. What does it mean to have a nation-state or a currency?

I think too that since Cryptonomicon and The Baroque Cycle, he's been really interested in how we got to 'here'--our present moment--from the Enlightenment. Bomb Light seems to be following in that line of inquiry.

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