Neal Stephenson responds with wit and humor (2004)

Neal is one of two living authors whose all books I buy. Happy to have found him during Covid, thanks to HN comments. I found Greg Egan during that time, and I am grateful to HN threads and comments on books.

That was the best explanation of litfic vs. commercial/genre fiction I've ever read.

My first exposure to Neal was through Reamde and it's definitely the fastest I've managed to get through a novel relative to length. I really enjoy his style.

Ah, a classic. This was Slashdot’s high point.

Note: (2004)

Another classic of his, Mother Earth, Mother Board: https://www.wired.com/1996/12/ffglass/

Ah, I always wondered how Vancouver Island came to be - a fight between Stephenson and Gibson makes perfect sense.

given how Neal never goes online, i wonder how long he sat on this to reply

Perhaps the biggest loss of cryptocurrency being branded as "crypto" is losing the Matt Blaze's thoughts on cryptography (and in turn, how this informed Stephenson's thoughts on these topics).

Anyway, in case you were curious:

Hobbs: https://web.archive.org/web/20041204055248/http://www.crypto...

Master Key: https://web.archive.org/web/20041022021127/http://www.crypto...