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The Baroque Trilogy literally changed how I see the way the world works. Those endless detours are worth quite a lot.
by waterlesscloud 14y ago
The Baroque Trilogy literally changed how I see the way the world works. Those endless detours are worth quite a lot.
- planetguy 14y agoSome of them are. Some of them are truly pointless. Neal Stephenson apparently had a giant map of 18th century London on the wall of the room where he wrote it, and as such apparently feels compelled, on certain occasions when a character goes from one place to another, to name every street he passes on the way. That's not atmospheric or interesting, it's just filler.
- excuse-me 14y agoThe point of Baroque architecture and music is to have too much detail at every level to take in - presumably he was trying the same thing in writing.
- dredmorbius 14y agoThe best textbook on modern banking and finance I've ever read. Which, I realize, is a really damning endorsement of a novel, but I honestly found it fascinating. Once I chewed through enough (roughly half) of the first book to the point that it was engaging. And yes, its exposition was itself an exploration of the baroque.