Anathem (nonfiction)

Anathem is a science fiction novel by American writer Neal Stephenson, published in 2008.

Major themes include the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics, and the philosophical debate between Platonic realism and nominalism.

Commentary

Karl Jones observes:

When I finished reading Anathem for the first time, I said, "Huh. That was very interesting, and definitely Neal Stephenson ... but it feels like Neal Stephenson minus something.

While reading it for the second time, it struck me: *there is no obscenity* in Anathem.

You've read Cryptonomicon, I trust? Stephenson's gift for obscenity in literature reaches its apotheosis in Cryptonomicon, but it's everywhere in his work, "fuck" and "shit" and all the rest, usually in a conversational way, sometimes in a more ... baroque, Stephensonian way.

Not Anathem. Anathem is clean-cut. People sometimes do bad things and presumably use bad words. But we don't read the bad words, because (a) the protagonist is the kind of man who does not think in bad words, and (b).

Which begs the question: what is (b)? That is: why did Stephenson do it? Why did he choose this clean-cut style?

The answer I came up with at the time is that Anathem is a Young Adults novel for intellectually gifted young readers ... the kind of young people who, in the Arbre of Anathem, would find their way "to the Clock" and live their lives as Avout.

Highly recommended reading.

Fiction cross-reference

• Gnomon algorithm
• Gnomon Chronicles

Nonfiction cross-reference

• Neal Stephenson (nonfiction)

External links:

• Anathem @ Wikipedia