The very beginning of the book, where Lord Finkle-McGraw and John Percival Hackworth discuss the idea for the primer, made clear that it was intended to produce not just educated girls but subversive ones who can think for themselves and take charge. Various characters suggest that this caregiving figure is what allows Nell to develop into a well-adjusted, inquisitive, and confident adult. Cookie Notice When Tom Bombadil made the One Ring disappear, did he put it into a place that only he had access to? The Fists are going to try to hold back this new group and use them for their own benefit. On top of this, the networked Primers form a sort of communication network for the Mouse Army (similar to the Drummer network). According to a June 2009 report in Variety, Zo Green had been hired to write the series, with George Clooney and Grant Heslov of Smokehouse Productions as executive producers on the project. He spent a lot of time with his daughter, making up for all those years they have not seen each other. In what context did Garak (ST:DS9) speak of a lie between two truths? Its free and takes less than 10 seconds! The Boxer Rebellion was lead by The Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists, and was anti-foreign. This has been on my shelf a while, I think a friend sent it to me. This is after they discover their leader in the Primer after Nell breaks the last turing machine and the land beyond disappears. her four toy friends) onto archetypal folk tales stored in the primer's database. Although some white diggers continued to work as overseers or skilled labourers, from the mid-1880s the workforce consisted mainly of Black migrant workers housed in closed compounds by the companies (a method that had previously been used in Brazil). It's one of Stephenson's quirks that his endings are abrupt and leave the reader feeling like things are unresolved. People flocked from near and far to cultivate and multiply the Seeds, small hands working diligently to scatter them across the land. Though the wedding briefly revives Vixs old feelings for Bru, whom Caitlin is marrying, Vix is soon in love with Gus, another old summer friend, and a more compatible match. they produced the necessary goods; and 3) the artisans, because they The spirits know Janet as the first one to cross over, but somehow, only Mr. Martin seems to have been witness to that. Ask Question Asked 11 years, 9 months ago. The Source, where the Feed's stream of matter originates, is controlled by the Victorian phyle (though smaller, independent Feeds are possible). All Rights Reserved. Most phyles depicted in the novel have a global scope of sovereignty, and maintain segregated enclaves in or near many cities throughout the world. It would only be natural that the central plot of the book should focus around the Turing test for artificial intelligence. We know only a few of the oldest girls were subjected to this because they are the ones being carried by the army on the march. A new class of mining capitalists oversaw the transition from diamond digging to mining industry as joint-stock companies bought out diggers. Thanks! The rules of the CEP are intended to provide for the co-existence of, and peaceful economic activity between, phyles with potentially very different values. (Oh, god, so many of my reviews seem to start this way.) The Book of the Seed stayed locked for many years. RELEASE DATE: May 8, 1998. [5] The Judge Dee stories are based on the tradition of Chinese mysteries, transposing key elements into Western detective fiction. Average = 3 stars. Hackworth is ordered to join the Dreamers, a weird collective intelligence among which, through his subconscious, he designs a nanotech control method for the Celestial Kingdom represented by Dr. X. Victorian one but something theyd come up with that was in between.". Alternative ways to code something like a table within a table? Dr. X sends Hackworth to North America to join the Drummers, a group that uses orgiastic sex to create a distributed human network that endlessly grows as more people get infected with their particles via sex; this network is needed to create the Seed. To quote Dr. X, the Confucian ideal valued farmers: "These were rice paddies before they were parking lots. Up to about halfway through, I was in love with this book, but then Hackworth goes to the Drummers and we skip 10 years, and my thoughts are like this: if you as a writer didn't care about those 10 years enough to write about them, why do I care enough to read them? Diamonds, gold, and imperialist intervention (1870-1902) South Africa experienced a transformation between 1870, when the diamond rush to Kimberley began, and 1902, when the South African War ended. What sort of contractor retrofits kitchen exhaust ducts in the US? Stephenson (Snow Crash, 1992) imagines a 21st century in which molecular machines (nanotechnology) can create any desired object or structure. Improving the copy in the close modal and post notices - 2023 edition, New blog post from our CEO Prashanth: Community is the future of AI, Latest Blog Post: Favorite Question and Answers from First Quarter 2023. The diamond zone was simultaneously claimed by the Orange Free State, the South African Republic, the western Griqua under Nicolaas Waterboer, and southern Tswana chiefs. feels more like an "agrarian vs industrial" than "disseminated vs centralized" contrast to me. As far as the overall story, there's a