An Evening with Neal Stephenson

[Veronica, Supreme Sword]

Hey everyone! We've got another Bay Area meetup scheduled for September!

http://www.goodreads.com/event/show/1...

Hope to see you all there! This is my hood, so I definitely know some good areas to grab a drink afterwards.

[Tamahome]

I've heard it will last 32 hours.

[Kris]

Have fun all! hope we can see some pictures for those of us who won't see it...

[Jenny (Reading Envy)]

Cool, love the combo event+book idea. I hate not living in a book city!

[Al]

Anyone want to split the 2 seats / 1 book option?

[Jlawrence, S&L Moderator]

Al, there's now $12 seats available (does not include a book).

[Al]

Great, just snagged a ticket! Thanks.

[Adam]

Thanks for the heads up! I hope I can get down there for a few hours.

[Jenny (Reading Envy)]

Anyone who can't make it, GoodReads is hosting a live video chat with Neal Wednesday at 6 pm est.

[Will]

Unbelievable.

I just join this group, click on the link for "Neal Stephenson" because I recently finished "CRYPTONOMICON" and am looking for recommendations about which of his books to read next (I'll post a separate thread)...

...and I get the info that he's about to live video chat in exactly 15 minutes!

Serendipity!

Score!

Todd

[Jenny (Reading Envy)]

How was it? I was at my writing group.

[Veronica, Supreme Sword]

Jenny wrote: "How was it? I was at my writing group."

Doesn't start for 2 more hours!

[Jlawrence, S&L Moderator]

Anyone see the video chat?

The reading was excellent - Reamde looks to be a much funnier book than I expected, and I'm now pretty excited about it despite its usual-Stephenson-epic-length.

The Q&A was amusing, too, as several times his answers to complex questions (eg "why did you put x and y into novel z in a [ornate approach] fashion?") were variants of "Well, that's just the kind of stuff I'm into" (delivered good-naturedly).

[Jenny (Reading Envy)]

Honestly, I watched some of the video chat but he was coming across as patronizing and I decided to just turn it off lest I be turned off to him. :)

[Jlawrence, S&L Moderator]

Interesting. He came off as tired at the reading (he mentioned he had been feeling sick), but I don't think patronizing. But I totally understand not wanting an author's personal impression to ruin your reaction to their work.

[Will]

I ended up watching the (exactly) 1-hour video chat...

...but frankly, sometimes the typed chat by members below the screen was more interesting.

Part of the problem was the interviewer. I don't know anything about the guy - he's probably a nice guy and very well read...

...but he wasn't exactly, uh, "scintillating" as an interviewer.

But part of the problem was Stephenson himself. I know he's probably done a lot of this kind of stuff...

...but his "body slump" didn't move for an entire hour. And unfortunately, it too often matched his monotonic responses.

I know the guy is smarter than most of us...

...but if you want to entertain the masses, you might start by at least trying to appear enthusiastic about your own stuff.

Todd

[Jlawrence, S&L Moderator]

Ah, gotcha. Now I think of it, if the evening event had been just the Q&A, it would have been kinda disappointing, but I was able to give that portion a pass since the reading portion (which came first) was entertaining.

[Larry]

Will wrote: "Unbelievable.

I just join this group, click on the link for "Neal Stephenson" because I recently finished "CRYPTONOMICON" and am looking for recommendations about which of his books to read next (..."

I think that you will enjoy Snow Crash. It's my favorite Stephenson read.

[Mike]

Larry wrote: "Will wrote: "Unbelievable.

I just join this group, click on the link for "Neal Stephenson" because I recently finished "CRYPTONOMICON" and am looking for recommendations about which of his books to read next (..."

I think that you will enjoy Snow Crash. It's my favorite Stephenson read. ..."

Snow Crash is excellent, and definitely don't miss Diamond Age - Victorian cyberpunk with nano machines and some (I hope) prescient stuff about the future of games/movies/books. Anathem, too, is well worth your time.

The Baroque cycle is good, but very different. It's kind of "Cryptonomicon in the 1600s" - indeed, it includes some character references to that book (there's a Shaftoe, among other things). It's a bit hard to recommend, as it's extremely long and the writing is dense, so I'd recommend saving it for last if you continue enjoying Stephenson's writing.

If you're intimidated by the size of Reamde, don't be. It's long, but in a good way.

[Andrew]

His voice was very monotone and unexcited, but made quite a few jokes. I loved his joke about it being "quite a fancy gathering". People seemed to be trying really hard to impress him with their questions.

[Will]

@Larry and @Mike: Your recommendation of "SNOW CRASH" (and "THE DIAMOND AGE") matches the response I got from the typed chat during Mr. Stephenson's talk.

I'll probably still post a separate thread about Neal Stephenson book recommendations at some point...

...as I get the feeling this is an author I'll be reading pretty thoroughly.

MAN, that dude is smart!

Todd

[Jenny (Reading Envy)]

Snow Crash was my gateway drug into sci-fi and has a gorgeous first sentence.

[Al]

Ok, so, this sez the event is 9/21. My ticket sez 9/21. I intended to go 9/21 and was very bummed to come down with the flu.

Today I got an email telling me the event is tomorrow 9/28. I emailed back and was told that, yes, it was 9/28. WTF?

Did anyone go last week? Did it happen? Was I there (perhaps traveling in from the future?)

Thanks in advance,
Al

[Jlawrence, S&L Moderator]

I got that email today, too, but it must be some glitch with the Brown Paper Tickets auto-emailer or database, because it was definitely last week (see my posts above) -- unless I had a communal hallucination with Tom, Veronica, Molly Wood and Christopher. Not that that wouldn't be cool in its own way.

Sorry you were sick!

[Veronica, Supreme Sword]

Yeah, I got the same email! How weird!