April 16, 2004


Todd loaned me Cryptonomicon, by Neal Stephenson, which is great. The writing style is deadpan, and rewards, but doesn't require, deep thought. In this interview he sums it up nicely:

This might sound funny after all that I've said above, but I hope that readers won't be conscious of any of the abstract themes that I've been talking about here. This book is meant to work as a yarn. I hope that readers will take it as such. If they also want to go think deep thoughts about currency fluctuations during the 1690s, then there's plenty of that in here for those who want to read it on that level. Everything I've talked about above took place in a world full of pirate ships, sword fights, seductive courtesans, picaroons and other staples of the bodice-ripping and swashbuckling genres, which I have not been above putting into these books.

(This is about one of his more recent books, which I suppose I'll now have to read.) He's technical enough to prompt non-plot-related musings, but doesn't spend pages on long sentences whose only use is to forward one or another peripheral literary hack. Which is kind of nice. Literature for the non-Literary rabble.
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