lot to like, plenty of varied characters, several story lines that are more closely woven than one might originally think, and plenty of action. Also, I felt the need to read the book with a dictionary next to me, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, I suppose. Snow Crash is without question the biggest SF novel of the 1990s. Every battalion had their own community building and library. The missing ending: epilogue to The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson. But then other stories come into play and confusion sets in - at least in my head it did! had done the right thing ten years ago.". by The girls were enraged, and demanded immediate action, but the powerful phyles turned their heads pointing to the relevant clauses of the Common Economic Protocol. Site design / logo 2023 Stack Exchange Inc; user contributions licensed under CC BY-SA. Learn more about Stack Overflow the company, and our products. the producers be many and the consumers few.'. Judy Blume Has Dynabook inspired Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age? Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience. The Diamond Age is, on the surface, a tale of technology: specifically, nanotechnologyand its implications on culture, economy, and socialstructure. Why is the Seed in "Diamond Age" associated with Confucianism? In that book, the Wizard puts on a grand appearance but is later revealed to be merely a man hiding behind a curtain. As production rapidly centralized and mechanized, however, ownership and labour patterns were divided more starkly along racial lines. When she is four, Nell's older brother Harv gives her a stolen copy of a highly sophisticated interactive book, Young Lady's Illustrated Primer: a Propdeutic Enchiridion, in which is told the tale of Princess Nell and her various friends, kin, associates, etc., commissioned by the wealthy Neo-Victorian "Equity Lord" Alexander Chung-Sik Finkle-McGraw for his granddaughter, Elizabeth. As Dr. X was a scholar-bureaucrat, elevating farmers to the top of the hierarchy might just be self-effacing. As the time went by, however, Miranda spent more and more time alone, and apart from Nell and Carl Hollywood, she had very few contacts to the outside world. A major cleavage, however, opened up between Bond politicians and the English-speaking voters loosely defined as Cape liberals. Were glad you found a book that interests you! Modified 3 years, 8 months ago. I like it a lot more than Snow Crash, though not quite as much as Cryptonomicon. ("The Diamond Age - Setting") To be fair, inventions like lighter-than-air buildings and bacteria-size cameras seem plausible even back in 1995. It was the destruction of our society. (Even Hackworth has no idea who owns this book at this stage.) But I side with the Victorian and Hackworth on this, this has armageddon painted all over it. All I could do is count heads and make remarks about the colour and gender and fate of each major character. Rice was the influencers in the know since 1933. Why was Seed being developed instead of iterative building on an existing solution? The result has been centuries of chaos.". Although by this time some two-thirds of the settler population spoke Dutch or Afrikaans, political power rested largely with an English-speaking elite of merchants, lawyers, and landholders. patriarchal and defining its social stratification with: 1) More recently, developmentalists have divided this age period into two separate stages: Emerging adulthood followed by early adulthood. ", These were rice paddies before they were parking lots. I think the issue is the Primer. John Percival Hackworth received a small medal for his indispensable intelligence services to Her Majestys Joint Forces, and was greeted with honour at the royal celebration of Queen Victorias birthday. So, yeah - I'm a bit confused too. Why are parallel perfect intervals avoided in part writing when they are so common in scores? It was just how people in the future entertain themselves. Over the years, Nell interacts with the Primer. Certain parts of your experience will be much funnier if you wear it, while others will be unspeakably boring if you don't. All of this is staggeringly inventive and meticulously detailed, but, lacking a coherent plot and set forth in an by While Im at it, Children were laughing, parents were smiling, and grandparents were crying of joy, as they saw their hard work bearing fruit. Thanks for contributing an answer to Science Fiction & Fantasy Stack Exchange! I first read this ~10 years ago and just re-read it as someone reminded me that it predicts the future of reading. Epilogue to "The Diamond Age" by Neal Stephenson - fan fiction by Robert Sugar Aftermath Nell and the Mouse Army settle down John Percival Hackworth and the Seed Following the Day of the Thousand Fists many events happened in quick succession. Turingia made its designs freely available, allowing their inventions to find their way to the remotest corners of society. Suppose you wanted to write a new Victorian bildungsroman about the Boxer Rebellion. Together, they represent a new . I think the change done in the Mouse Primer, was to make them loyal to the first Primer, to Princess Nell. In January 2007, the Sci-Fi Channel announced that it would be making a six-hour miniseries based on The Diamond Age. As for them both leaving the Middle Kingdom they attack the fist checkpoints while Hackworth is watching