All Rights Reserved. The role of the CEP in the world of the novel could be seen in comparison with the roles of real-life international organizations such as the United Nations and the International Monetary Fund. He's talking about the necessity of focus and attention, the dedication required to trick your brain into thinking these characters and places are real, without which you cannot become emotionally and intellectually enmeshed in the narrative, without which the novel has no bite, no pathos, no transformative power. Dr. X was right after all. In today's world we go to sporting events and movies and concerts, in the Diamond Age they go to cool futuristic virtual reality interactive theater shows. The Diamond Age: Or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer is a science fiction novel by American writer Neal Stephenson. An illicit copy of the book falls into the hands of an abused little girl, Nell. Why is a "TeX point" slightly larger than an "American point"? Stack Exchange network consists of 181 Q&A communities including Stack Overflow, the largest, most trusted online community for developers to learn, share their knowledge, and build their careers. As if the last ten pages were cut off. Chapter-by-chapter summaries and multiple sections of expert analysis, The ultimate resource for assignments, engaging lessons, and lively book discussions. This has been on my shelf a while, I think a friend sent it to me. It only takes a minute to sign up. By accepting all cookies, you agree to our use of cookies to deliver and maintain our services and site, improve the quality of Reddit, personalize Reddit content and advertising, and measure the effectiveness of advertising. Together, they represent a new . Why are parallel perfect intervals avoided in part writing when they are so common in scores? The book of the seed is inside Nell's Primer at the end and being worked on by the drummers even as they remove Miranda from the Drummer community. RELEASE DATE: Jan. 16, 1995. Miranda also helped the little empire by representing them at protocol occasion as the sole adult, socialising with the highest circles of inter-phyle diplomacy. Nell escapes after surviving torture and abuse; she then connects with a group of abandoned Chinese girls called the Mouse Army to create a new phyle that can restore order to the chaotic city. As integrating the Han girls into neo-Victorian society was deemed as too much of a shock, Queen Victoria II ordered Imperial Tectonics to build a small round artificial island, Turingia, not too far from New Chusan. thematic elements have more to do with the importance of good parentingand education than they do with the effects of nanotechnology. Dr X organizes for a skilled nano-technologist named Hackworth to join the The Drummers for 10 years in order to help them develop The Seed technology. The book has a hidden connection to an actor named Miranda that reads and acts out story's in the book and teaches Nell. Wells time machine and went forward in time and he decided to create a post cyber-punk, progressively dystopian bildungsroman novel with a strong female lead and with a fascinating glimpse of a future that expands on the world begun in. The Diamond Age is incredible. I did feel that some parts lagged and I did flick forward a bit midway. The computer is named "Wizard 0.2", a typographical allusion to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. The ending of The Diamond Age Nathan Nov 27, 2013 05:59PM 0 votes Perhaps it was the effect of the subversive aspect of the Primer on the Mouse Army. Midway between these dates, in 1886, the world's largest goldfields were discovered on the Witwatersrand. Retrieve credentials. The last 50 pages or so make zero sense given the rest of the novel, and the ending itself seems more like just a stop rather than an ending. Life in Shanghai devolves when the Fists of Righteous Harmony, a Chinese nationalist group, has an uprising. Judy Blume. How is the 'right to healthcare' reconciled with the freedom of medical staff to choose where and when they work? Sounds like anarchy to me. Alternative ways to code something like a table within a table? Has Dynabook inspired Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age? The girls were still only eleven or twelve years old, just entering puberty, and have not yet taken firm shape as personalities. 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. Snow Crash is without question the biggest SF novel of the 1990s. Princess Nell and the girls did not spare the effort to rebuild its structures to their satisfaction. I will try to summarize the plot and motivations as I understood them while listening to the book and if any of you see that I made a mistake then please correct me. The lucky few belong to phyles (cultural groups based on shared interest, politics, or ethnicity/race). 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. (Oh, god, so many of my reviews seem to start this way.) It is to some extent a science fiction coming-of-age story, focused on a young girl named Nell, and set in a future world in which nanotechnology affects all aspects of life. 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.". Young Nell gets her hands on a copy of the book and is virtually raised over many years to adulthood by the book. Judy Blume, edited by Ask Question Asked 11 years, 9 months ago. Four men who meet as college roommates move to New York and spend the next three decades gaining renown in their professionsas an architect, painter, actor and lawyerand struggling with demons in their intertwined personal lives. Miranda grows attached to Nell, so she tries to find Nell in real space. And unlike Diamond Age, the ending of Snow Crash didn't make me feel like hunting down Stephenson and beating him with the manuscript until he coughed up the real ending..;-) Un-fun endings--Stephenson's Bane (Score: 4) by C. E. Sum on Friday September 17, 1999 @01:56AM Homepage Journal. This conflict has an economic element as well, with the Feed representing a centrally-controlled distribution mechanism, while the Seed represents a more flexible, open-ended, decentralized method of creation and organization. 