From it, warring songs
A couple days ago, I finished the most incredible book. It's called Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson and it is truly a tour de force. It's also a beast, clocking in at 1130 pages in my paperback version, but honestly? Worth every page. I had my doubts at first, doubted whether I'd be able to stick with it, whether it could really be that good, but my dad had read it in three days (!) over Christmas and I was intrigued. Three months later, I have an incredibly battered and spine-creased copy that I can only gaze at in awe now that I know what it contains.
I'll give a spoiler-free pitch outside of the cut, then go into details behind the cut in case anyone wants to come flail with me/help me wrap my head around it. So! Cryptonomicon is an epic story about three different lives. There's an American code breaker in World War II who's personal friends with Alan Turing and whose mathematician perspective on life is both fascinating and frequently hilarious. He's my favorite. There's also an American Marine who starts in Guadalcanal and goes on a wacky ride around the world, getting caught up in all kinds of crazy missions that he doesn't really understand. Then there's a modern day (read: late 90s) computer scientist/entrepreneur who is working in the Philippines to develop the first major "data haven" in the world. He also happens to be the code breaker's grandson! All three of these lives are separate for the first, oh, half of the novel, but slowly they start to wind in towards each other, crossing and parting and crossing ways again, until at the end it really is all one story and you are astonished at the sheer skill it took to weave that many strands of narrative into a satisfying and startling conclusion. At first I was a little put off by how plot-driven it was, how the characters were almost sketches of people, but over time, the three main characters especially became quite vivid and sympathetic and I found that I definitely never wanted to leave the book without finding out what happened to them.
Eeee I don't even know where to start! Perhaps with my favorite? LAWRENCE!! I love his nerdy, abstract mind so so much. I love that he calculated how often he needs to jack off to stay functional. I love that he got to marry Mary (lol). But mostly I love that in the end he played such a fundamental role in the whole thing, and his story got drawn into the others, when he had seemed a bit distant before. He made the nonsense Arethusa intercepts! I was so pleased with him. I suppose I should have seen it coming but mostly I was just along for the ride and going :DDDDDD He was the most frequently delightful portion of the story - I was always happy to come back to his thread. Even his introduction, with all the stuff about organs, and also how no one quite realized he was a genius because he was so scatterbrained until he pulled off that incredible codebreaking right in front of the code dude and suddenly he got all the clearance in the world, haha. I just really enjoyed how he never got a big head about anything, there was no ego involved, just figuring out puzzles. Such a fascinating mind.
Um! Um! I started this entry 2 days ago! Everything leaking out of my brains! So of course there was badass Marine Bobby Shaftoe, whose storyline I found the hardest to follow. Between his chapters it seems like there were often large chunks of action left out and suddenly he was in a new country or something and I was like "wait what?!". But overall I was fond of him! I liked when he was trying to figure out wtf was going on with his crazyass orders to pretend he'd been places for ages and stuff like that. He was just always engaged with the situation around him and trying to work shit out. And then he was so devoted to Glory and getting back to the Philippines - the shocker reveal of her leprosy was I think the most startling part of the whole book. So very sad for him to have fought his way around the world and through some truly horrible shit just to get to her, only to find that. :( It was so sweet what he did for his little son though, with the steps, calling all the way back to the beginning of the story. And how Douglas MacArthur Shaftoe (best name evar) remembered that, all those years later. *sniff* Bobby's death scene was written with such... detachment, it was almost hard to figure out what was going on. Stephenson's sometimes the master of understatement - like Bobby just noticing that, oh, there's an antenna through my leg! Huh. I had to read it a few times, all "THROUGH his leg? ARE YOU SURE?" and then he dove in after the grenade and I was like NOOOO not Bobby. ;__; I didn't cry, but I was melancholy!
To my surprise, I really really loved some of the most technical parts of the book. The description of Van Eck Phreaking was SO COOL! And all the cryptography stuff was really interesting. I could never be a mathematician, but my brain is definitely capable of the level of explanation Stephenson laid out (I was *almost* a math minor in college! One credit short! ;)). He's just really astonishingly good at describing extremely esoteric things, like how pixels change on a laptop screen, in a completely entertaining and engrossing way. What a rare and glorious talent! And he managed to convey the thought processes that led to the invention of the DIGITAL COMPUTER (!!!!!) with such clarity and solid connections to the plot, which I thought was a wonderfully immersive way to experience a world-altering event like that. The bit where Randy was stuck in the Indonesian prison was so awesome because of how ingenious he was to get around anyone Phreaking his laptop. Obviously has some of his granddaddy's acumen!
Man, I basically want to read the whole thing again. It was such a freaking cool STORY, but also an enormous history lesson. Certainly has given me an interesting perspective while watching The Pacific. I just want to start over and be able to follow every little twist and turn now that I know where it's all heading. Definitely something that would benefit from multiple reads. But it's OVER A THOUSAND PAGES oh god. And took me 3 months the first time around! Perhaps at some point in the future, but man, there's always more books to read!
