Neal Stephenson

   

Neal Stephenson (b. October 31, 1959 in Fort Meade, Maryland) is known primarily as a science fiction writer in the postcyberpunk genre with a predisposition to divert into explorations of math, currency, and the history of science. He also writes non-fiction articles about technology in publications such as Wired Magazine, and works part-time as an advisor for Blue Origin, a company (funded by Jeff Bezos) developing a manned suborbital launch system [1] (http://www.well.com/user/neal/myrelationship.html).

Although he wrote earlier novels such as the eco-thriller Zodiac, he came to fame in the early 1990s with the novel Snow Crash (1992) which fuses memetics, computer viruses, and other high-tech themes with Sumerian mythology. Averaging one novel every four years, he has written these subsequent novels: The Diamond Age: or A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer (1995) which deals with a future with extensive nanotechnology; Cryptonomicon (1999), a novel concerned with computing and codebreaking from the Second World War codebreakers to a modern attempt to set up a data haven; and The Baroque Cycle, a three volume work consisting of Quicksilver (2003), The Confusion (2004) and The System of the World (2004), making a very long historical novel cycle that is in some respects a prequel to Cryptonomicon.

With the 2003 publication of Quicksilver, Stephenson debuted The Metaweb, a wiki (using the same software as Wikipedia) annotating the ideas and historical period explored in the novel.

Style

Stephenson, at least in his earlier novels, deals heavily in pop-culture-laden metaphors and imagery and in quick, hip dialogue, as well as in extended narrative monologues. The tone of his books generally is more irreverent and less self-serious than in previous cyberpunk novels, notably those of William Gibson. His novels are also notable in that they are usually written in the present tense.

Stephenson's books tend to have elaborate, inventive plots drawing on numerous technological and sociological ideas at the same time. This distinguishes him from other mainstream science fiction authors who tend to focus on a few technological or social changes in isolation from others. This penchant for complexity and detail suggests a baroque writer. His book The Diamond Age features "neo-Victorian" characters and employs Victorian-era literary conceits. In keeping with the baroque style, Stephenson's books have gotten longer as he has gained recognition. (Cryptonomicon is nearly a thousand pages long and contains various digressions, including a lengthy erotic story about antique furniture and stockings).

A characteristic aspect of his books is the "breakdown in events", an acceleration in plot development, typically about three quarters into the novel, accompanied by a marked increase in violence and general confusion among the characters (and often the readers), and abrupt endings without strong conclusions, which sometimes leave the reader hanging. This pattern holds for all of the Stephenson-penned books except perhaps Quicksilver. Although, on the evidence of The Confusion that rule may still hold if one considers The Baroque Cycle as a single work.

Bibliography

  • Non-fiction:
    • Smiley's people. 1993.
    • In the Kingdom of Mao Bell. 1994. A billion Chinese are using new technology to create the fastest growing economy on the planet. But while the information wants to be free, do they?
    • Mother Earth Mother Board – IN WHICH the Hacker Tourist ventures forth across the wide and wondrous meatspace of three continents, acquainting himself with the customs and dialects of the exotic manhole villagers of Thailand, the U-turn tunnelers of the Nile Delta, the cable nomads of Lan Tao Island, the slack control wizards of Chelmsford, the subterranean ex-telegraphers of Cornwall, and other previously unknown and unchronicled folk; also, biographical sketches of the two long-dead supreme ninja hacker mage lords of global telecommunications, and other material pertaining to the business and technology of undersea fiber-optic cables, as well as an account of the laying of the longest wire on Earth, which should not be without interest to the readers of Wired. Wired 4.12 (December 1996), pp.97–160. (Full text (http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/4.12/ffglass.html?topic=&topic_set=), from Wired.com)
    • Global Neighborhood Watch. 1998. Stopping street crime in the global village.
    • In the Beginning...was the Command Line. Perennial. 1999. ISBN 0380815931. (Homepage (http://www.cryptonomicon.com/beginning.html))

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations by or about Neal Stephenson.




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