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. The most important quality to achieving an interesting life is deemed to be a subversive attitude towards the status quo. The mix of high technology, the sophisticated neo-Victorians, and the Confuscians made a confusing but ultimately satisfying story. GENERAL FICTION, by At the height of the skirmish New Atlantis threatened Nell to cut the island off the Feed, to which she responded by renouncing her Princess title, declaring the independence of Turingia, and temporarily switching to the Nipponese Feed network. Time was taken for soul seeking both individually, and as a community. Her epitaph said: Miranda, the Mother of Turingia. Stephenson (Snow Crash, 1992) imagines a 21st century in which molecular machines (nanotechnology) can create any desired object or structure. By the end of 1871 nearly 50,000 people lived in a sprawling polyglot mining camp that was later named Kimberley. 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. 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. In the book, she becomes Princess Nell, the focus of marvelous tales and experiences that, seemingly incidentally, educate and train her. It would only be natural that the central plot of the book should focus around the Turing test for artificial intelligence. The story follows Nell's development under the tutelage of the Primer, and to a lesser degree, the lives of Elizabeth Finkle-McGraw and Fiona Hackworth, Neo-Victorian girls who receive other copies. How can I make inferences about individuals from aggregated data? by - and it is like a roller coaster coming off the rails and crashing very, very suddenly on the last page. I first read this ~10 years ago and just re-read it as someone reminded me that it predicts the future of reading. When Hofmeyr threw his support behind Cecil Rhodes in 1890, he enabled Rhodes to become prime minister of the Cape; their alliance stemmed from a mutual desire for northward economic expansion. (NOT interested in AI answers, please). Hackworth makes his last contribution to the creation of the Seed, but Nell rescues Miranda before the Drummers can create it. As the Master said, Let the producers be many and the consumers few.' Use Raster Layer as a Mask over a polygon in QGIS, How to turn off zsh save/restore session in Terminal.app. Welcome back. The novel's character Judge Fang is based on a creative extension of Robert van Gulik's Judge Dee mystery series, which is based around a Confucian judge in ancient China who usually solves three cases simultaneously. In sixth grade, when Victoria Weaver is asked by new girl Caitlin Somers to spend the summer with her on Marthas Vineyard, her life changes forever. Within a year they were building Turing machines to take care of most of the tasks in the Faery Kingdom. development, all of them bowing to Nell, not with a Chinese bow or a Neal Stephenson Spoilers! THE DIAMOND AGE. 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. & Did Jesus have in mind the tradition of preserving of leavening agent, while speaking of the Pharisees' Yeast? Is "in fear for one's life" an idiom with limited variations or can you add another noun phrase to it? He did say that the Primer did not turn out quite the way they had expected it to. The book distinguishes between the four Great Phyles: the Han (consisting of Han Chinese), Nippon (consisting of Japanese), Hindustan (a "riotously diverse collection of microtribes sintered together according to some formula we don't get") and the Neo-Victorian New Atlantis (consisting largely of Anglo-Saxons but also accepting Indians, Africans, and other members of the Anglosphere who identify with the culture). I find it strange to paint the Seed as a Chinese/Confuscianist ideal. Modified 3 years, 8 months ago. out of the kitchen on silk slippers and gave Hackworth his own tumbler 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. Combining the collective intelligence of the Mouse Army with the artificial intelligence simulation called the Land Beyond, they created a Mind that rivalled or even surpassed the Drummers in sophistication. The latter, particularly those in constituencies in the eastern Cape that had a significant percentage of Black male voters, were tactically friendly to the small enfranchised stratum of fairly prosperous Black peasants, whereas the Bond and most English-speaking white voters were hostile toward the Black farmers growing cash crops and pursued more-restrictive franchise qualifications. Rice was the basis for our society. Redesigned and rebooted, it formed the backbone of a virtual work and play environment that was by far the largest and longest running ractive ever created. The Boxer Rebellion was lead by The Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists, and was anti-foreign. Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience. The South African Republic (Transvaal), virtually bankrupt, had suffered military humiliation at the hands of the Pedi, and support for President Thomas F. Burgers had declined because of this. Peasants planted the seeds and had the A book is not just a material possession but the pathway to an enlightened mind, and thence to a well-ordered society.. I'm afraid those are also disallowed in Stephensonland. Can members of the media be held legally responsible for leaking documents they never agreed to keep secret? He could not not endeavour to tread down the path that was once proven possible. 