Anathem by Neal Stephenson

[Lance917]

Anybody familiar with Anathem by Neal Stephenson? I’m thinking of cracking it, but since it will require quite the investment in time – being around a thousand pages it’ll take me six weeks to two months to read – I want to make sure it’ll be time well spent.

Not knowing much of the backstory, it appears to take place a few centuries in the future on a world (earth?) where capital-S science has retreated behind monastery walls, much like Christianity did in the Dark Ages. Some sort of astronomical apocalypse has society turning toward these new-type monks to save the planet.

Intriguing … but I’m wondering if there’ll be a sucker punch. Some dig at organized religion, Catholicism in particular, or perhaps the whole thing may wind up a thinly disguised attack on the beliefs I hold true.

FWIW, I spent four months muddling through Stephenson’s Cryptonomicon a few years ago. Great characters, plot, pacing, etc, but after another thousand pages or so, the payoff was just never realized. But I’m willing to give him another chance … I think.

Any thoughts?

 

[SurlyMermaid]

We own it and several other of his books. Hadn’t finished this one but was enjoying it. Grad school got in the way!!!

 

[Oxford_Cleric]

I felt he took longer than necessary to get to a conclusion that I found somewhat anticlimactic, so I guess that’s like your experience of Cryptonomicon, which I haven’t read. YMMV. Had a good time reading it, though.

 

[Lance917]

Thanks for the (name removed by moderator)ut!

My mother-in-law (of all people, who doesn’t have an SF bone in her body) bought it for me a few years ago on the sole basis of a NY Times Book Review, and the gesture touched me. It’s been sitting on my shelf staring down at me for the longest time that I think I will finally give it a go.

Maybe I’ll revisit this post with some thoughts when I finish it in two months (or three, or four) for anyone who’s interested.

 

[Lance917]

Finished reading the book last month … entertaining but, yeah, overly long and anticlimatic. There are at least three extended action sequences that were extremely well-written. A couple of slight jabs at religion / faith but nothing too off-putting. Which is somewhat ironic, as the entire basis of the book is a faith in Science which leads to a whole system of monastic life.

In hindsight, with a month to think about it, this kept popping into my mind: who exactly would give up his or her life to spend decades in a tough, austere, ascetic lifestyle in a cold stone monastery – not to worship the Creator, but to work on math and physics? (OK, in theory that first part may appeal to me, but in actuality … )

I did a full review of the book with minor spoilers if anyone’s interested:

recoveringhopper.blogspot.com/2013/06/2008-by-neal-stephenson-minor-spoilers.html

 

[Arizona_Mike]

Stephenson is a Christian (I don’t think he is Catholic).

 

[Morwenna]

I felt he took longer than necessary to get to a conclusion that I found somewhat anticlimactic, so I guess that’s like your experience of Cryptonomicon, which I haven’t read. YMMV. Had a good time reading it, though.

Finished reading the book last month … entertaining but, yeah, overly long and anticlimatic.

Agree with you, OC and Lance. I don’t mind lengthy and/or leisurely-paced books at all, as a rule, but this one was really odd … snail-snail-snail-snail-snail-snail-snail-ohmygoshonly25pagesleft,betterenditquick.

(Don’t quote me on the “25 pages”, but you get the idea, I’m sure )

To those who haven’t read it: If you enjoy things like three-page descriptions of the architectural details of a building, and don’t mind a huge build-up followed by a rushed ending, then you’ll likely enjoy this book more than I did.

I’ll definitely give him points for an interesting concept , but the execution was just too “top-heavy” for my taste.

 

[Yarb]

I’m not all that fond of the plot but I found many things about the book charming: the passage about page trees, the passage about wine made from library grapes, the ritual held every day in which four strong men (that’s what it takes) wind the clock while the rest of the congregation sings. And all the fun with language. St. Edhar, St. Rambalf, St. Bly, St. Cartas, etc., are Saunt Edhar, Saunt Rambalf, Saunt Bly, Saunt Cartas, etc. A “saunt” is an influential intellectual of the past. “Saunt” is reported to be a corruption of the ancient word “savant”. The building in which “auts” are held is called a “mynster” and has “naves”.

I’ve wondered whether any review of the book from a specifically Catholic perspective has been published.

Anybody familiar with Anathem by Neal Stephenson? I’m thinking of cracking it, but since it will require quite the investment in time – being around a thousand pages it’ll take me six weeks to two months to read – I want to make sure it’ll be time well spent.

Not knowing much of the backstory, it appears to take place a few centuries in the future on a world (earth?) where capital-S science has retreated behind monastery walls, much like Christianity did in the Dark Ages. Some sort of astronomical apocalypse has society turning toward these new-type monks to save the planet.

Intriguing … but I’m wondering if there’ll be a sucker punch. Some dig at organized religion, Catholicism in particular, or perhaps the whole thing may wind up a thinly disguised attack on the beliefs I hold true.

FWIW, I spent four months muddling through Stephenson’s Cryptonomicon a few years ago. Great characters, plot, pacing, etc, but after another thousand pages or so, the payoff was just never realized. But I’m willing to give him another chance … I think.

Any thoughts?

 

[CatholicWhovian]

Would actually rather prefer reading A Canticle for Leibowitz than Anathem. At least the monks in the former worship the Creator AND value science.

 

[Yarb]

Intriguing … but I’m wondering if there’ll be a sucker punch. Some dig at organized religion, Catholicism in particular, or perhaps the whole thing may wind up a thinly disguised attack on the beliefs I hold true.

FWIW, I spent four months muddling through Stephenson’s Cryptonomicon a few years ago. Great characters, plot, pacing, etc, but after another thousand pages or so, the payoff was just never realized. But I’m willing to give him another chance … I think.

Any thoughts?

Among many things in this book are various mentions of theistic religions existing outside the walls of “concents”. The Bazian Orthodox Ark is the predominant religious organization, and “Counter-Bazians” who reject the authority and some of the doctrines of the Bazian Orthodox Ark are also numerous. “Bazian” means pertaining to the city of Baz, which in ancient times ruled an empire. But it would be just like Stephenson if it was intended to remind you of “Bayesian”. The Reverend Thomas Bayes was an 18th-century English Presbyterian minister and mathematician. In the present day, “Bayesian” refers to a philosophical proposition about the ways in which the mathematics of probability should be applied. Bayesianism holds that probabilities should not only be assigned to random events according to their frequencies, but to uncertain propositions according to one’s degree of belief in them. E.g., how probable is it that ancient Phoenicians colonized the coast of what is now Germany?

In the world in which the story takes place, the most prominent minority religion is the Kelx religion, whose principal religious practice was public confession of sins in front of the whole congregation. The way to be a successful “magister” (as the Kelx clergy were called) was to know the psychological tricks to get someone to want to confess.