Because Hollywood sucks, that's why

[DaShi]

Half the book is pretty much exposition. However, that said, a lot of it could be streamlined and simplified for a more general audience. Most people would just watch it for the cyberpunk anyway.

If you liked all the Sumerian and birth of civilization mythology, you might want to check out Jesse Moynhan's Forming: http://jessemoynihan.com/.

[loinburger]

The thing I've disliked about every Neal Stephenson book I've read is the scene where two characters explain the plot to the reader

"So your grandfather helped to bury a bunch of gold and now you want to dig it up?"
"Yes, and your grandfather knew where the gold was buried because he deciphered some stuff"
'Blah blah blah let's explain the plot some more"
"Blah blah blah this doesn't sound at all artificial"

[DaShi]

Well thanks for spoiling Cryptonomicon for me.

[I AM MOBIUS]

Methinks you've already read it, to understand the reference

Sent from my GT-I9195 using Tapatalk

[Elok]

The thing I've disliked about every Neal Stephenson book I've read is the scene where two characters explain the plot to the reader

"So your grandfather helped to bury a bunch of gold and now you want to dig it up?"
"Yes, and your grandfather knew where the gold was buried because he deciphered some stuff"
'Blah blah blah let's explain the plot some more"
"Blah blah blah this doesn't sound at all artificial"

Snow Crash is totally different, though; it's only one character doing all the exposition, and the people he's explaining it to (a mob boss and a wealthy businessman) accept every word he says at face value with minimal commentary, despite much of it being deeply weird and improbable-sounding. Hiro himself got it more or less dumped on his head by a digitized librarian passing on the work of somebody who died. All told, roughly a quarter of the book is one character telling another character some stuff he figured out off-camera. It still manages to be fun, but one thinks NS might have worked out a better way of handling exposition, yes.

(tragically, even if this beast gets made, there is essentially no chance that the timed-reading toilet paper memo will make the cut)

[ricketyclik]

For me the first Mad Max was the best, but then I was its intended audience, i.e., an Australian hungry for Australian voices, characters and stories on the big screen, and into post apocalyptic scenarios.

I agree that the latest instalment was underwhelming. Too light on plot and character.

[DaShi]

Methinks you've already read it, to understand the reference

Sent from my GT-I9195 using Tapatalk

Actually, I haven't read it. But there is a similar scene in Snow Crash where Hiro and Raven discuss their fathers in the middle of a high speed chase/fight. Taking that and the mention of deciphering stuff, the reference was pretty easy to guess.

[loinburger]

His books need a narrator (an actual narrator, not a character-explains-everything narrator)

Or maybe his character-as-narrator approach would work if he listened to some real people talking so that his characters would sound more like real people talking


Back when I was taking creative writing I realized that I sucked at writing dialog, so to compensate I didn't write any dialog.

[Elok]

Well, he had a narrator in Anathem. Along with A Clockwork Orange levels of unnecessary slang and jargon, which I think he inserted purely as a sort of meta-joke about people not reading high-effort books anymore. I've read a bunch of his books twice, but now that I already know how it ends I'm kind of lukewarm about tackling that one.

EDIT: Dormition Fast, see you in two weeks.

[Pekka]

As a huge fan of Stephenson, I would like to see either Anathem or Cryptonomicon as a movie as well, while knowing it will never ever happen. Maybe Snow Crash is the only hope. As long as Peter Jackson does not do the whole Baroque Cycle in 9 movies, I am happy. One 120 minutes with Snow Crash will do fine.