About 7 years ago, my brother sent me a copy of Snow Crash, and ever since then I have been a huge fan of Neal Stephenson. In my first year at UCSB I hunted down a copy of The Big U, before it was reprinted and when it was being sold for ridiculous amounts of money at auctions. In the Beginning was the Command Line inspired me to learn more about Linux and even to go as far as installing a separate hard drive dedicated to Linux on my computer for a short time.
I have finished all of his books relatively quickly, except for Cryptonomicon (which took me a month) and Quicksilver. I have been reading this book for the past six months, and I still can't read more than 10 pages at a stretch. Reading this book is at least as laborious as reading Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad (not to be confused with Army of Darkness, by Sam Raimi). I have read my way more than half way through it, but making progress requires the discipline and patience of a highly motivated scholar. Reading this book makes my brain hurt from trying to process and absorb so much information.
And now I just read that Stephenson has already released another book in the Baroque Cycle series (so quickly after the long awaited release of Quicksilver) called The Confusion. I want this book, but Quicksilver has humbled me. Many other books have been devoured effortlessly in the same time period, but it still remains by my bed unfinished.
What really amazes me is the versatility of Stephenson as an author. He (along with Gibson) defined cyberpunk with Snow Crash and The Diamond Age. I enjoyed these books so much that I have read them several times and wouldn't mind reading them again in the future. The Cobweb and Interface were interesting books that Stephenson and his uncle (J. Fredrick George) penned under the pseudonym Stephen Bury (is the last name a reference to the bury/disinter commands that he writes of in Cryptonomicon?). One deals with bioterrorism and the other with politics and medicine (this one reminded me of a book that was written by Harry Harrison and Bruce Sterling, but I forget what the title was). I also really enjoyed reading Zodiac (check out this page: Yamamoto and the Secret Admirers, heh!), his "Eco-thriller" novel, as a break from reading about the dangers of PCBs and Dioxin in my Environmental Studies coursework.
The cool thing about reading Stephenson's works is that he likes to write about things that he hasn't written about before. You can tell that he does his homework and knows what he's talking about. After reading his books and articles in Wired, you can tell why the man does not want to be bothered by people he doesn't know- he's busy working on writing something. Let the man have his privacy! It feels reassuring to know that he is putting down words on paper instead of giving away his time and attention to random people.
I wonder how long it will be until one of his novels is made into a movie. I kind of hope that one never is. No, I don't think Peter Jackson would be the director to do it justice and NO, Edward Norton would not be a good candidate for Hiro Protagonist. I think that the best adaptation would be an Anime movie directed by either Otomo Katsuhiro (Akira) or Oshii Mamoru (Ghost in the Shell/Kokaku Kidotai).
Just in case you want to read his articles in Wired:
In the Kingdom Of Mao Bell
Spew
Mother Earth Mother Board
I was gonna write about this today! And I sent you those links at the bottom like two or three years ago! Dorobo!
And fuck that Ed Norton bullshit! The obvious guy to cast as Hiro P is the half-black, half-Japanese pizza delivery guy that Stephenson met at that book signing.
If you run out of books, there's always something else to do in Japan: http://www.bekkoame.ne.jp/ha/dins/index.english.html
Heh, I was wondering if you would be reading the same article today. Were you really going to write on Stephenson, or did it sound like something you wanted to do after you read my post?
And yes, you did send me those links on the bottom, more like 3 years ago. Have you read the Steven Bury books yet?
Regarding the forums, of Fark, the goats forum that I linked to, and Slashdot, it comes as no surprise that the more insightful comments (i.e. no recommendations for Angelina Jolie to play the part of YT) come from the latter of the three.
Oh, and Chris: thanks for that great webpage... I see that you're still trying to find the right fetish. Don't rush it, it will find you ;)
Yes I was going to post because I read the review somewhere. Not only have I not finished Quicksilver, I never got very far into it, it stayed next to my futon for ages, and now it has disappeared. Damn. I want to finish it, but so far it's not worth looking for. Ditto for Interface and the other Bury book. I got partway through them on the can, but they started gathering dust and now they are no doubt boxed up somewhere upstairs.