| |
|
On the Stephenson front...
He's pretty good, but a little full of himself. I've read all his books except for the Baroque trilogy, which I read the first volume of, but just couldn't be bothered to finish. Who knows, maybe someday.
First book of his I read was Snow Crash, shortly after it was published. Great book! Reviewers at the time were already comparing him to Pynchon, "Vineland" in particular. One thing very Pynchonesque about Stephenson is the goofy names he gives his characters. Snow Crash has the best of them all: Hiro Protagonist. From what I recall, this book reads very much like Pynchon writing a cyperpunkish novel.
The Big U, Stephenson's first novel, was recently reprinted. It's probably even more Pynchonesque. It used to be impossible to find; I had to get it from the library back in '97. More goofy, Pynchonesque names (Casimir Radon, Fred Fine, Yllas Freedperson, etc), and more of a satire than sci-fi. Only sci-fi angle it gets into is in the end, when the campus breaks out into an actual war.
But of course (barring the Baroque trilogy, as I haven't read it), Stephenson's most Pynchonesque book is Cryptonomicon, which I half-loved, half-hated. Funny aside -- after I read the book, I loaned it to a friend. He stuck through it till the end, then gave it back and said, I quote: "Don't ever give me another book by this motherfucker again." It seems that Stephenson's over-detail and obvious love of his own way with words just set my friend off. But yeah, large parts of Crypto just scream "I want this to be like Gravity's Raimbow!" and it can really annoy. I read somewhere once where a reviewer said Stephenson should've just published the WW2 parts with the Marine, Bobby Shaftoe. Not sure I agree, but I can see their point. Some of the book's a bit too much, with trivial details that mean nothing in the long run -- how to eat Cap'n Crunch cereal, a very long email written by the friend of one of the main characters, and lots of math problems. In fact, I saw an interview with Stephenson where he said most readers could easily skip this stuff, and still enjoy the book. So why'd you put it in there, Neal?
The Baroque trilogy seems even more Pynchonesque, just judging from the two hundred pages I read of the first volume. But that far in, I was already burned out -- couldn't imagine sticking with this overwhelming and overweighty prose for another several hundred pages.
The best Pynchonesque book out there is by Paul di Fillipo, it was published in 1997, and it's titled "Ciphers." |
|
|
