'Shells'
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."
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?)
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
The way you can tell it's unrelated gibberish is because it's fusional and not agglutinative.
Ah, I see. It's Babble-onian.
Snerk.
RE: Olivia Joules and The Overactive Imagination by Helen Fielding. Just finished it. Here are my recommendations if you wish to enjoy this book:
1. Read on beach, patio or similar sunny spot, preferably with large, fruity, alcoholic beverage.
2a. Pretend it wasn't written by Helen Fielding. If not possible,
2b. Try to forget you've ever heard of Bridget Jones, or her diaries.
3. Someone mentioned Mary Sue, I believe, in relation to this book. If you have feelings of hatred towards her, forget above and skip the book.
2b. Try to forget you've ever heard of Bridget Jones, or her diaries.
I am trying to do this as I read the book. There are some glimmers of goodness, but for the most part it is a real dissapointment. Nothing at all like either of the Bridget Jones novels.