Name: Some Remarks
ISBN: 9780062024435

Neal Stephenson

"A collection of essays from #1 New York Times bestselling author Neal Stephenson"--

Essays and Other Writing

Some Remarks

Cindy Lieberman

An eclectic mix of essays, short fiction, and articles, including one quite long piece about the business of laying cable around the globe for telegraph, telephone, and data transmissions (published in Wired magazine). My favorite bits were the author's musings on how the traditional genre categories have merged a bit: almost all movies now include a romance and almost all serialized TV dramas have crime or mystery at their center. And for a while there were hardly any westerns. Yet the Sci-Fi genre persists (thankfully). And why? What is it about science fiction that has such lasting appeal? It's because sci-fi tends to include, in addition to a good story and interesting characters, a clever idea or innovation.

Phil Halley

Scordatura

Hans Gerwitz

Jon Noronha

Ian Marchant 

Katie Day

Joseph Aleo

In this definitive collection of Stephenson's writings, journalism and meditations, the great American polymath puts the 20th Century - mathematics, cryptography, philosophy, currency, and the history of science and technology- under his eclectic and unflinching gaze. One of the most talented and creative authors working today, Neal Stephenson is renowned for his exceptional novels - works colossal in vision and mind-boggling in complexity. Exploring and blending a diversity of topics, including technology, economics, history, science, pop culture, and philosophy, his books are the product of a keen and adventurous intellect. Not surprisingly, Stephenson is regularly asked to contribute articles, lectures, and essays to numerous outlets, from major newspapers and cutting edge magazines to college symposia. This remarkable collection brings together previously published short writings, both fiction and nonfiction as well as a new essay (and an extremely short story) created specifically for this volume. Stephenson ponders a wealth of subjects, from movies and politics to David Foster Wallace and the Midwestern American College Town; video games to classics-based sci-fi; how geekdom has become cool and how science fiction has become mainstream (whether people admit it or not); the future of publishing and the origins of his novels. By turns amusing and profound, critical and celebratory, yet always entertaining, Some Remarks offers a fascinating look into the prismatic mind of this extraordinary writer.

Some Remarks Essays and Other Writing