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In Dune, the villain is arguably the emperor, and we only find out what will happen to him on the last page, the last page of a whirlwind chapter that concludes

In Dune, the villain is arguably the emperor, and we only find out what will happen to him on the last page, the last page of a whirlwind chapter that concludes all sorts of things that were building up for the whole book. So I don't accept your assessment that Dune ends less abruptly than Snow Crash's. I don't see how Shakespeare gets excused because he wrote stage plays, but Stephenson does not because he writes books. They're both fictions, with endings that could have been wrapped up with more ceremony. No gotcha, I'm not even trying to persuade you of anything. I'm trying to point out that Stephenson's reputation on endings is largely undeserved, pretty much just a self-perpetuating myth, and that even if he does have a few abrupt endings he is not unique in this regard. I never hear anyone complain about Herbert's or Shakespeare's endings, which are demonstrably abrupt.

PhasmaFelis 3y ago
> I'm trying to point out that Stephenson's reputation on endings is largely undeserved, pretty much just a self-perpetuating myth The first time I read Snow Crash, the first time I'd even heard of Stephenson, I loved the action leading up to the end but thought it ended with a disappointing thud. Same with Diamond Age, same with Cryptonomicon... I read all of these before I had any connection to the internet memeplex around Stephenson. Anathem was a notable exception, with a nice proper denouement, and that was after I'd found out that lots of other people found Stephenson endings unsatisfying. I also didn't find fault with Zodiac or The Big U, although these were of course somewhat more conventional than his later works. I don't think you understand why thousands of people find most of Stephenson's endings unsatisfying. That's fine for you. It does not mean that the rest of us are just making it up for the memes.

PhasmaFelis 3y ago

> I'm trying to point out that Stephenson's reputation on endings is largely undeserved, pretty much just a self-perpetuating myth The first time I read Snow Crash, the first time I'd even heard of Stephenson, I loved the action leading up to the end but thought it ended with a disappointing thud. Same with Diamond Age, same with Cryptonomicon... I read all of these before I had any connection to the internet memeplex around Stephenson. Anathem was a notable exception, with a nice proper denouement, and that was after I'd found out that lots of other people found Stephenson endings unsatisfying. I also didn't find fault with Zodiac or The Big U, although these were of course somewhat more conventional than his later works. I don't think you understand why thousands of people find most of Stephenson's endings unsatisfying. That's fine for you. It does not mean that the rest of us are just making it up for the memes.