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Has anyone read Neil Stephenson's book Anathem? It's gotta be one of my favorites.
2023-05-16 · 1 year ago · 👍 benthor, Half_Elf_Monk · ❤ 1
☕️ Morgan · 2023-05-16 at 19:45:
Yes, it's a favourite of mine too. In terms of world building it's hard to beat. It's also fun to point to how the Internet equivalent in Anathem has nicely predicted what is probably going to happen thanks to generative AI.
🚀 StanStani · 2023-06-14 at 02:50:
I have not, but I have read and enjoyed Seveneves.
🚀 stack · 2023-06-15 at 01:16:
I had a hard time with Anathem - I think it was just too much for me. I think Stephenson hit bullseye with Cryptonomicon, although his earlier Diamond Age and Snow Crash were pretty amazing. The later stuff - meh - too much name dropping, too many characters, tedious.
☕️ Morgan · 2023-06-15 at 05:54:
Cryptonomicon is great. The Captain Crunch passage is useful for explaining why his books are on the long side :)
🐵 akkartik · 2023-06-16 at 15:27:
Yes! One of my favorite books by him, alongside Zodiac and Diamond Age.
🪐 Rochelimit · 2023-06-16 at 18:24:
I like Stephenson's stuff, but I've not read Anathem yet, so it's going on my list. :)
☯️ eph [OP] · 2023-06-16 at 22:52:
@stack, yeah the book definitely starts slowly and dryly. I like the fictionalized history of philosophy that it presents, though it was hard to keep track of the characters (e.g. Saunt Proc (the syntactic (realist) theor) vs Saunt Halikaarn (the semantic (nominalist) theor)).
☕️ Morgan · 2023-06-17 at 06:34:
Anathem has a lot of ideas relevant to Gemini :) including what the web might end up as, and minimal use of high tech.
🌲 Half_Elf_Monk · Mar 13 at 17:50:
Anathem is so good. I enjoyed the world he built... I didn't mind the massive amount of characters/names in the alternate history. That's part of the fun!
I'd argue it's one of Stephenson's better books, along with Diamond Age.
I thought the explanation of the clouds and the shadow (from Saunt Protas) was a pretty good explanation of the idea of forms preceding reality. That this was applied to multiverses made for a SUPER interesting thought experiment.
I love the title "Saunt" and the quasi-religious discipline of the monastaries. I'm not sure he could have told the same story without reference to the thinkers in our own history who were part of religious traditions. Plus, it's just fun portmanteau.
Funny, that book ended my obsession with Stephenson. I got incredibly bored with the characters and could not finish the book. Had I not completely loved Cryptonomicon, Diamond Age and Snowcrash, I would be convinced that Neil is a pretentious hack.
But I think I already said that...
🌲 Half_Elf_Monk · Mar 20 at 02:33:
The characters in Anathem maybe aren't as dynamic as the others... they don't develop in the same way that, say, Nell does in Diamond Age. That said, it seems like the world (multiverse?) is what's growing, and the movement/activity of the characters is what's driving the story more than the characters.