I always assumed Stephenson was trying desperately hard to be Pynchon, except a whole lot easier going. Having got Anathem on the shelf, waiting for the time when I've built up enough upper body strength to carry it on the train with me, this Tolkien assertion has me worried.
Evidence for the Pynchon comparison (flimsy, obviously): Gravity's Rainbow, all about war and nerdiness = Cryptonomicon; Mason & Dixon, set in the 18th century and written in suitably anachronistic language, spread across three continents = Baroque Trilogy.
As I say, that was based on the first page. The Tolkien comparison is based on the linguistic preface where he describes how he tried to use words evocative of similar linguistic relationships in our language as the original word did in the original language... :)
Although remembering what people said about his use of ACTUAL contemporary English in the Baroque Cycle (ie. that it was more for effect than actually bearing any relationship to the language of the time) I don't expect him to have actually been as obsessed as Tolkien, but evoking a similar sort of world. (Although it may not be accurate, I'm generally in favour, it's very much the sort of tone I'd expect/hope for :))
He's had a bit of an Eco thing going on at least since Cryptonomicon, which had a similar love for suddenly randomly going off on a tangent on a barely-related (but interesting) note.
I still need to read The System Of The World before digging into Anthem.
Much of Anathem's oddities are building towards doing something specific which does not become visible until a goodly way into the book. I like the language myself, mostly for the section-starting dictionary entries. I did not love it as much as the Baroque Cycle, though.
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jack
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Date: 2009-01-16 12:44 pm (UTC)Evidence for the Pynchon comparison (flimsy, obviously): Gravity's Rainbow, all about war and nerdiness = Cryptonomicon; Mason & Dixon, set in the 18th century and written in suitably anachronistic language, spread across three continents = Baroque Trilogy.
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Date: 2009-01-16 01:44 pm (UTC)Although remembering what people said about his use of ACTUAL contemporary English in the Baroque Cycle (ie. that it was more for effect than actually bearing any relationship to the language of the time) I don't expect him to have actually been as obsessed as Tolkien, but evoking a similar sort of world. (Although it may not be accurate, I'm generally in favour, it's very much the sort of tone I'd expect/hope for :))
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Date: 2009-01-16 07:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-16 01:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-16 12:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-16 01:37 pm (UTC)I still need to read The System Of The World before digging into Anthem.
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Date: 2009-01-16 01:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-16 02:12 pm (UTC)Other influences in terms of content are Walter M. Miller and Hermann Hesse.
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Date: 2009-01-16 03:14 pm (UTC)