site banner
PaperclipPerfector  5d ago (text post)   2276 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for May 25, 2025

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

2
Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

So, what are you reading?

Still on the Iliad, Dialectic of Enlightenment and McLuhan's Classical Trivium. Trying Individuals and Institutions in Medieval Scholasticism.

A little over halfway through Cryptonomicon. Very, very enjoyable so far.

Oh man, this guy gets to read the second half of Cryptonomicon for the first time.

I'm always in torture arguing with myself about whether it's too soon to read it (yet) again. I think it's been every 3-4 years.

Right?! I kinda feel like in retrospect, Cryptonomicon and the Baroque cycle were peak Stephenson, and were it not for the whole LitRPG phenomenon, I'd probably be doing more re-reads of my favorite works of his. Hell, if it weren't for Fall, I'd probably still be gobbling up whatever he chose to write!

The Diamond Age is definitely my favorite but yes Cryptonomicon and Baroque Cycle are superb. Also if you like that era of Stevenson you might check out Interface which he co-wrote. Anathem felt a bit conceited but was worth one read.

Personally I find the trope of the hyperintelligent, hyper-competent black woman that everyone underestimates because she's black (and a woman) grating, so the next couple things I read of his (like Reamde) put me off. Sadly it felt like his mind going a bit. Sure, of course a random adopted Eritrean (average IQ 68) is going to be a brilliant hacker and international operative. Got a problem with that, chud? It's exactly the reverse of the verisimilitude which normally makes his works so wonderful.

Haven't tried Fall or DODO yet and I'm a bit reluctant. Seveneves could be great but I haven't gotten around to it.

Recently finished the Baroque Cycle after stopping at the second book for ten years. It's a straight-up masterpiece.

Wow, The Diamond Age is my single favorite work of his as well! Given your dislike for those aspects of Reamde, I'd definitely tell you to stay away from Fall--it takes that reverse verisimilitude and cranks it up to 11, so much so that my favorite review of it described it as fractally bad. I would add that Fall is a dreadfully predictable wall-banger of a novel that's about as subtle as a brick to the head. Worse, it wears Neal Stephenson's style as a skin suit. Seveneves isn't that bad, IMO, if you can stand an expy of Neal DeGrasse Tyson being a character and played straight as a hyperintelligent protagonist, though there are other parts you might not enjoy as well.

So at this point I can't even read The Diamond Age any more in the sense that I'm so familiar with it that it fails to cohere into a narrative. It is now a text. I can recite long passages fairly accurately from memory and have a copy on my desktop because I tend to quote it a lot. When I try to read it it's just "this passage, then this passage, then this passage..."

All of this is a by-product of having read it so many times; didn't get this way on purpose.

By the way if you haven't listened to the audiobook narrated by Jennifer Wiltsie I'd strongly recommend doing so. Somehow hearing her read it called my attention to all sorts of details I hadn't really absorbed before. It felt like it somehow restored about 20% of the feeling of reading it for the first time. Plus I just think she's a perfect narrator for it. Actually listened to another audiobook narrated by her just because I enjoy her reading so much.

Hey BTW let me know if you ever do read City by Simak; iirc we'd talked about it a while ago.

Interesting! I'm not big on audiobooks as I tend to prefer the speed of reading and the imagery that my head evokes but there's definitely a lot to appreciate in a good narrator. I may have to give a James Marsters narrated Dresden Files novel at some point, for instance, because that sounds a lot like a Reese's Cup combination right there. But yes, I'll have to see how much the audiobook will set me back and I'll definitely drop a line if/when I pick up City and give it a read. I'm positive I've seen it on sale at the Kindle store at some point in the not too distant past so I view it as only a matter of time. :)

What is this place?

This website is a place for people who want to move past shady thinking and test their ideas in a court of people who don't all share the same biases. Our goal is to optimize for light, not heat; this is a group effort, and all commentators are asked to do their part.

The weekly Culture War threads host the most controversial topics and are the most visible aspect of The Motte. However, many other topics are appropriate here. We encourage people to post anything related to science, politics, or philosophy; if in doubt, post!

Check out The Vault for an archive of old quality posts. You are encouraged to crosspost these elsewhere.


Why are you called The Motte?

A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently, it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey", originally identified by philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."

On The Motte, always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed.


New post guidelines

If you're posting something that isn't related to the culture war, we encourage you to post a thread for it. A submission statement is highly appreciated, but isn't necessary for text posts or links to largely-text posts such as blogs or news articles; if we're unsure of the value of your post, we might remove it until you add a submission statement. A submission statement is required for non-text sources (videos, podcasts, images).

Culture war posts go in the culture war thread; all links must either include a submission statement or significant commentary. Bare links without those will be removed.

If in doubt, please post it!


Rules


Recommended Posts And Communities

Recommended Realtime Chats