Devil's advocate in Slate comments

[K. Michael Babcock]

It is common for authors of long, difficult, and acclaimed works of being
"bad writers." These arguments aren't usually very specific, and often give
clues that the person issuing the argument may have not been able to
understand or even finish the book. As a result, the would be reader resents
the book, and its author, for the difficulty. Having to think about a
passage, consult outside references, reread sections, etc. doesn't mean that
the prose is unreadable. It may not be easily readable, but the rewards of V
and Gravity's Rainbow are great on multiple levels, whereas, in my own
experience, Cryptonomicon is enjoyable on only a surface level. There is
really only a single major strand of insight contained within Cryptonomicon,
and comparisons are only on surface issues of time, setting, and certain
events. The issues that are shared between Cryptonomicon and GR inform a
portion of the skeleton of GR, whereas they are the entirety of
Cryptonomicon. GR goes much deeper, and could quite possibly be read mutiple
times with a different major thematic focus each time. Try that with
Cryptonomicon.

On 7/20/06, Otto <ottosell at yahoo.de> wrote:
>
> Well, the early Genesis-records had qualities that could be compared to
> King Crimson, got them both on vinyl.
>
> But I agree, I like Stephenson but to me he is "Pynchon-lite". I liked
> the "Cryptonomicon" (but the allusions to "Gravity's Rainbow" were too
> many), "Snow Crash" and "The Diamond Age". I like "Quicksilver" so far,
> but to me it's "Mason & Dixon"-lite.
>
> Otto
>
> loathsome toad wrote:
> >> See, I've always felt that Cryptonomicon was a watered down attempt
> >> by
> >> Stephenson as a wanna-be Pynchon to write a GR.  I think Matthew's
> >> comment there about sums it up for me as well.
> >>
> >> On 7/20/06, Matthew Ryan <matthew.ryan at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>> If you want to read the book that Gravity's Rainbow aspired to
> >> be, read Neal
> >>> Stephenson's Cryptonomicon, for it has many of the same concerns,
> >> it covers
> >>> the same period and theatre of operations, and it is a much
> >> better crafted
> >>> book.
> >
> > Not bloody likely! Stephenson has had a couple very good books
> > (Snow Crash, The Diamond Age), but has a major problem in all
> > of them: endings. Stephenson seems to have no idea how to end
> > a novel; about 3/4 the way through the book he seems to lose
> > interest or cannot adequately tie the strands of the preceding
> > pages together in a satisfying way. Crptonomicon has such a bad
> > Hollywood ending (even a happy love-story resolution) that it
> > utterly ruined the preceding pages for me. Stephenson's prose
> > is nicely transparent, but he is not a stylist........and
> > certainly no Thomas Pynchon.
> >
> > In actuality, there are many authors who seem to have difficulty
> > finishing their novels in an aesthetically satisfying way, so
> > perhaps it is not fair to single Stephenson out.
> >
> > Comparing Stephenson to Pynchon is like comparing Genesis to
> > King Crimson or comparing U2 to Joy Division.  ;)
> >
> > tired,
> >
> > bill2
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > "The dream is a spontaneous happening and therefore dangerous to a
> control system set up by the non-dreamers." ___ W. S. B.
>
>
>
> ___________________________________________________________
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>
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