“Anathem”: aliens, philosophy and made-up worlds

About a week ago I finished Neal Stephenson’s sprawling 1000+ page book Anathem and I still feel like I’m digesting it. Newsflash: I’m a sci-fi nerd and this thing was right up my alley when I read a review of it on the Onion’s AV Club “Books of 2008” list. Now it’s over and I finished the thing…but it was one of those experiences where I’m still not sure what the heck happened. Thanks to Stephenson, I’m feeling a literary hang-over.

Here is what I do know:

Stephenson creates from scratch an entire planet named Arbre that is very Earth-like but somehow not.  It’s a place where a monk-ish sect of people have sequestered themselves away from society in order to focus on learning and an almost cult following of science and philosophy.  They only peer out of their nerdy castle every 10, 100, or 1,000 years and even then only to study the society that has been created by the “normal ” people outside.  Sound odd?

Well buckle up because that’s only the first 300 pages and it gets more and more complex… eventually the internal rivalries of these monks and their philosophical understandings of space-time and alternate universes becomes very important when a major event happens that calls the whole world into action.

Bottom line is that this may be the most ambitious concept for a novel I’ve ever read and even now I’m not sure it accomplished what it set out to do.  The book is the extreme opposite of a quick read.  If it were a food it would be a 9 course meal followed by coffee and a 3 day food-coma. Think Thanksgiving dinner and condense it to book-form then multiply by 1000.  I found myself constantly referencing the glossary and re-reading passages trying to remember which made-up word meant what and where exactly was the “5th Reconstitution” in Arbre.

Anathem is a book that creates an entirely new universe within its pages (along the lines of Lord of the Rings or Dune) and fills it with introspective characters trying to understand the secrets of human consciousness and the universe.  It certainly opened my mind to some crazy theories of what reality might or might not be. Keep an open mind but enter at your own risk.

Watch Stephenson explain the book himself HERE.

GRADE: B-

(Special thanks to Mitch for his support while I read this monster.  After checking out the back cover, I think his words were “This book is chick repellent”)

Morning coffee with a side of alcoholism

(overheard while getting a cup o’ joe at the office)

Guy 1: How are you doing, man?

Guy 2: (looking haggard) Ugggh, still recovering from the weekend.

Guy 1: Wait isn’t it Tuesday? Were you sick or partyin’?

Guy 2: Party…must be getting old. Can’t do it like I used to.

Guy 1: I guess you can’t down a bottle of JD and be perky for work the next day anymore.

Guy 2: Yeah (shakes head sadly and walks away)

Rise of Citizen Dave

by Steve Johnson | Tribune Internet critic

February 5, 2009

David Letterman, these days, isn’t exactly Howard Beale, the cranky anchor from “Network” urging viewers to howl out their windows in protest at the way things are.

But he’s getting close, having completed in this, his third decade on national television, a remarkable transformation from Goofy Dave, the young guy deconstructing the late-night talk-show format, to Citizen Dave, the older guy using that format as a forum to express his concerns about the world…

This, for instance, was Letterman disposing of O’Reilly when Fox News Channel’s prime-time bully insisted that Letterman answer an “easy” question about whether he wanted the U.S. to “win” the war in Iraq: “It’s not easy for me because I’m thoughtful.”

The most recent example came Tuesday night, when the “Late Show” hosted Rod Blagojevich in the midst of the deposed Illinois governor’s pursuit of every last ounce of available attention. Or perhaps Letterman, to phrase it better, deposed the deposed governor; there were hints of the prosecutorial in his approach.

“I saw you on—I think every other show that is in production currently,” Letterman said to Blagojevich, “and the more you talked and the more you repeated your innocence, the more I said to myself, ‘Oh, this guy’s guilty.’ “

I LEGO N.Y.

By Christoph Niemann in the New York Times

During the cold and dark Berlin winter days, I spend a lot of time with my boys in their room. And as I look at the toys scattered on the floor, my mind inevitably wanders back to New York.

