Third prize
… in the ‘Nature’ category at Burneston and Carthorpe Village Show:
Being in the countryside for a while means I got a chance to enter this picture in the afformentioned village show. It does, though, mean I’ve mostly been doing nothing and so, as a consequence, haven’t had anything to post about here. I have been reading Being and Nothingness, which I’m enjoying a great deal, but I’m not really sure what I want to say about it yet.
I’ve also been re-reading Neal Stephenson’s 
Cryptonomicon. It’s mostly just confirmed my original impressions of the book: that the central idea (that matter is data, and vice-versa) is very well drawn throughout the book, but it’s way too fucking long. Some of the length can be excused, as the incidental details which stuff the book are interesting minatures of the overall idea. Not all of them, though: did a section in which a character demonstrates the ability to read a computer screen by radio surveillance, and ends up accidentally spying on a a friend of his writing a soft-porn story have to be illustrated with _all six pages_ of the story? I would have thought not.
I did notice something else, though, which probably explains some of my irritation with the book, and understanding that makes me think slightly higher of Stephenson’s skills. The annoying thing is that the book is told almost entirely from a nerd’s point-of-view. What’s interesting, though, is that in the three main strands of the book we inhabit the consciousness of three different _sorts_ of nerd: there’s the science-fiction/fantasy geek, hacker Randy; stunted adolescent, US Marine Bobby Shaftoe; and borderline-autistic maths genius Lawrence. Clearly, then, the towering nerdiness of the book is an intentional effect carefully orchestrated by the author. Over the course of 800 or so pages, though, it’s a lot like being trapped with a bunch of Chemistry students.
The book is apparently the prequel to a trilogy about the origins of capitalism. I’m not sure it’s encouraging, then, that it seems to end with some kind of nonsense about re-establishing the gold standard.
Unplaced in the ‘Water’ category:
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Loving your water photo. Where’s that?
Comment by Alistair @ 7/27/2005 8:57 pm
It’s the Dordogne valley, seen from Beynac. The bridge, and the mist on the hills (and, also, some other castles on the hills to the right that you can’t see in the picture) give it a fairy-tale quality that I like.
Comment by Tim @ 7/28/2005 12:43 am
That trilogy, the baroque cycle is even more way too fucking long. no matter how much stephenson weighs in with dissimulating banter on his authorial rights, interests, etc. the editor prolly had to throw out the red felt tip pen.
it’s a bit like hegel: encyclopaedic, but not readable nearly often enough to sustain interest.
Comment by steff @ 7/30/2005 7:14 am