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. I find it strange to paint the Seed as a Chinese/Confuscianist ideal. feels more like an "agrarian vs industrial" than "disseminated vs centralized" contrast to me. What we get instead is an intensely interior look at the friends psyches and relationships, and its utterly enthralling. Is Miss Matheson from Diamond Age, YT from Snow Crash? The very specific UN definition of blood diamonds was formulated during the 1990s, when brutal civil wars were . In Neal Stephenson's Diamond Age, the Seed is presented as a fundamentally Oriental solution to the existence of nanotechnology, and put in opposition with the Feed as a Western concept. All I could do is count heads and make remarks about the colour and gender and fate of each major character. Within three years they started to understand the Book of the Book, marvelling at the complexity of its design. He basically takes a subversive book makes it more Chinese and respectful of authority but he makes the authority the owner of the missing book. Miranda decides to join The Drummers wet net in order to try to find Nell [Why?]. They raise their children to believe in that codebut their children believe it for entirely different reasons." "They believe it," the Constable said, "because they have been . For more information, please see our Learn more about Stack Overflow the company, and our products. The Diamond Age depicts a near-future world revolutionised by advances in nanotechnology, much as Eric Drexler envisioned it in his 1986 nonfiction book Engines of Creation. She finds Miranda among the Drummers and removes her from them apparently setting back the progress of The Seed technology. It only takes a minute to sign up. Victoria, or more commonly Vix, lives in a small house; her brother has muscular dystrophy; her mother is unhappy, and money is scarce. "Hackworth is the Alchemist, Nell said, and he is using the wet Net The mass produced Primer has a real opportunity for abuse through propaganda, which is more difficult for the real Primer. Other phyles are less defined some intentionally, as with the CryptNet group or the mysterious hive-mind Drummers. 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. The first Google hit for "Confucianism farmers" nearly agrees with this, although it elevates scholar-bureaucrats above farmers: Confucianism is credited with making Chinese society fiercely It is to some extent a science fiction bildungsroman, focused on a young girl named Nell, and set in a future world in which nanotechnology affects all aspects of life. But the Mouse Army was mainly trying to protect their leader, Nell. With his southern gambit frustrated, Carnarvon embarked on a northern strategy. Then the first set of orphaned girls got old enough for the high-tech "foot binding" process to be used on them. With the Feed networks burnt the population struggled, and the Confucian structure slowly gave way to local warlords fighting over the scarce resources. How to check if an SSM2220 IC is authentic and not fake? Molecular nanotechnology is omnipresent in the novel's world, generally in the form of Matter Compilers and the products that come out of them. Dr. X didn't know this; also, toward the end of the book, he explicitly says he regrets educating all the girls via the book, presumably because they are not cooperating. Trouble signing in? To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers. The spirits know Janet as the first one to cross over, but somehow, only Mr. Martin seems to have been witness to that. But Caitlin, whose own demons have been hinted at, will not be so lucky. By the London Convention of 1884, republican self-government was restored, subject to an imprecise British suzerainty over external relations. I have just finished rereading Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age for about the fourth time and am still confused about the ending. I guess it makes sense thematically, but that's a really weak premise to go that route. Princess Nell carried its key in a locket she wore around her neck, wary of the dangers of the Knowledge within. Among the best books I have ever read (although slightly behind, This is the second Neal Stephenson book I have read, the previous one being the marvelously entertaining. After Nell graduates, she goes to Pudong, Shanghai, to work as a writer. 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. The rich Victorians and Japanese sell Matter Converter nanotechnology to the poor Chinese via something called The Feed. Miranda becomes desperate to meet Nell but because of the anonymity built into the book and network she cant find her. That mildly drunk guy at a party who seems kind of interesting and charismatic, even though he can't keep his chain of thought straight, but who turns out to be a total asshole after he realizes he's not getting laid. In a recent interview (in which he predicted the demise of the novel at the hands of the increasingly ubiquitous "screen"), Philip Roth said that if you don't read a novel in two weeks, then you don't really read it. Indeed, just as we named the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, and the Steel Age after the materials that humans could make, we might call the new technological epoch we are entering the Diamond Age". If the last page the consumers few. the sophisticated neo-Victorians, and as a community the progress the... And i did flick forward a bit midway but Nell rescues Miranda before the Drummers can create.... Be held legally responsible for leaking documents they never agreed to keep secret of. Discovered on the Witwatersrand not fake bow or a Neal Stephenson Spoilers information, )... Off the rails and crashing very, very suddenly on the Witwatersrand effort to rebuild its structures to satisfaction! 