OT: Anathem

brunians at brunians.org · 16 Sep 2008, 01:56 · from 2008-September.txt.gz

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From: brunians at brunians.org (brunians at brunians.org)
Date: Mon, 15 Sep 2008 21:56:39 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: (urth) OT: Anathem
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Message-ID: <9527.67.142.130.23.1221530199.squirrel at brunians.org>

It looks like Stephenson has done a 'Sword Of Shannara' on TBOTNS.

What a maroon!



.



> is it really totally OK to write a fantasy book about a future version of
> our planet and call it "Orth"?
>
>
> On Mon, Sep 15, 2008 at 2:40 PM, Matthew Groves
> <matthewalangroves at gmail.com
>> wrote:
>
>> Mostly I agree with Dirda; however I think I like it considerably better
>> than he does.  I admire and approve of Stephenson's project.  I suspect
>> Stephenson really was thinking about the Harry Potter crowd when he
>> wrote
>> this -- some of whom would be approaching the age of the protagonist,
>> Fraa
>> Erasmus, and his friends.  I may be reading too much into the novel, but
>> I
>> am convinced that Stephenson was presenting his science-and-math
>> monastery
>> (the Mynster) is a counterpoint to the Hogwarts "school for wizards,"
>> replacing the realm of wish-fulfillment fantasy with the realm of
>> abstract
>> theories and ideas.  (The novel seems to be geared toward a just-post-YA
>> age
>> group who were thrilled by the steadily increasing page counts of the
>> Harry
>> Potter sequels and thus won't be scared off by this 900+ page monster.)
>> Stephenson is trying to uplift the Harry Potter crowd with a taste of
>> philosophy and science, and offering some positive alternatives
>> to the consumer-driven, intellectually barren,
>> fundamentalism-spawning culture they've grown up in.
>>
>> Unfortunately, he's going to lose many of those Harry Potter readers (as
>> he
>> nearly lost me), most likely between pp. 12 and 23, in a long
>> description of
>> the Mynster that far outlasts any curiosity you may have developed about
>> the
>> place by this point.  It was while slogging through these pages that I
>> kept
>> thinking about how Wolfe introduces us to Severian's world and implies
>> all
>> sorts of fantastic things about it without interrupting the story to
>> take us
>> on a walking tour of the citadel and the Matachin Tower, pointing out
>> details left and right.  But that's just the kind of thing Stephenson
>> does
>> at several points in *Anathem*, and whereas Wolfe's details are integral
>> to the story, Stephenson's are mostly just flavor.
>>
>> But once I forgave Stephenson for not transcending popular fiction with
>> a
>> new *Book of the New Sun*, I started to enjoy *Anathem*.  I have more to
>> say about the book, but I'm curious about others' reactions to Anathem.
>>
>> On Mon, Sep 15, 2008 at 10:41 AM, Matthew Keeley <
>> matthew.keeley.1 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>>  Anyone read Michael Dirda's review of Anathem in The Washington Post?
>>>
>>>
>>> http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/04/AR2008090402460.html
>>>
>>> Dirda compares Anathem with The Book of the New Sun, which he says is
>>> much
>>> superior.
>>>
>>> -Matt
>>>
>>
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