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Talking about Neal Stephenson's works always brings up several topics: endings and editing. He's responded to criticisms of his endings in various book talks,

Talking about Neal Stephenson's works always brings up several topics: endings and editing. He's responded to criticisms of his endings in various book talks, for instance his Author's at Google talk about Anathem [1] (prepositioned to the relevant bit @10:54). One of his editor's at Wired magazine also made a comment about editing his work in his book talk about Fall or Dodge in Hell at the Interval [2]. This is a transcript of a part of the Authors at Google talk for Anathem (first link prepositioned to 10:54): [10:54] Q: How do you think about ending your stories? They seem to run the gamut from some where the action just ends, and others where there's the equivalent of a movie ending with a ten-minute car chase in it. [11:11] A: Well, I'm reasonably happy with all of my endings, but I know that some people feel differently. [11:21] But as you've noticed, they're different, it's not always the same thing. All I can say is different books end in different ways, and different people have different tastes in what they want to see. I'm well aware that there are certain people frustrated with the endings of some of my books. But I also think that it's one of these things where people's preconceived ideas sometimes drive the way they perceive things. I've seen people complain, for example, that Snow Crash doesn't have a good ending. But I can remember that at the time I was writing it, I told a friend of mine that the climax of Snow Crash was now longer than Moby Dick. There's a helicopter that gets brought down, and there's a private jet that blows up, some people die, there's confrontations, and the girl goes home with her mom, it seems like a good ending to me. So I think that my experience is that once you've written a book with a controversial ending and that meme gets going of Stephenson can't write endings, then that gets slapped on to everything you do, no matter how elaborate the ending is. [12:59] For The Baroque Cycle, I created a kind of NORAD bunker in which to write the ending. It was this complete, you know, the wall, the ceiling, the floor, they were completely covered with timelines, charts, and all kinds of technology that I was using to bring all the plot lines together into an end. [13:27] I think Anathem does ok on that score. I'm sure I'll be hearing from some of the Stephenson can't write endings people, but I think it's got a decent enough ending on this one. This is a transcript of an unknown (to me) Wired editor talking about Stephenson's copy: I will tell you I was working under Kevin at Wired when Neil did a story of following the fiberoptic cable around the world, and it was a forty five thousand word piece, and I will say when you brought the copy in I could not improve it as an editor. It was the cleanest copy I'd ever worked with ever with any other writer and I actually worked with a lot of writers so I will say you have something going on there about your first drafts that are uneditable. [2] [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnq-2BJwatE&t=10m54s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnq-2BJwatE&t=10m54s [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkxuzwCps70&t=3253s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkxuzwCps70&t=3253s

beezlebroxxxxxx 3y ago
That quote on Anathem is interesting because it's the one book I've read by him that felt the most "...and that's the ending, you can figure out what happened afterwards" of his books. I wouldn't say it's a particularly satisfying ending while you're reading the book, because the logic of the climactic scene and ending is hidden, but afterwards it does leave you going "huh, it actually kind of works." Seveneves had a much more conventional ending and, in the narrative logic of the book, was quite satisfying to read even though I wouldn't say that book is his strongest book overall.
_whiteCaps_ 3y ago
"Mother Earth, Mother Board" is one of my favourite pieces of non-fiction writing.
PhasmaFelis 3y ago
Anathem is the only Stephenson book I've read that had a proper ending. (Granted I've skipped a lot of his more recent stuff.) Him saying "Snow Crash had a great ending, there was lots and lots of action at the end!" is really telling. The problem wasn't the climax, Neal, the problem is that you hit the climax and then stop instantly. You need a denouement. When you take the readers to a towering peak, you need to let them coast back down again, not just throw them off a cliff.
- EdwardCoffin 3y ago
  I presume that you dislike Hamlet, Macbeth, Dune, and Children of Dune on the same grounds then? All of those end in similar ways.
  - PhasmaFelis 3y ago
    > Hamlet and Macbeth are stage plays, not novels. Different expectations. Dune was the start of a series. It didn't need to wrap everything up in a tidy bow. And its ending was still much less abrupt than Snow Crash's, where the book ends on the same page as the villain's death. I haven't read Children of Dune. Was this supposed to be a gotcha? Were you trying to catch me lying, like I secretly do like abrupt endings?

beezlebroxxxxxx 3y ago

That quote on Anathem is interesting because it's the one book I've read by him that felt the most "...and that's the ending, you can figure out what happened afterwards" of his books. I wouldn't say it's a particularly satisfying ending while you're reading the book, because the logic of the climactic scene and ending is hidden, but afterwards it does leave you going "huh, it actually kind of works." Seveneves had a much more conventional ending and, in the narrative logic of the book, was quite satisfying to read even though I wouldn't say that book is his strongest book overall.

_whiteCaps_ 3y ago

"Mother Earth, Mother Board" is one of my favourite pieces of non-fiction writing.

PhasmaFelis 3y ago

Anathem is the only Stephenson book I've read that had a proper ending. (Granted I've skipped a lot of his more recent stuff.) Him saying "Snow Crash had a great ending, there was lots and lots of action at the end!" is really telling. The problem wasn't the climax, Neal, the problem is that you hit the climax and then stop instantly. You need a denouement. When you take the readers to a towering peak, you need to let them coast back down again, not just throw them off a cliff.

EdwardCoffin 3y ago
I presume that you dislike Hamlet, Macbeth, Dune, and Children of Dune on the same grounds then? All of those end in similar ways.
- PhasmaFelis 3y ago
  > Hamlet and Macbeth are stage plays, not novels. Different expectations. Dune was the start of a series. It didn't need to wrap everything up in a tidy bow. And its ending was still much less abrupt than Snow Crash's, where the book ends on the same page as the villain's death. I haven't read Children of Dune. Was this supposed to be a gotcha? Were you trying to catch me lying, like I secretly do like abrupt endings?