I’m not sure I agree with you on that. CryptNet and the Distributed Republic have quite minor roles in the story, and pretty much every single major character (with the exception of the Confucians) is a Neo-Victorian. It’s too good a book to have Righteous Kind And Noble Heroes Beyond All Reproach, and the Vicks have their problems, but I’d say they are basically “the good guys”, and if not that then certainly the protagonists, of the story.
But Stephenson himself hardly comes across as anything close to a Neo-Victorian, that’s why I said that. Hell, from the interviews he sounds like a multiculturalist to me (or at least a rather non-judgmental person), while Lord Finkle-McGraw is the opposite of one in DA.
I don’t think you fucked up. Down-votes aren’t from me.
Anyway, yeah I agree, Stephenson’s own position is very different from the Vicks’. I still think they’re the “good guys” in the story though, even though their opinions aren’t held by the author.
(In-story, I thought the most “heroic” of the movers and shakers was Dr. X; after all, he was a solitary visionary who challenged two opposed factions, and the relevant tropes demand that such characters aren’t to be simply deluded nutjobs. It’s more or less the “Take a third option” fallacy.)
Oh, it’s just that I’m in avoidant passive-aggressive mode and behaving all spineless. My social AT-field has worn thin on this side after two confrontations with the LW opinion in a row, so for a while I’m uncomfortable with further exposing my beliefs to scrutiny—here, it’s a factual belief (“The author likes and endorses / hates X”), but of course it’s hard to detach from my unspoken ideological biases (“X is such an Y thing, clearly anyone smart likes/hates it!”).
I’m not sure I agree with you on that. CryptNet and the Distributed Republic have quite minor roles in the story, and pretty much every single major character (with the exception of the Confucians) is a Neo-Victorian. It’s too good a book to have Righteous Kind And Noble Heroes Beyond All Reproach, and the Vicks have their problems, but I’d say they are basically “the good guys”, and if not that then certainly the protagonists, of the story.
But Stephenson himself hardly comes across as anything close to a Neo-Victorian, that’s why I said that. Hell, from the interviews he sounds like a multiculturalist to me (or at least a rather non-judgmental person), while Lord Finkle-McGraw is the opposite of one in DA.
http://reason.com/archives/2005/02/01/neal-stephensons-pastpresent-a/singlepage
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2004/nov/04/onlinesupplement
Oh jeez, just screw it. Seems that I can’t say even a slightly, tangentially ideological thing without fucking up.
I don’t think you fucked up. Down-votes aren’t from me.
Anyway, yeah I agree, Stephenson’s own position is very different from the Vicks’. I still think they’re the “good guys” in the story though, even though their opinions aren’t held by the author.
(In-story, I thought the most “heroic” of the movers and shakers was Dr. X; after all, he was a solitary visionary who challenged two opposed factions, and the relevant tropes demand that such characters aren’t to be simply deluded nutjobs. It’s more or less the “Take a third option” fallacy.)
Oh, it’s just that I’m in avoidant passive-aggressive mode and behaving all spineless. My social AT-field has worn thin on this side after two confrontations with the LW opinion in a row, so for a while I’m uncomfortable with further exposing my beliefs to scrutiny—here, it’s a factual belief (“The author likes and endorses / hates X”), but of course it’s hard to detach from my unspoken ideological biases (“X is such an Y thing, clearly anyone smart likes/hates it!”).