Does anyone know how on or off Neal Stephenson is with the theology/anthropology/linguistics behind Snow Crash? I'm finding myself incredibly distracted.
Oh, smacked in the noggin with a 2x4 wrapped in velvet. Yeah, that's what it felt like.
Lorne ,'Smile Time'
We're Literary 2: To Read Makes Our Speaking English Good
There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."
§ ita § - Jun 13, 2004 8:01:29 am PDT #3245 of 10002
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.
Nutty - Jun 14, 2004 4:42:07 am PDT #3246 of 10002
"Mister Spock is on his fanny, sir. Reports heavy damage."
ita, my general impression of Snow Crash was that it was a pile of inelegant hooey, badly infodumped, but I can't break that down into details. (I didn't like the book enough to remember which parts felt like hooey and which didn't.)
Anne W. - Jun 14, 2004 5:01:09 am PDT #3247 of 10002
The lost sheep grow teeth, forsake their lambs, and lie with the lions.
"Beauty" is a pretty limp heroine IMHO, McKinley's version or no. Even if she is a bibliophile.
This is why I think her re-visiting of the trope in Rose Daughter is so much better.
Still, for me, The Blue Sword will forever remain the OTMcKinleyNovel.
§ ita § - Jun 14, 2004 5:13:00 am PDT #3248 of 10002
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.
So far we are of one mind on this, Nutty. I can't work out why I didn't hate it the first time, so I'm reluctant to cut bait on it.
I'll make my way out of this particular piece of exposition (how could your protagonist (sorry -- Protagonist) sitting around talking to an AI (of limited I) for yonks not kill a story?)
Volans - Jun 14, 2004 1:32:39 pm PDT #3249 of 10002
move out and draw fire
Oddly, I'm rereading Snow Crash right now. I'm liking it better than I did the first time, but a lot of that is because I am reading it in small chunks, rather than slamming through it trying to get to the story, and then being cranky when the story didn't really get all the way onstage, and wasn't clearly resolved. Now I'm just enjoying the writing choices for each scene and character and the social commentary.
As far as there being no direct lingual descendant of Sumerian, I believe that's true. The Enki and Inanna stuff is also pretty much accurate. What I DON'T buy is that every hacker in the world thinks in binary to the point that they've built new neural pathways in their brain and know every power of 2 ad infinitum.
§ ita § - Jun 14, 2004 1:35:46 pm PDT #3250 of 10002
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.
What I DON'T buy is that every hacker in the world thinks in binary to the point that they've built new neural pathways in their brain and know every power of 2 ad infinitum.
No shit. I know some geeks, and part of the magic of high level languages is that you don't need binary. I'm too lazy to be a cracker, but you can do some amazing things without needing to know 2^17 in decimal.
JoeCrow - Jun 14, 2004 5:52:50 pm PDT #3251 of 10002
"what's left when you take biology and sociology out of the picture?" "An autistic hermaphodite." -Allyson
Yeah, Sumerian gods do seem to have behaved in some radically non-linear ways. Interestingly enough, their non-linearity bears some odd resemblances to the behavior of the early dynastic Egyptian gods and the Meso-american pantheon. Apparently, building pyramids makes your gods crazy.
I don't think the brain works quite the way he seems to think it does, though. Kinda reminds me of Jaynes' Bicameral Mind schtick. Very elaborate, utterly wrongheaded.
The story's kinda chopsocky fun, though. And I'm a fan of Raven's personal violence deterrent.
deborah grabien - Jun 14, 2004 9:00:31 pm PDT #3252 of 10002
It really doesn't matter. It's just an opinion. Don't worry about it. Not worth the hassle.
No shit. I know some geeks, and part of the magic of high level languages is that you don't need binary. I'm too lazy to be a cracker, but you can do some amazing things without needing to know 2^17 in decimal.
(blinking)
I thought you said there was no direct lingual descendant of Sumerian?
§ ita § - Jun 15, 2004 3:48:46 am PDT #3253 of 10002
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.
I thought you said there was no direct lingual descendant of Sumerian?
The way you can tell it's unrelated gibberish is because it's fusional and not agglutinative.
I'll give Stevenson that -- I know a wee bit more of linguistics thanks to him, but it's not helping his book any.
deborah grabien - Jun 15, 2004 7:03:15 am PDT #3254 of 10002
It really doesn't matter. It's just an opinion. Don't worry about it. Not worth the hassle.
The way you can tell it's unrelated gibberish is because it's fusional and not agglutinative.
Ah, I see. It's Babble-onian.