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Neal Stephenson
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Sat Nov 13 1999 at 8:49:14
Stephenson is the cyberpunk or possibly post-cyberpunk author of
The Big U
,
Zodiac
,
Snow Crash
, and
The Diamond Age
, as well as a handful of short stories and, with his uncle, a couple of mediocre thrillers under the name Stephen Bury. While ubercyberpunk
William Gibson
's prose is heavy, lugubrious, and Chandler-esque, Stephenson takes his cue from zippier (and better) writers like Thomas Pynchon and
Mark Leyner
. Also unlike Gibson, Stephenson is a coder and actually understands computers.
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Tue Apr 25 2000 at 8:42:03
He's also written assorted short stories (
The Great Simoleon Caper
and
Spew
and non-fiction articles (
Mother Earth Mother Board
and
In the Kingdom of Mao Bell
), and recently gave an interesting speech at the
CFP
conference about the privacy threat from
companies
and private organization being larger than any '
Big Brother
' government threat. From seeing him at a book reading, a
Debian
user who groans jokingly at the mention of
Slashdot
. Is currently working on the sequel to
Cryptonomicon
, as the book couldn't take any more plot lines. Roughly quoting him, "Once the manuscript gets about as deep as it is long the book binding machines stop working." One plot line involves suicidal personality chips grown by
evolutionary software techniques
and is set in the near future, and the other one is anyone's guess. He signed my
penguin
!
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Fri Jul 12 2002 at 6:58:34
Neal Town Stephenson was born on October 31, 1959 in Fort Meade, Maryland. His novel
Snow Crash
is considered to be the most important "
cyberpunk
" novel since
Gibson's
Neuromancer
and has been widely admired for his keen and hauntingly familiar vision of the future. Stephenson is something of a rarity amongst science fiction authors because he possesses both literary talent and
technical proficiency
. While Gibson wrote his first two novels on an a
mechanical typewriter
, Stephenson changed his major at
Boston Univerity
from physics to geography because "they were using
the coolest computers
." Stephenson also has the distinction of having a scientific heritage; hard sciences go back two generations on both sides of his family.
Stephenson's writing can be characterized as much more rapid and visceral than that of his peers. Snow Crash and
Cryptonomicon
are both written in the present tense, creating a sense of urgency in the plot that is often ignored in science fiction in favor of lengthy passages dedicated to
whimsical ramblings
about technology. Every bit of technology in his future has a specific purpose and a distinctly commercial feel. There are no
monolithic, culture changing gadgets
in Stephenson's books;
capitalism
still reigns over the evolutionary process of technological development. His most conceptually ponderous work,
The Diamond Age
, manages to make the weighty concept of
nanotechnology
seem fluid and familiar by presenting it through the eyes of a young, plain girl. Stephenson never makes the mistake of floundering on the
metaphysics
of technology.
There's no question about it: Stephenson is a
deft
author. Snow Crash is an impressive work; it distills the essence of
American culture
and tweaks it just enough to classify it as
futuristic
. His descriptions of
consumer culture
, (sub)urban living and freewheeling adventures through modern life are
kinetic
. His writing is faster than television and more cinematic than film, allowing him to tap into a kind of imagination that most readers haven't experienced since early childhood. So many science fiction "classics" are filled with heavy-handed, often
byzantine
prose. Stephenson's pace gives his work momentum, which will keep the reader hooked through his voluminous novels.
But there is one problem with Stephenson's proclivity for speed:
he can't seem to conclude his novels in any sort of satisfying way
. This may be the price to be paid for relying on velocity to keep the reader's attention. The plot simply never seems to wind down. In the case of Snow Crash, it in fact slams into the last chapter at full speed leaving the reader with a serious case of
literary whiplash
. In Cryptonomicon, on the other hand, his style becomes tiresome toward the end of the nearly thousand page book.
Neal Stephenson represents a new breed of
science fiction
authors. Although the term cyberpunk is vaunted in literary circles as either the only interesting thing to come out of the classicaly stale genre of science fiction or a dead fad with a residual
cult following
, authors like Stephenson prove that cyberpunk was just a temporary descriptor for a new wave in popular literature. By synthesizing burgeoning technology with a
cosmopolitan
world view and insolent, youtful edge, Stephenson creates fiction that is as much a rollercoaster ride as it is a window into tomorrow's world.
Bibliography
The Big U
(1984)
Zodiac: The Eco-Thriller
(1988)
Snow Crash
(1992)
Interface
(1994) (as Stephen Bury)
The Diamond Age
(1995)
The Cobweb
(1996) (as Stephen Bury)
Cryptonomicon
(1999)
In the Beginning...Was the Command Line
(1999)
Quicksilver
(2003)
The Confusion
(2004)
System of the World
(2004)
Sources
Cryptonomicon Offical Website
(http://www.cryptonomicon.com)
printable version
chaos
Snow Crash
Cryptonomicon
The Big U
The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer
In the Beginning was the Command Line
Zodiac
William Gibson
Hiro Protagonist
Mark Leyner
interface
phreaking
Thomas Pynchon
Quicksilver
neurolinguistic hacker
The Great Simoleon Caper
Philip K. Dick
The Cobweb
Infinite Jest
Metaverse
Nam-Shub
Matter Compiler
In the Kingdom of Mao Bell
Big Gay Al
Alan Turing
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