Or a fanfic playground, where writers are free to reuse the same basic cast of predefined stereotypes without interfering with each other's characters. I think

Or a fanfic playground, where writers are free to reuse the same basic cast of predefined stereotypes without interfering with each other's characters. I think it's typical Stephenson: start with a clearly identifiable grand idea, get wildly sidetracked working towards it until the digressions are something much better, leave a skeletal version of the original idea for the end.