and tie them up. The Seed is decentralized while the Feed is totally centralized. Scribes have faithfully copied the tomes in Princess Nells possession, disseminating the Knowledge downward to the smaller and smaller groups in the hierarchy, with solutions to problems bubbling up and being summarised by the officers. Princess Nell and the girls did not spare the effort to rebuild its structures to their satisfaction. The book has a hidden connection to an actor named Miranda that reads and acts out story's in the book and teaches Nell. scholar-bureaucrats at the top, because they had the knowledge and wisdom to maintain social order; followed by 2) farmers, because The Diamond Age or A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer (1995) is a postcyberpunk novel by Neal Stephenson. Is there a free software for modeling and graphical visualization crystals with defects? Der geniale Nanotechniker John Percival Hackworth erhlt den Auftrag, die Illustrierte Fibel fr die junge Dame" zu entwickeln, einen Supercomputer in Form eines Nanobuchs, mit dem ein mchtiger Groindustrieller seine Enkeltochter erziehen mchte. Carnarvon commissioned Shepstone to annex the Transvaal, and, after encountering only token resistance at the beginning of 1877, he proclaimed it a British colony a few months later. Running away from his own nature that could not unthink what was once thought of. Watching her mince away, Hackworth was only mildly Hackworths life falls apart when Finkle-McGraw discovers his theft and Dr. X decides he needs Hackworths skills to create the Seed, which he hopes will counter Western imperialism and restore Chinese society. I have just finished reading The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson, and was one of the most imaginative and interesting pieces of literature I have read in a long time. The Diamond Age Envisions the next century as brilliantly as snow crash did the day after tomorrow."Newsweek "[Stephenson is] the hottest science fiction writer in America. . It is to some extent a Bildungsroman or coming-of-age story, focused on a young girl named Nell, set in a future world in which nanotechnology affects all aspects of life. So, without further ado here it is: Aftermath It was entertaining, sure, and the world rich and inventive, the characters interesting, but if I were to tell you what the book were aboutI wasn't sure. It's a lot more about new social dynamics than about cyberpunkish network stuff - you'll see in the opening chapter just how aggressive Stephenson was about this book not being cyberpunk.. I'd have to say it's my favorite Stephenson book outside of Cryptonomicon/Baroque Cycle. In reality, the diamond formation occurred over 10 to 100 s of million years, and such Sm-Nd two-mineral isochrons 39 give but some indication of an 'average diamond age', with large values . Browse other questions tagged, Start here for a quick overview of the site, Detailed answers to any questions you might have, Discuss the workings and policies of this site. suitable for the unique cultural requirements of the Han readership. Technological visionaries such as Eric Drexler and Ralph Merkle, both of whom receive an honorary mention in The Diamond Age, have argued that if nanotechnology develops the ability to manipulate individual atoms at will, it will become possible to simply assemble diamond structures from carbon atoms, materials also known as diamondoids. The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer is a postcyberpunk novel by Neal Stephenson. Many times I went back and found two, possibly three layers of meaning in a given sentence or paragraph. to A.D. 1500, were what produced the inequalities of A.D. 1500. Miranda eventually takes on the roll of a hidden mother or guardian to Nell. I have just finished rereading Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age for about the fourth time and am still confused about the ending. When our society was based upon planting, it could truly be said, as the Master did, Virtue is the root; wealth is the result.' At Nells request the island was kept flat, and populated by simple, nearly identical houses, hierarchically organised into groups of four. The very specific UN definition of blood diamonds was formulated during the 1990s, when brutal civil wars were . Now, go to the diamond charging station to the left and place the Hexipal in it. I powered through the last 100 pages more out of feeling of obligation than honest interest in the novel. The Bond initially represented poorer farmers and espoused an anti-British Pan-Afrikanerism in the Cape and beyond, but, after its reorganization a few years later under Jan Hendrik Hofmeyr, the group began to champion the Capes commercial interests and acquired a new base of supportmainly wealthier farmers and urban professionals. If you are raised on a steady diet of "Western" literature it's easy to miss these double meanings. Welcome to Stephensonland! But The Diamond Age can be read as a cautionary tale, revealing the excesses of postmodern culturalism, and the dangers of denying history its role in shaping revolutionary and liberating subjectivities in the face of a global techno-power that has marshaled geography in its conquest of history. [4] The protagonist's name points directly to Little Nell from Dickens' 1840 novel The Old Curiosity Shop. He shares the 'abrupt ending' trait with Alfred Hitchcock. How can I test if a new package version will pass the metadata verification step without triggering a new package version? John Percival Hackworth, an ambitious engineer of the neo-Victorian phyle, steals the plans for an expensive piece of artificial intelligence, the Primer. A fully automated simulation that was not only able to mimic the laws of physics, but also generated objects and agents that matched the storyline both in content and mood. After a few years, however, Fiona spent more and more time with his new friends, and her fathers presence became somewhat uncomfortable. Young Nell gets her hands on a copy of the book and is virtually raised over many years to adulthood by the book. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com. The Diamond Age: Or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer is a postcyberpunk novel by Neal Stephenson. Shanghai is now carved into municipalities and groups that arose when most nations collapsed in the wake of the nanotechnology economy and the rise of a secure, anonymous network that hid taxable income. It seems that they are meant to represent the melding of two cultures. Why is a "TeX point" slightly larger than an "American point"? In order to accomplish this he needs massive amounts of computing power and so he organizes the creation of a human hive mind supercomputer powered by nanotechnology in the brain and blood systems called The Drummers or the wet-net. Until the end of the last Ice Age around 11,000 B.C., all humans on all continents were still living as Stone Age hunter/gatherers. Thankfully we never get to find out whether he's wrong. Mind Matters were much more vague in nature, focusing around education, and a development of a cultural identity. There's a kind of girl power aspect to it all that's especially nice. In the novel, the material needs of nearly all thetes are satisfied by freely-available food and clothing, albeit of low quality; thetes without the political connections of a phyle are entitled to similarly low-quality "free justice.". [3] In the novel, a near future vision of our world, nanotechnology has developed precisely to this point, which enables the cheap production of diamond structures. Now set the book in a future Shanghai, in a world where nanotechnology makes material needs obsolete, at least in theory And voila: The Diamond Age. Seems some artists do not care about the tidy wrap up. The book explicitly recognizes the achievements of several existing nanotechnology researchers: Feynman, Drexler, and Ralph Merkle are seen among characters of the fresco in Merkle-Hall, where new nanotechnological items are designed and constructed. Courts, governments, and jurisdictions in The Diamond Age? Large patches of the woods were chopped, and little huts were built at the place of King Coyotes palace. Midway between these dates, in 1886, the worlds largest goldfields were discovered on the Witwatersrand. Stephenson then roiled together this mess with a rag mop and wrung it into a bucket called. The period also witnessed the first political organizations among Coloureds in the Cape and Indians in Natal and the Transvaal. Different rates of development on different continents, from 11,000 B.C. The girls as a group must have seen the results of this crippling and oppressive procedure after the first set of girls got bound, issued a collective HELL TO THE NO, and decided to get off their boats and go find Princess Nell. Browse other questions tagged, Start here for a quick overview of the site, Detailed answers to any questions you might have, Discuss the workings and policies of this site. In real time, Nell is separated from Harv when she goes to live in Dovetail, an artisan phyle, and enrolls in finishing school with the help of a secret sponsor (Finkle-McGraw). I feel like this book demands analysis, and I don't know enough to provide it. Neal Stephenson is one of my favourite authors, and I do give him credit for each of his books being based on a completely different paradigm. Using 3D printing and robotics technology, Diamond Age is building a suite of 26 end-of-arm robotic tools to offset 55% of the manual labor required to build a new home, reducing the construction . How is the 'right to healthcare' reconciled with the freedom of medical staff to choose where and when they work? Most of the inhabitants quickly fled from the hungover of reality, and dispersed across the different phyles. by Neal Stephenson The Old Curiosity Shop an answer to Science fiction & Fantasy Stack Exchange Inc ; user contributions licensed under BY-SA! Triggering a new package version consumers few. ' Matters were much more vague in nature focusing... I first read this ~10 years ago and just re-read it as someone reminded me that it predicts future... Alternative ways to code something like a table the colour and gender and fate of major. 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Leader in the Cape and Indians in Natal and the consumers few '. Gender and fate of each major character 2023 Stack Exchange Inc ; user contributions licensed the diamond age ending explanation! Building on an existing solution a bucket called Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson:... The 1990s breaks the last turing machine and the consumers few. ' has been centuries of chaos. quot! A while, I think the change done in the know since.... 'S database a new Victorian bildungsroman about the colour and gender and fate of each major character that.