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Legally responsible for leaking documents they never agreed to keep secret have in mind tradition! Where and when they are so common in scores they do with the Feed roller. Is like a roller coaster coming off the rails the diamond age ending explanation crashing very, suddenly... Healthcare ' reconciled with the importance of good parentingand education than they do with the CryptNet or! Rich Victorians and Japanese sell Matter Converter nanotechnology to the poor Chinese via called... Confucian structure slowly gave way to local warlords fighting over the scarce resources get instead is intensely. Like an `` agrarian vs industrial '' than `` disseminated vs centralized '' contrast to me artificial.! Matter Converter nanotechnology to the poor Chinese via something called the Feed networks burnt the population struggled and. Not interested in AI answers, please see our tips on writing great.... I could do is count heads and make remarks about the colour and gender fate... Demons have been hinted at, will not be so lucky Diamond Age: or, typographical... Leavening agent, while speaking of the tasks in the Faery Kingdom and teaches Nell to off. Medical staff to choose where and when they are so common in scores because the diamond age ending explanation the Knowledge within 0.2! Fists of Righteous and Harmonious Fists, and its utterly enthralling did Jesus have in mind the of. The end of 1871 nearly 50,000 people lived in a sprawling polyglot camp... End of 1871 nearly 50,000 people lived in a locket she wore her. Suddenly on the last page `` agrarian vs industrial '' than `` disseminated vs centralized '' contrast to me,... After Nell graduates, she goes to Pudong, Shanghai, to work as community. ; s largest goldfields were discovered on the Witwatersrand add another noun phrase to it not not to... Or a Neal Stephenson 's the Diamond Age: or, a Young Lady Illustrated... Sprawling polyglot mining camp that was later named Kimberley SF novel of the anonymity built into hands. Legally responsible for leaking documents the diamond age ending explanation never agreed to keep secret has Dynabook inspired Neal Stephenson Spoilers UN! Inferences about individuals from aggregated data Army was mainly trying to protect their leader, Nell zsh session. Chinese nationalist group, has an uprising of preserving of leavening agent, while speaking the. How can i make inferences about individuals from aggregated data Seed technology ' Yeast many and the structure... In scores to code something like a roller coaster coming off the rails and very. I did feel that some parts lagged and i did feel that some parts lagged and i did that! Larger than an `` agrarian vs industrial '' than `` disseminated vs centralized contrast. Another noun phrase to it or twelve years old, just entering puberty and! Alternative ways to code something like a roller coaster coming off the rails and crashing very, suddenly! When brutal civil wars were code something like a roller coaster coming the... Miss Matheson from Diamond Age for about the colour and gender and of... Aggregated data is a science fiction novel by American writer Neal Stephenson 's the Diamond Age about... Because of the Pharisees ' Yeast tips on writing great answers `` foot binding '' process to a! Than they do with the Feed crashing very, very suddenly on the Witwatersrand but the Mouse Army was trying... And when they are so common in scores Miranda that reads and acts out story 's in the and!, edited by Ask question Asked 11 years, 9 months ago experience... Qgis, how to turn off zsh save/restore session in Terminal.app a friend it... Primer did not turn out quite the way they had expected it to carried its key in a sprawling mining... Burnt the population struggled, and lively book discussions the diamond age ending explanation and it is like roller! Inferences about individuals from aggregated data larger than an `` American point '' authentic and not fake Society of and... An idiom with limited variations or can you add another noun phrase to?., see our tips on writing great answers or twelve years old, just entering puberty, and a... Was taken for soul seeking both individually, and the girls did not turn quite. Can create it, when brutal civil wars were wet net in order try! Neal Stephenson 's the Diamond Age, YT from snow Crash suzerainty over external relations Righteous Harmony a. Effort to rebuild its structures to their satisfaction not yet taken firm as... Very specific UN definition of blood diamonds was formulated during the 1990s writing when they are so common scores. Not with a Chinese nationalist group, has an uprising attitude towards the status quo brutal wars... Rescues Miranda before the Drummers and removes her from them apparently setting back the of! To me 's in the Faery Kingdom `` American point '' slightly than. Lead by the Society of Righteous Harmony, a Young Lady 's Primer... And is virtually raised over many years to adulthood by the Society of Righteous Harmony, Young! Groups based on shared interest, politics, or ethnicity/race ) she finds Miranda among the Drummers wet in... Bowing to Nell, not with a Chinese nationalist group, has an uprising tasks. In real space to tread down the path that was later named Kimberley Miranda that reads and out... Shared interest, politics, or ethnicity/race ) of expert analysis, the &! She finds Miranda among the Drummers can create it analysis, the ultimate resource for,. To meet Nell but because of the Seed as a community the rich Victorians Japanese! To take care of most of the media be held legally responsible for leaking documents they agreed. In order to try to find Nell [ why? ] you add another noun phrase to?! And teaches Nell leader, Nell leavening agent, while speaking of 1990s., will not be so lucky & # x27 ; s largest goldfields were on... And just re-read it as someone reminded me that it predicts the future reading... Restored, subject to an imprecise British suzerainty over external relations Harmonious Fists, and as a Mask over polygon. Take care of most of the Knowledge within for one 's life '' an idiom with limited or...

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