Elle Elle come talk to me about Cryptonomicon! Tell me your favorite parts and whatnot, because I will likely be all "OMG YES THAT!" and it will help flesh out my memories of the whole book, as well as perhaps my understanding of the story? Cause I'm not sure I got everything, haha! Anyway, COME FLAIL. ♥
Reading that book felt like an accomplishment, goddamn. Been a long time since a book felt that satisfying. Next up: Stephenson's Snow Crash! :D
I'll give a spoiler-free pitch outside of the cut, then go into details behind the cut in case anyone wants to come flail with me/help me wrap my head around it. So! Cryptonomicon is an epic story about three different lives. There's an American code breaker in World War II who's personal friends with Alan Turing and whose mathematician perspective on life is both fascinating and frequently hilarious. He's my favorite. There's also an American Marine who starts in Guadalcanal and goes on a wacky ride around the world, getting caught up in all kinds of crazy missions that he doesn't really understand. Then there's a modern day (read: late 90s) computer scientist/entrepreneur who is working in the Philippines to develop the first major "data haven" in the world. He also happens to be the code breaker's grandson! All three of these lives are separate for the first, oh, half of the novel, but slowly they start to wind in towards each other, crossing and parting and crossing ways again, until at the end it really is all one story and you are astonished at the sheer skill it took to weave that many strands of narrative into a satisfying and startling conclusion. At first I was a little put off by how plot-driven it was, how the characters were almost sketches of people, but over time, the three main characters especially became quite vivid and sympathetic and I found that I definitely never wanted to leave the book without finding out what happened to them.
Eeee I don't even know where to start! Perhaps with my favorite? LAWRENCE!! I love his nerdy, abstract mind so so much. I love that he calculated how often he needs to jack off to stay functional. I love that he got to marry Mary (lol). But mostly I love that in the end he played such a fundamental role in the whole thing, and his story got drawn into the others, when he had seemed a bit distant before. He made the nonsense Arethusa intercepts! I was so pleased with him. I suppose I should have seen it coming but mostly I was just along for the ride and going :DDDDDD He was the most frequently delightful portion of the story - I was always happy to come back to his thread. Even his introduction, with all the stuff about organs, and also how no one quite realized he was a genius because he was so scatterbrained until he pulled off that incredible codebreaking right in front of the code dude and suddenly he got all the clearance in the world, haha. I just really enjoyed how he never got a big head about anything, there was no ego involved, just figuring out puzzles. Such a fascinating mind.
Um! Um! I started this entry 2 days ago! Everything leaking out of my brains! So of course there was badass Marine Bobby Shaftoe, whose storyline I found the hardest to follow. Between his chapters it seems like there were often large chunks of action left out and suddenly he was in a new country or something and I was like "wait what?!". But overall I was fond of him! I liked when he was trying to figure out wtf was going on with his crazyass orders to pretend he'd been places for ages and stuff like that. He was just always engaged with the situation around him and trying to work shit out. And then he was so devoted to Glory and getting back to the Philippines - the shocker reveal of her leprosy was I think the most startling part of the whole book. So very sad for him to have fought his way around the world and through some truly horrible shit just to get to her, only to find that. :( It was so sweet what he did for his little son though, with the steps, calling all the way back to the beginning of the story. And how Douglas MacArthur Shaftoe (best name evar) remembered that, all those years later. *sniff* Bobby's death scene was written with such... detachment, it was almost hard to figure out what was going on. Stephenson's sometimes the master of understatement - like Bobby just noticing that, oh, there's an antenna through my leg! Huh. I had to read it a few times, all "THROUGH his leg? ARE YOU SURE?" and then he dove in after the grenade and I was like NOOOO not Bobby. ;__; I didn't cry, but I was melancholy!
To my surprise, I really really loved some of the most technical parts of the book. The description of Van Eck Phreaking was SO COOL! And all the cryptography stuff was really interesting. I could never be a mathematician, but my brain is definitely capable of the level of explanation Stephenson laid out (I was *almost* a math minor in college! One credit short! ;)). He's just really astonishingly good at describing extremely esoteric things, like how pixels change on a laptop screen, in a completely entertaining and engrossing way. What a rare and glorious talent! And he managed to convey the thought processes that led to the invention of the DIGITAL COMPUTER (!!!!!) with such clarity and solid connections to the plot, which I thought was a wonderfully immersive way to experience a world-altering event like that. The bit where Randy was stuck in the Indonesian prison was so awesome because of how ingenious he was to get around anyone Phreaking his laptop. Obviously has some of his granddaddy's acumen!
Man, I basically want to read the whole thing again. It was such a freaking cool STORY, but also an enormous history lesson. Certainly has given me an interesting perspective while watching The Pacific. I just want to start over and be able to follow every little twist and turn now that I know where it's all heading. Definitely something that would benefit from multiple reads. But it's OVER A THOUSAND PAGES oh god. And took me 3 months the first time around! Perhaps at some point in the future, but man, there's always more books to read!
Elle Elle come talk to me about Cryptonomicon! Tell me your favorite parts and whatnot, because I will likely be all "OMG YES THAT!" and it will help flesh out my memories of the whole book, as well as perhaps my understanding of the story? Cause I'm not sure I got everything, haha! Anyway, COME FLAIL. ♥
Reading that book felt like an accomplishment, goddamn. Been a long time since a book felt that satisfying. Next up: Stephenson's Snow Crash! :D