![]() ![]() The concents are like monasteries, but where science, philosophy and mathematics are studied, rather than theology. Don't panic: I will elaborate upon this last sentence. That early novel has its faraway echoes in Anathem, as Stephenson again explores the relationships between language, thought and meaning: specifically, whether the last can exist outside of the direct dominions of the first two.Īnathem takes place on a world called Arbre, where our narrator, Erasmas or "Raz", is an avout Decenarian fraa in the concent of Saunt Edhar. Even with Snow Crash (1993), a breakneck satirical geek-fest that still reads as though it's years ahead of the cyber-curve, he was demonstrating an aptitude for wrangling big ideas without sacrificing pace or lightness of touch. The scale of his works since Cryptonomicon in 1999 has been such as to require a greater commitment than some marriages. Both hold, for me, a boundlessly engaging fascination that comes at the price of being made to feel infinitesimally small: not merely as a human being, but as a writer, too. I t feels appropriate that cosmology should form the underlying basis of Neal Stephenson's vertiginous new novel. ![]()
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