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> it feels like slogging through Leviticus I genuinely laughed out loud when the article called the book "accessible". I enjoyed the book much more than you d
by slg 7y ago
> it feels like slogging through Leviticus
I genuinely laughed out loud when the article called the book "accessible". I enjoyed the book much more than you did, but it is nearly 500 pages long and full of long, in depth, and dry discussions about a variety of obscure topics like linguistics and ancient Sumerian mythology. That isn't for everyone.
- aidenn0 7y agoCompared to anything post-Cryptonomicon, it's incredibly accessible. The digressions into ancient sumerian mythology are broken up fairly well with action scenes. It's not like it spends 3 pages describing a technique for eating breakfast cereal...
- Balgair 7y agoI literally bought 5 boxes of Capt'n'Crunch to try to figure out what the hell he was talking about. He spent so long trying to get us to grok the process and experience the joy too. I tried, Neil, I really did. But I came up with bupkiss. It just cuts the roof of your mouth, Neil. There is no magic in them. No joy, just oral soreness. Also, the card deck cypher is really cool, but when your little cousin comes over and then ruins the cypher to play solitaire, yeah, that sucks.
- aporetics 7y agoThat he got you to try it is perhaps the best praise you could give.
- blaser-waffle 7y agoMostly nostalgia bait, they're little sugar bombs for kids... who go apeshit for anything sugar. Turns into a comfort food -- my dad still occasionally splurges on sugary breakfast cereal.
- karatestomp 7y agoCryptonomicon’s the only one of his four books I’ve read that I thought held up for the whole length. Anathem was interesting but spent too much time treading water, then fizzled out. The Diamond Age was one of my favorite first thirds of a sci-fi book that ended up being one of the most frustrating books I’ve finished. I’ve rarely been angry at a book but that one did it, so, that’s something I guess. I’ve read an actual book of Sumerian texts in translation so my Can Tolerate Boring cred is legit, but the mythology sections of Snow Crash—which are a lot of the book—were a real slog. Cryptonomicon? Consistent and fine throughout, and even has a real ending that might have been thought out from near the beginning.
- aidenn0 7y agoI agree that Cryptonomicon was more consistent; I just didn't like what it had to offer.
- karatestomp 7y agoSure, and my breadth of reading of and connection with Stephenson‘s work, especially considering his popularity, are such that I wouldn’t claim anything like authority on the matter. Just offering another view in case anyone’s in here looking for reading advice or recommendations, for which I think I have just enough experience and perspective to offer something that might help someone, at least so far as defending Cryptonomicon as, to the right reader, a highlight among Stephenson’s books, and maybe not just for crypto nerds (I wouldn’t count myself as one). Lots and lots of people really like the three of his books that struck me as so-so to poor, so plenty of folks surely think I’m wrong there. Snow Crash could definitely make a good series. Of the three I’ve read but didn’t like much, I’d say it’s the one I’d be most likely to enjoy as a show even if it barely deviated from the book, in fact. Hell, it has a better shot in that format than Cryptonomicon would. And anyway, Cryptonomicon’s more speculative elements are probably not aging very well since I read it—too much of it’s become ordinary and mundane.
- aidenn0 7y ago> Cryptonomicon’s more speculative elements are probably not aging very well since I read it—too much of it’s become ordinary and mundane. Indeed. I call this the Serial Experiments Lain effect.
- oliyoung 7y agoI'm /still/ trying to read Anathem.