Post-Cryptonomicon
Tuesday, 23 March, 2004
I have finally finished Cryptonomicon (Neal Stephenson). It is a real monster of a book at 910 pages. I am convinced that people like Matt and Philip would really enjoy it and get much more of it than I would because their understanding of mathematics and computers is so much more advanced than mine. In fact, that I'm surprised that Matt hasn't already read it, given his interest in crypto. So I'll give it a bit of a plug.
The story alternates between two character groups in the past and the present. They are related by blood but seemingly unrelated in terms of plot (though the plot does thicken!) In the past we follow Lawrence Pritchard Waterhouse (math genius, player of the humble pipe organ and cryptoanalyst), Bobby Shaftoe (American soldier) and Goto Dengo (Japanese soldier) through the rubble that is World War II. In the present we follow Randy Waterhouse (computer nerd and one of the founders of a new data haven called the Crypt) and America Shaftoe (diver and treasure-hunter) through the complexities of modern-day politics, e-banking and cryptography.
Though I don't understand much of it, I like the way that Neal Stephenson applies maths (he calls it “math” because he's American) to everyday life. I love the bit about what would happen if you put a green lightbulb on Waterhouse's head charted the trajectory of his descent off the kerb onto the road and subsequent ascent back onto the kerb (you'd get a square wave) and then if you put a green lightbulb on the heads of everyone person in London and did the same thing and then went and looked for patterns in the graphs:
Ingenuity is a completely different matter. There is no systematic way to get it. One person could look at the pile of square wave tracings and see nothing but noise. Another might find a source of fascination there, an irrational feeling impossible to explain to anyone who did not share it. Some deep part of the mind, adept at noticing patterns (or the existence of a pattern) would stir awake and frantically signal the dull quotidian parts of the brain to keep looking at the pile of graph paper. The signal is dim and not always heeded, but it would instruct the recipient to stand there for days if necessary, shuffling through the pile of graphs like an autist, spreading them out over a large floor, stacking them in piles acording to some inscrutable system, pencilling numbers, and letters from dead alphabets, into the corners, cross-referencing them, finding patterns, cross-checking them aginst others.
One day this person would walk out of that room carrying a highly accurate street map of London, reconstructed from the information in all of those square wave plots.
Lawrence Pritchard Waterhouse is one of those people.
Stephenson writes like Asimov—like Guy Gavriel Kay—in that he concentrates on the big picture and much of the novel is moving the players around like chess pieces. He is not interested in character development but rather in ideas (war/cryptography/mathematics/computers/e-commerce, etc.) which is why he is so interesting to read. (I admire this because I can't do it. But then, I suspect, my interests are not as broad, or, perhaps, they are broad in other areas.) There aren't many writers who have a kinship with engineering/informatics (maybe I should eat my words, though; there might be but I just haven't stumbled across them).
If you think that Cryptonomicon is daunting at 910 pages (complete with a Perl script and an essay about a cryptosystem named Solitaire by Bruce Schneier), don't even think about touching the trilogy prequel that Stephenson will complete this year (The Baroque Cycle: Quicksilver, The Confusion and The System of the World). I have been told that the first volume alone leaves Cryptonomicon for dead in terms of size.
Current:
Bible: Isaiah (ESV) 28/09/2010
seen: Tropic Thunder 26/09/2010
seen: The Life of Mammals 24/09/2010
seen: What a Girl Wants 19/09/2010
seen: Jerry Maguire 19/09/2010
seen: The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 06/09/2010
seen: Tomorrow Never Dies 05/09/2010
seen: Nanny McPhee 28/08/2010
read: Mercury (Hope Larson) 27/08/2010
read: Spellcheckers Vol 1 (Jamie S Rich, Nicolas Hitori de, Joelle Jones) 16/08/2010
read: Solipsistic Pop Vol 2 (Solipsistic Pop) 16/08/2010
read: Chiggers (Hope Larson) 15/08/2010
seen: Josie and the Pussycats 14/08/2010
seen: Mr & Mrs Smith 14/08/2010
seen: Step Up 2 13/08/2010
Blinks:
How to recalibrate the home button on your iPhone.
