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!”).
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!”).