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I read "The Fountainhead" at age 18 and was marvelled by it. I even quoted bits of Howard Roark's speeches on second-handers. I re-read it at age 25 and, uh, it
by prionassembly 5y ago
I read "The Fountainhead" at age 18 and was marvelled by it. I even quoted bits of Howard Roark's speeches on second-handers. I re-read it at age 25 and, uh, it's a really bad novel built around a couple of awesome "yas queen" kind of put-down rants.
I feel the same about Accelerando. At one point I was in a clubbing phase and always took my paperback in my jacket pockets. Then, I never fully read it a second time because I can't get through Annette Benning, and I remember the flock of birds stuff at the end.
The linked text is pretty good, but Stross thinks too highly of himself re: his knowledge of science, and he presents his politics in a way that mildly annoys people who don't agree with his politics. Also, Accelerando ages as badly as Ayn Rand.
- nottorp 5y agoAccelerando is geek bait. His best work is the Laundry series which he's still working on. Disclaimer: no idea what his opinion of his work is.
- arethuza 5y agoThe Laundry Files: never has the end of the world been so entertaining.
- thom 5y agoI personally liked the Eschaton stuff but he pretty firmly rebuked himself there.
- cstross 5y agoMy opinion? I began writing the stories that turned into Accelerando in 1998, largely to keep myself from having a work-induced nervous breakdown during the dot-com bubble. I finished it in 2003/04. It's journeyman work, and I like to think I'm both a better writer and a deeper/broader thinker than I was back then: it's no masterpiece, and I'm a little embarrassed by its staying power among the folks here.
- arethuza 5y agoFor what it's worth, I think you're being a bit hard on yourself - the exuberance and density of ideas of Accelerando make it a good read. Also, while I'm at it - I don't know how many times I've read A Colder War but the ending still gives me the creeps.
- prionassembly 5y ago"Accelerando" is an awesome name, and it came on the scene just as the "exponential pace!" thing was going on in the zeitgeist. I feel like you want to move beyond being the "Accelerando guy". You have my best wishes on that.
- kybernetikos 5y agoPersonally I'm a fan of Glasshouse.
- _jal 5y agoI think of Accelerando sort of the same way I think of Snowcrash. They're both just avalanches of mind candy barely contained by enough thin narrative to pretend they're novels. They're both incredibly fun reads, but awful fiction. Both authors got significantly better at the craft with practice, although one of them still seems to have an ideological aversion to endings.
- JPKab 5y agoIndeed on Stross lacking humility. His recent post where he talked about COVID was pretty rife with inaccuracies and assumptions, which is fine, but he presented them with this unbridled level of certainty that simply isn't available in the data. I've grown to tire over the "certain" people trying to analyze the science in this pandemic, on both "sides". (If you force it into a binary framing, it's the "holy shit this is bad" side and the "holy shit you guys are overreacting" side, both of whom have loud nutbags who are too confident in their assumptions.)