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The character identification bit is interesting. I had assumed the president was meant to be Hillary Clinton until I read someone angrily complaining about his

• mseebach 10y ago
  Well, the book was written in the age of Palin more than Clinton, so the parallel is inviting - but isn't JBF a pretty well read big city liberal, generally well respected in Doobs circles? It's a very subtle dig. However, I read JBF as a catch-all figure for everything bad about politicians (generally useless, except to ferment conflict to serve their own path to power), so it's not surprising that people would project whatever politician they don't like onto her. In other words, she's both Palin and Hillary.
  • pavedwalden 10y ago
    When asked about the Hillary comparison at a book signing, Stephenson said that he hadn't wanted the character to represent Hillary and thought it was unfortunate that many readers would make that assumption just because there were so few alternative public figures to map the character to. He gave no hint as to there being anyone in particular she was supposed to be.