Special K

I love chapters too!! Not only in this book is the lack of them obviously bad, but have you ever read "Franny and Zooey" by J.D. Salinger? Seriously, that book is divided into three sections and that's about it. It make sme dislike such a wonderful book. So, i feel your chapter pain...

I feel your pain, Vanessa. I'm not much of a science fiction person either and I love how you said you physically recoil from the Sci-Fi section... when I worked at Waldenbooks we had certain people responsible for that area of the store and everyone else just said "eh!" and stayed far, far away.

I'm enjoying this book... I didn't think I would but after, what, 50? pages, I finally started to get into it.. It did take a while though. And there are definitely passages that I tend to kind of skim over a bit when my eyes go bleary from boredom.

Aw, give the poor book a chance. Stephenson may not have divided it into chapters with the phrase "Chapter (insert # here)", but the little summary headings serve essentially the same function... In fact, I think that the book is supposed to be written like some kind of scientific report or account of events, with respect to the section headings.

Also note the way that the language in the story changes according to who the "main character" in the chapter is, which might add to your confusion. For instance, the chapters about Nell are written in an almost childlike tone, the ones about Judge Fang are written in a humorous tone, the ones about Bud are written in a tone of detached violence, and the ones about Miranda are written in a different (hard-to-define-in-one-word) tone.

The description is almost a necessity in science fiction, because it helps to convey to the reader a sense of a world beyond his or her own, a world he or she is thrust into without much prior knowledge or experience (kinda like a tourist who goes to a foreign country far removed from home).

As for the weird ideas that Stephenson comes up with, I think they're amazing; I especially love the ideas behind matter compilers, ractives, and mediatrons.

See I'm a fan of science fiction, and I HATE THIS BOOK!

1) Its too long. We had to read what 1-197!? a 196 pages over 2 1/2 days. What? Does Dr. Jerz think we don't have lives or something?

2) I like chapters too. I dont like little sections.

3) I like it when my sci-fi (see i dont care about being passe) is easy to read and remember the words.

Ok...im done. A former GS'er can't agree too much with a Hempfielder. *smiles and waves* cya'll in class!

And we all know that no one should ever agree with someone from Norwin. ;P

Vanessa, actually the short little divisions, prefaced with a few lines of summary, is a technique taken from early Victorian novels. So there's actually a lot more structure than you think.

Lou, of course I believe English majors have lives -- it's just that I expect a big part of their lives should be spent reading! ;)

Last year, many people who didn't like the first third of the book started liking it better in the middle part. We'll see how the discussion today goes.

Glad to see that this year's Intro. to Lit. class is also reading The Diamond Age. My class struggled through this one last year, too, and I think it builds character for what that's worth. We all need to do things we don't like at times... So if this is the worst thing you encounter all week, count your blessings.

Anyway, I didn't like the strange assembly of the story either, Vanessa. It makes the book difficult to read because I like to have a stopping point--chapters are fabulous for being able to slap my post-it on the page and carry on until I get another opportunity to sit with it. Like it or not, The Diamond Age is a decent piece to read and although I expressed my extreme dislike for it about a year ago, you'll reflect later to find things from the book popping up around you. Just wait and see :-)

Till then, stick it out and buckle down--read this one, you guys, and you'll be thankful. Maybe not immediately, but you'll be thankful. Try to have engaging discussion about the parts you don't understand as opposed to the parts that are your reasons for "hating" the book. Defeatist attitudes never got anyone anywhere ;-)

Good luck!

What, everyone in the class got on and decided to comment on my blog? haha. It's a surprise, but a good one.

Chris- I have never agreed with someone from Norwin and do not feel I should start. haha. Kidding...

Dr. Jerz- You saw my little eye-roll in class. I'm not sure I'll start liking the book as I continue reading it but I'll keep an open mind.

Karissa- It's a challenge but I'll try to add something to the class discussions. More than just "I don't get it".

I haven't read this book yet (and from the sounds of it I never wiil), but I can address the thing about getting thrown into worlds you don't know. Science fiction is pretty much an expansion of the fantasy genre, and in older fantasy novels writers just took their audiances places and expected them to catch along. The great writers did it without any trouble at all. It's a tricky thing to be able to create new worlds, races, and languages while advancing a good story without alienating the reader. It also takes work on the readeres part to allow themselves to travel somewhere without being told every step of the way where they are and exactly what it is. Science fiction and fantasy stories thrive off imaginations, the imagination of the writer and the imagination of the reader.
Now I don't know if this guy did it right or not, but getting tossed into random worlds is a great trick to keep you focused on the story and when pulled off effectively it rocks. Check out some of Tad William's stuff. He's great at it. He's also one of the best fantasy writers ever, and easily the best in the past two to three decades.

I'm still lost, and I still haven't gotten very far (but I progressed since Monday!).

I did find some guide online that had a whole bunch of terms and stuff about the book that *kind of* made things a tad bit more bearable. Um...I'll get back to you on the site, because I have to get to work. :-(