An excerpt from Neal Stephenson's "Anathem" on the importance of "story"

[arendt]

Thousands of years ago, the work that people did had been broken down into jobs that were the same everyday, in organizations where people were interchangable parts. All of the story had been bled out of their lives. That was how it had to be; it was how you got a productive economy. But it would be easy to see a will at work behind this: not exactly an evil will, but a selfish will.

The people who'd made this system thus were jealous, not of money and not of power, but of story. If their employees came home at day's end with interesting stories to tell, it meant that something had gone wrong: a blackout, a strike, a spree killing. The Powers That Be would not suffer others to be in stories of their own unless they were fake stories that had been made up to motivate them.

People who couldn't live without story had been driven into (the scientific cloisters) or into (frontier/ wilderness) jobs. All others had to look somewhere outside of work for a feeling that they were part of a story, which is why I guessed that (most clueless folks) were so concerned with sport and with religion. How else could you see yourself as part of an adventure? Something with a beginning, middle, and end in which you played a significant part? We (scientists) had it ready-made because we were part of this project of learning new things...You could tell where you were and what you were doing in that story.

----

I read the book in a little over a day, while lying sick in bed. I am still formulating my opinion of the book; so this is not a review. But, I just had to share this gem of a quote.

I would include democratic politics as an undertaking that gives one a story that is not fake.

arendt

P.S. I'm still not really coming back to DU politics. I just thought this book excerpt was too important not to share.

[phantom power]

1. you know one thing I like (so far)...

is his use of the term "saecular power," and associating it with (among other things) boom/bust cycles:

http://www.amazon.com/Fourth-Turning-Str-William/dp/0767900464/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1223594201&sr=1-1

[arendt]

4. That's a really interesting reference...

started to read it via the Amazon on-line reader; but got distracted by all the other incoming fire whizzing by today.

Bookmarked for later.

Thanks

arendt

[juno jones]

2. Thank you.

I love Neil Stephenson. Somehow the worlds of Snow Crash and Diamond Age do not feel so distant anymore. I will be looking for this book.

[arendt]

3. I will give you a fair warning. This is a different writing style.

The narrative is straight linear, no multiple plot lines.

There is NONE of his trademark extended loopy humor, only a few wisecracks scattered about.

You better know philosophy and quantum mechanics, or this book is going to be like reading "Godel, Escher, and Bach" with no background in math/computers.

I'm definitely convinced that this is not going to get a big audience. OTOH, I enjoy his writing; so I would read it, even he wrote an entire novel about pouring milk on Captain Crunch.

arendt

[juno jones]

5. I feel the same way about his writing

:)
I think I can handle it, he generally winds up educating me anyway! But thank you for the heads up. I will approach it when I am into some deep reading rather than reading for entertainment...which will be sometime after the election when I can peel myself away from the computer.