Unsolicited manuscripts accepted by Pan Macmillan with certain conditions.
Thought Balloon is a group blog in which the writers tackle a new theme every week? month? with one-page scripts. This URL is for their Phonogram ones.
How to sew a zipper on a knitted garment.
Issues organised by tale.
Online magazine that publishes fairy tales that are not reworkings of old tales.
Journal that publishes fairy tale writing.
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I do appreciate character development, consider Margaret Atwoods Oryx and Crake, I like the writing style and the near future dystopia is realistic. I like Asimov and the old short science fictions storys or near term science fiction, as anything post singularity is too far from our understanding to be considered science fiction.
You’ve motivated me to add Cryptonomicon to my list of must-have sci-fi books (alongside Neuromancer, which I must, must, must read).
He he, Margaret Atwood. I like to think that there’s a somehow-distant genetic link between her and I, and that’s why my first book will be a phenomenal success…when I finish it…
I’ve enjoyed certain Atwood books and hated others. One of my favourites is Lady Oracle which I read from cover to cover in pretty much one sitting. I just thought it was hilarious—that this woman was writing Gothic romance novels in order to earn money and trying to keep that fact from her husband ... anyways, it’s been a while so maybe I wouldn’t enjoy it as much upon re-reading it (that, I think, is a true test of a book; does it age well?) I also enjoyed The Robber Bride (because of my interest in fairy tales and how she plays with the idea of gender) and Alias Grace (and her use of quilt patterns). However, I did not enjoy The Handmaid’s Tale or The Edible Woman (though the last scene was great when she bakes that cake in the shape of a woman and tries to serve it to her fiancé) or Surfacing. Her poetry is very interesting—I had to read the ones based on Susanna Moodie’s Roughing It in the Bush (I think it was called The Journals of Susanna Moodie).
The book sounds really kinda nerdy, a bit like Sax russell from K.S. Robinson’s Mars Trilogy.
The quote about ingenuity reminded me of a lecture I heard on the Artful Brain and used neurology/neuropsychology to explain how we appreciate art and recognise patterns. As a researcher you actually have to actively work against the pattern recognition parts of the brain to make sure you’re not theorising on artefacts.
Where did you find your copy Karen? Normal bookstores?
I borrowed it off a friend but you ought to be able to find it in all mainstream bookstores; I remember we stocked Neal Stephenson when I worked at Dymocks (but this was three or four years ago). Still, Quicksilver only came out last year (and it’s still $45 in paperback!!!) and Cryptonomicon came out at around the turn of the century so it’s not that old.
Come to think of it, I don’t own any Stephenson. Everything of his that I’ve read has been borrowed off friends. The first one I ever read was Snow Crash which I really enjoyed because of the pizza-delivery-in-half-an-hour-or-you-get-it-free thing in the first chapter and the fact that the main character is called Hiro Protagonist. Oh, and the girl was really cool; I liked her. But the ending was a bit of a flop. Then Guan lent me The Diamond Age which is, surprisingly, one of his all-time favourite books. It is loosely based around the Pygmalion story and features a lot of interesting nanotechnology (“smart paper” that folds itself and jacks into the world wide web in restaurant tables, a pen with a light on the end which flashes when you’ve just received email, business cards that have programs embedded on them which provide a showcase of a programmer’s work). The Primer was very interesting, though, in a way, it disappointed me that an actress was hired to do most of the reading and interaction. And what was with the whole passing on of the virus thing and the collective unconscious that manifested itself in orgiastic rituals??? I didn’t like the ending of that book either. But Cryptonomicon ends well and quite satisfactorily.
That lecture on the Artful Brain was really interesting, Pete.
Yes very interesting! I’ve done some work on pattern recognition before with computers, so it makes a bit of sense. What would we do without BBC.