The sight of the bare katana inspires everyone to a practically Nipponese level of politeness Neal Stephenson More Quotes by Neal Stephenson More Quotes From Neal Stephenson I really am just trying to tell stories. But stories are often grounded in larger events and themes. They don't have to be - there's a big literature of trailer-park, kitchen-table fiction that's just about goings-on in the lives of ordinary people - but my own tastes run toward stories that in addition to being good stories are set against a backdrop that is interesting to read and learn about. Neal Stephenson runningpeopleinteresting I try to find a style that matches the book. In the Baroque Cycle, I got infected with the prose style of the late 17th and early 18th centuries, which is my favorite era. It's recent enough that it is easy to read - easier than Elizabethan English - but it's pre-Victorian and so doesn't have the pomposity that is often a problem with 19th-century English prose. It is earthy and direct and frequently hilarious. Neal Stephenson styletryingbook Even the best of us have certain psychological mechanisms that can suddenly kick in and turn us into monsters. That to me is the basic message of events like the rise of Nazism, the Salem witch trials, and so on: not that bad people do bad things, but that good people do bad things. It's distressingly easy for those mechanisms to be triggered, either consciously by demagogues, or naively by people who think they're trying to do the right thing. Which is why I think it's more akin to tic-tac-toe. Neal Stephenson witch-trialspeoplethinking I feel that I am entitled to trample all other considerations into the dirt in my pursuit of a satisfying pun. Neal Stephenson considerationpursuitdirt I was trying to run something to ground that had come to my attention when I was working on the Baroque Cycle. That series, of course, was about the conflict between Newton and Leibniz. Leibniz developed a system of metaphysics called monadology, which looked pretty weird at the time and was promptly buried by Newtonian-style physics. Neal Stephenson stylerunningtrying It is what you don't expect... that most needs looking for. Neal Stephenson needs Any strategy that involves crossing a valley accepting short-term losses to reach a higher hill in the distance will soon be brought to a halt by the demands of a system that celebrates short-term gains and tolerates stagnation, but condemns anything else as failure. In short, a world where big stuff can never get done. Neal Stephenson valleysdistanceloss Let's set the existence-of-God issue aside for a later volume, and just stipulate that in some way, self-replicating organisms came into existence on this planet and immediately began trying to get rid of each other, either by spamming their environments with rough copies of themselves, or by more direct means which hardly need to be belabored. Most of them failed, and their genetic legacy was erased from the universe forever, but a few found some way to survive and to propagate. Neal Stephenson issuesselfmean A few dud universes can really clutter up your basement. Neal Stephenson basementsclutteruniverse The full cosmos consists of the physical stuff and consciousness. Take away consciousness and it's only dust; add consciousness and you get things, ideas, and time. Neal Stephenson dustaddideas They knew many things but had no idea why. And strangely this made them more, rather than less, certain that they were right. Neal Stephenson certainmadeideas All people have religions. It's like we have religion receptors built into our brain cells, or something, and we'll latch onto anything that'll fill that niche for us. Neal Stephenson cellsbrainpeople The science fiction approach doesn't mean it's always about the future; it's an awareness that this is different. Neal Stephenson differentmeanfiction Even the best of us have certain psychological mechanisms that can suddenly kick in and turn us into monsters. Neal Stephenson certainpsychologicalmonsters It is commonly the case with technologies that you can get the best insight about how they work by watching them fail. Neal Stephenson casesfailingtechnology This is one of the two great labyrinths into which human minds are drawn: the question of free will versus predestination. Neal Stephenson labyrinthmindtwo Men who believe that they are accomplishing something by speaking speak in a different way from men who believe that speaking is a waste of time. Neal Stephenson differentmenbelieve Which path do you intend to take, Nell?' said the Constable, sounding very interested. 'Conformity or rebellion?' Neither one. Both ways are simple-minded - they are only for people who cannot cope with contradiction and ambiguity. Neal Stephenson simplepeopleway Most Kabbalists were theorists who were interested only in pure meditation. But there were so-called 'practical Kabbalists' who tried to apply the power of the Kabbalah in everyday life. Neal Stephenson kabbalaheverydaymeditation Whenever serious and competent people need to get things done in the real world, all considerations of tradition and protocol fly out the window. Neal Stephenson realpeopleneeds