Bonzi Wells was playing in China..can I get a headband still?

BEIJING — Chinese basketball team Shanxi Zhongyu has sacked superstar import Bonzi Wells after the former National Basketball Association (NBA) bad boy failed to return from a holiday in his native United States, his club said Monday.

Wells, 32, dubbed by the local media the best player to have ever graced the Chinese Basketball Association after joining Zhongyu in December, had his contract terminated late last week, an employee at the club told Agence France-Presse.

I didn’t know that Bonzi was playing in China but wow…what a long fall for a once promising player.  When he first came to the league from Ball State (home of David Letterman), he was loaded with talent, could shoot a decent jumper, and was too big for most wing players to deal with on the low block.  Problem was that Bonzi was a giant a-hole and ended up burning his way out of the league.  At least he was involved in catchy tune that immortalized the “Jail Blazer” era. (Yes, I can still remember most of the lyrics by heart…)

An American Renaissance

Watching Obama as he begins his term has been fascinating.  Everything is hanging in the balance RIGHT NOW for America.  For 2 years we’ve been talking about a need for radical change in the way we do politics and now talk is cheap and it’s time to act. The threat of a return to the status quo in Washington is looming every day  (case in point being Obama’s stimulus package: it passed the House of Reps with the vote split straight down party lines… not one Republican or Democrat breaking ranks…in case you were wondering, the end of partisan politics and the age of sunshine and puppies for everyone has not arrived).

Thomas Friedman has written about how the “system is built for stalemate” and fighting to a draw is about the best you can hope for under normal circumstances. These are not normal circumstances.  The pessimists will say that our inability to act boldly in the face of this crisis is yet another signal of the beginning of the end for American leadership in the world.

All I know is this: It’s going to take more than Obama.  It’s going to take all of us.  Watch the news, any news at all (FoxNews is better than no news), read a book, get online, and most importantly PAY ATTENTION DAMMIT.  Go visit the soon to be created www.Recovery.gov and actually make sure all the bailout money isn’t going to swimming pools or go-cart tracks. Participate in this democracy thing that everyone keeps talking about (politics keeps chugging along even in non-election years by the way…its not nearly as sexy and doesn’t involve Wil.i.am. rapping but it’s just as important).

YOU are the foundation of our American renaissance. Are you ready?

Time to Reboot America

By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

Published: December 23, 2008

I had a bad day last Friday, but it was an all-too-typical day for America…

Landing at Kennedy Airport from Hong Kong was, as I’ve argued before, like going from the Jetsons to the Flintstones… As I looked around at this dingy room, it reminded of somewhere I had been before. Then I remembered: It was the luggage hall in the old Hong Kong Kai Tak Airport. It closed in 1998.

The next day I went to Penn Station, where the escalators down to the tracks are so narrow that they seem to have been designed before suitcases were invented. The disgusting track-side platforms apparently have not been cleaned since World War II. I took the Acela, America’s sorry excuse for a bullet train, from New York to Washington. Along the way, I tried to use my cellphone to conduct an interview and my conversation was interrupted by three dropped calls within one 15-minute span.

All I could think to myself was: If we’re so smart, why are other people living so much better than us?..

That’s why we don’t just need a bailout. We need a reboot. We need a build out. We need a buildup. We need a national makeover. That is why the next few months are among the most important in U.S. history. Because of the financial crisis, Barack Obama has the bipartisan support to spend $1 trillion in stimulus. But we must make certain that every bailout dollar, which we’re borrowing from our kids’ future, is spent wisely.

It has to go into training teachers, educating scientists and engineers, paying for research and building the most productivity-enhancing infrastructure — without building white elephants. Generally, I’d like to see fewer government dollars shoveled out and more creative tax incentives to stimulate the private sector to catalyze new industries and new markets. If we allow this money to be spent on pork, it will be the end of us.