jonathan lewis

  • A new Neal Stephenson interview has been published, conducted in 2006 but still the most recent one out there. Unfortunately, it's part of Tomorrow through the Past: Neal Stephenson and the Project of Global Modernization, an academic book going for $80 on Amazon. Dr. Jonathan Lewis, the author and an English professor at UNCP, also studies the works of David Foster Wallace:
    “I am looking at Wallace and Stephenson and how their storytelling techniques have been influenced by the Web,” Dr. Lewis said. “It is a style with multi-threaded stories that may be moving at different speeds in a way that is similar to the way people use the Web.”
    Sounds interesting, but I always thought Infinite Jest's multi-threaded narrative was more influenced by Tom Clancy (and fractals) than the Web.

    Update: I was able to read the interview thanks to a library and a friend. Nothing revelatory, but we're currently in a Stephenson void so it was good to read something. The best line, in reference to why his old pen name books have been republished with his real name:
    [The] perception of secrecy or furtiveness tends to make people behave irrationally.
    (4) #
    12/20/2007
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