Things about Anathem that I think will catch on
Under the cut: a few bits of Anathem that I think will make it into popular culture (or popular internet culture ... is that the same thing yet?)
"We have a protractor."
This bit made me laugh.
"I can't predict the future," I said, "but based on what little I know so far, I'm afraid it has to be a massive adventure or nothing."
"Great!"
"Probably the kind of adventure that ends in a mass burial."
That quieted her down a little bit. But after a while, she said: "Do you need transportation? Tools? Stuff?"
"Our opponent is an alien starship packed with atomic bombs," I said. "We have a protractor."
Kind of says it all.
the Lorites
This is a school of thinkers who postulate that there hasn't been an original thought in thousands of years: everything that's being done now has been done before. Of course, this doesn't lead to futility: they are obsessive scholars who absorb countless volumes so that upon meeting anyone who thinks he has something new, they can tell him who already thought of it, and thus perform an invaluable service to scholarship. No point in reinventing the wheel, even though it can't be avoided.
the Ita
(1) In late Praxic Orth, an acronym (therefore, in ancient texts sometimes written ITA) ... almost all scholars agree that the first two letters come from the words Information Technology ... (3) a proscribed artisinal caste ... the task of the Ita is to operate and maintain those subsystems while observing strict segregation...
Due to the importance of the separation of theory and praxis, in this world those who know how to run computers are an outsider group, untouchables. Their clothes mark them as separate; it is implied that they are racially distinct; they live alongside the thinkers though any contact between them is taboo.
bulshytt
It's not a mild profanity, it's a technical term.
From the glossary: Speech (typically but not necessarily commercial or political) that employs euphemism, convenient vagueness, numbing repetition, and other rhetorical subterfuges to create the impression that something has been said.
"We have a protractor."
This bit made me laugh.
"I can't predict the future," I said, "but based on what little I know so far, I'm afraid it has to be a massive adventure or nothing."
"Great!"
"Probably the kind of adventure that ends in a mass burial."
That quieted her down a little bit. But after a while, she said: "Do you need transportation? Tools? Stuff?"
"Our opponent is an alien starship packed with atomic bombs," I said. "We have a protractor."
Kind of says it all.
the Lorites
This is a school of thinkers who postulate that there hasn't been an original thought in thousands of years: everything that's being done now has been done before. Of course, this doesn't lead to futility: they are obsessive scholars who absorb countless volumes so that upon meeting anyone who thinks he has something new, they can tell him who already thought of it, and thus perform an invaluable service to scholarship. No point in reinventing the wheel, even though it can't be avoided.
the Ita
(1) In late Praxic Orth, an acronym (therefore, in ancient texts sometimes written ITA) ... almost all scholars agree that the first two letters come from the words Information Technology ... (3) a proscribed artisinal caste ... the task of the Ita is to operate and maintain those subsystems while observing strict segregation...
Due to the importance of the separation of theory and praxis, in this world those who know how to run computers are an outsider group, untouchables. Their clothes mark them as separate; it is implied that they are racially distinct; they live alongside the thinkers though any contact between them is taboo.
bulshytt
It's not a mild profanity, it's a technical term.
From the glossary: Speech (typically but not necessarily commercial or political) that employs euphemism, convenient vagueness, numbing repetition, and other rhetorical subterfuges to create the impression that something has been said.