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Quicksilver.
Jul. 4th, 2008 11:00Apparently it's some sort of holiday in the States. For me, today will be spent trying not to sweat to death, as usual. It does seem fitting, though, that I finished Neal Stephenson's Quicksilver in an apartment without air conditioning about a year after I started it, in an apartment without air conditioning. Not that the book was actually that long, but I wanted to stretch it out because it was so good. And my apartment has air conditioning, but I don't use it.
Anyway, Quicksilver. It struck me as I was going to bed that this is arguably another fantasy besides Pullman's His Dark Materials whose heroes are scientists and philosophers rather than monarchs and knights. Quicksilver is definitely a fantasy of the Enlightenment, but I think people could possibly argue with calling it "fantasy", the only really fantastical element is Enoch Root, who is apparently immortal. I know a lot of people call Stephenson "steampunk", and I guess I could buy that, though of course it's set way before the steam age. Seriously, though, no matter genre quibbles, it's an amazing book--wildly intelligent, hilarious, addictive, with brilliant insights on just about every other page.
Postscript: Ingrid Betancourt and 14 others were freed the other day in Colombia, finally. Which is wonderful, but it really irritates me the the Times persists in referring to her interrupted presidential campaign as "quixotic." Screw you! Would you call it quixotic if she were a man? I really don't think so.
Second postscript: The Economist gets major points for referring to Kasumigaseki as "Tokyo's bureaucratic ghetto." So true. But maybe the answer to the taxi problem is tp let the bureaucratic hacks go home before the Diet session ends? Maybe? Just maybe?
Anyway, Quicksilver. It struck me as I was going to bed that this is arguably another fantasy besides Pullman's His Dark Materials whose heroes are scientists and philosophers rather than monarchs and knights. Quicksilver is definitely a fantasy of the Enlightenment, but I think people could possibly argue with calling it "fantasy", the only really fantastical element is Enoch Root, who is apparently immortal. I know a lot of people call Stephenson "steampunk", and I guess I could buy that, though of course it's set way before the steam age. Seriously, though, no matter genre quibbles, it's an amazing book--wildly intelligent, hilarious, addictive, with brilliant insights on just about every other page.
Postscript: Ingrid Betancourt and 14 others were freed the other day in Colombia, finally. Which is wonderful, but it really irritates me the the Times persists in referring to her interrupted presidential campaign as "quixotic." Screw you! Would you call it quixotic if she were a man? I really don't think so.
Second postscript: The Economist gets major points for referring to Kasumigaseki as "Tokyo's bureaucratic ghetto." So true. But maybe the answer to the taxi problem is tp let the bureaucratic hacks go home before the Diet session ends? Maybe? Just maybe?
