# Neal Stephenson's Anathem *The Urth list — 1 messages, 1 voices, 23 Aug 2008* > Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright > in each message remains with the person who wrote it. > Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original > archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than > retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact. --- ### Fred Kiesche *23 Aug 2008, 00:55* I was going to pick up the new Neal Stephenson tome (will it be a doorstop as well as tome?) when it comes out next month...especially after seeing this: Anathem: (1) In Proto- Orth, a poetic or musical invocation of Our Mother Hylaea, which since the time of Adrakhones has been the climax of the daily liturgy (hence the Fluccish word Anthem mean- ing a song of great emotional resonance, esp. one that inspires lis- teners to sing along). Note: this sense is archaic, and used only in a ritual context where it is unlikely to be confused with the much more commonly used sense 2. (2) In New Orth, an aut by which an incorrigible fraa or suur is ejected from the math and his or her work sequestered (hence the Fluccish word Anathema meaning in- tolerable statements or ideas). See Throwback. F.P. Kiesche III "Ah Mr. Gibbon, another damned, fat, square book. Always, scribble, scribble, scribble, eh?" (The Duke of Gloucester, on being presented with Volume 2 of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.) Blogging at TexasBestGrok! ---