The Incomparable

00:00:00 ◼   ► the incomparable podcast number 69 [TS]

00:00:11 ◼   ► December 2011 [TS]

00:00:14 ◼   ► welcome back to the uncomfortable I am [TS]

00:00:17 ◼   ► Jason smell your host we are convening [TS]

00:00:19 ◼   ► another edition of the uncomfortable [TS]

00:00:21 ◼   ► book club and yet again i believe this [TS]

00:00:24 ◼   ► is our fourth thousand-page long book in [TS]

00:00:29 ◼   ► a row [TS]

00:00:31 ◼   ► fortunately our next book is stephen [TS]

00:00:33 ◼   ► king's book about the Kennedy [TS]

00:00:34 ◼   ► assassination in time travel which is [TS]

00:00:36 ◼   ► like 20 pages right also a thousand-page [TS]

00:00:39 ◼   ► oh god help anyway [TS]

00:00:43 ◼   ► today we are going to talk about ream d [TS]

00:00:47 ◼   ► which is how you pronounce it [TS]

00:00:49 ◼   ► by the way we checked Neal Stephenson [TS]

00:00:51 ◼   ► has a video where he calls it [TS]

00:00:53 ◼   ► md it's really be its readme misspelled [TS]

00:00:56 ◼   ► as Reedy by chinese hackers but we'll [TS]

00:01:00 ◼   ► get to that Neal Stephenson's Ruby came [TS]

00:01:03 ◼   ► out in September and we've all read it [TS]

00:01:07 ◼   ► took us that long if you didn't read it [TS]

00:01:09 ◼   ► don't why you want this podcast and if [TS]

00:01:11 ◼   ► you don't want to know what happens in [TS]

00:01:13 ◼   ► it [TS]

00:01:13 ◼   ► please don't listen to this podcast [TS]

00:01:14 ◼   ► because we're going to tell you what [TS]

00:01:15 ◼   ► happens we're going to talk about what [TS]

00:01:17 ◼   ► happens in the book so joining me to [TS]

00:01:20 ◼   ► talk about what happens in the book [TS]

00:01:21 ◼   ► which is the purpose of a book club just [TS]

00:01:24 ◼   ► getting out there are serenity Caldwell [TS]

00:01:28 ◼   ► hello hi Jason it's just a check you've [TS]

00:01:30 ◼   ► read the book right [TS]

00:01:31 ◼   ► I have indeed read the book the whole [TS]

00:01:33 ◼   ► book the entire book right to be a week [TS]

00:01:35 ◼   ► maybe we can have that show off haha [TS]

00:01:39 ◼   ► well no it's okay i'm taking like two [TS]

00:01:41 ◼   ► months to finish cryptonomicon so all [TS]

00:01:44 ◼   ► right well actually never ends you know [TS]

00:01:45 ◼   ► that book just keeps going goes yeah [TS]

00:01:47 ◼   ► it's really a lot into the first page [TS]

00:01:49 ◼   ► and it's I think I'm glad other voice [TS]

00:01:52 ◼   ► you just heard his kind fleischmann hi [TS]

00:01:53 ◼   ► Glenn did you read the local oh I read [TS]

00:01:55 ◼   ► this entire book right back [TS]

00:01:58 ◼   ► I like it that's that's that things are [TS]

00:02:00 ◼   ► looking up for the book club [TS]

00:02:01 ◼   ► dan borin it also joins us Daniel I [TS]

00:02:04 ◼   ► assume you read the whole book this time [TS]

00:02:06 ◼   ► i read the book the whole book and [TS]

00:02:08 ◼   ► nothing but the book it Oh Mike so help [TS]

00:02:10 ◼   ► me God and Scott McNulty hello Scott [TS]

00:02:13 ◼   ► know you always read the book I didn't [TS]

00:02:17 ◼   ► read the book this time and I hope that [TS]

00:02:18 ◼   ► there are no spoilers because i'm [TS]

00:02:21 ◼   ► looking forward to read it it's about a [TS]

00:02:23 ◼   ► detective in New York in the 19th [TS]

00:02:25 ◼   ► century [TS]

00:02:26 ◼   ► oh is [TS]

00:02:27 ◼   ► so excited so windy [TS]

00:02:30 ◼   ► I guess we should start by talking about [TS]

00:02:32 ◼   ► how this is a you know Neal Stephenson [TS]

00:02:37 ◼   ► is an interesting author he's written [TS]

00:02:39 ◼   ► some cyberpunk kind of stuff like snow [TS]

00:02:42 ◼   ► crash he wrote a very very sci-fi novel [TS]

00:02:47 ◼   ► his last time out which was an M he's [TS]

00:02:51 ◼   ► done action like in a zodiac which is [TS]

00:02:56 ◼   ► actually a book like a lot he did [TS]

00:02:58 ◼   ► historical kind of you know with a with [TS]

00:03:02 ◼   ► a sci-fi flavor but historical fiction [TS]

00:03:04 ◼   ► with a baroque cycle so he's he's been [TS]

00:03:08 ◼   ► all over the place and yet despite that [TS]

00:03:12 ◼   ► I was surprised at the content of reem d [TS]

00:03:14 ◼   ► because it starts out feeling like it's [TS]

00:03:17 ◼   ► going to be your sort of standard neal [TS]

00:03:21 ◼   ► stephenson even though it's set in the [TS]

00:03:22 ◼   ► present day which i think only [TS]

00:03:23 ◼   ► cryptonomicon well now he's yeah so yeah [TS]

00:03:26 ◼   ► mostly it's obviously an economic on [TS]

00:03:29 ◼   ► maybe some of those other thrillers that [TS]

00:03:30 ◼   ► he sort of pseudonymous Lee wrote right [TS]

00:03:32 ◼   ► right but um it's so but it more or less [TS]

00:03:35 ◼   ► still it's like you know it starts out a [TS]

00:03:37 ◼   ► little bit like a almost like the cory [TS]

00:03:41 ◼   ► doctorow book about for the wind after [TS]

00:03:44 ◼   ► the wind right which is about about gold [TS]

00:03:46 ◼   ► farmers in a in a massively multiplayer [TS]

00:03:49 ◼   ► game right you have the two of them [TS]

00:03:50 ◼   ► apparently had some conversation where [TS]

00:03:52 ◼   ► Cory said Cory was assessment for the [TS]

00:03:54 ◼   ► wind and Neal said something like [TS]

00:03:57 ◼   ► reading about gold farming and they both [TS]

00:03:59 ◼   ► cackle door something so you're going to [TS]

00:04:00 ◼   ► round up i think reading their books [TS]

00:04:02 ◼   ► nearly simultaneously independent so my [TS]

00:04:04 ◼   ► theory is that is that uh Neal [TS]

00:04:07 ◼   ► Stephenson discovered what cory doctorow [TS]

00:04:09 ◼   ► is writing about 500 pages in and said [TS]

00:04:12 ◼   ► oh well then let's change what my book [TS]

00:04:15 ◼   ► is about let's take a sharp left turn [TS]

00:04:18 ◼   ► listen I i want to make a point at the [TS]

00:04:20 ◼   ► outset that because what you're going [TS]

00:04:21 ◼   ► through about genre is i think i got 300 [TS]

00:04:24 ◼   ► pages into this behemoth before I [TS]

00:04:26 ◼   ► actually understood that there was going [TS]

00:04:28 ◼   ► to be no contra factual hypothetical [TS]

00:04:32 ◼   ► particles or anything else and sort of [TS]

00:04:34 ◼   ► the science fictional elements yeah I [TS]

00:04:36 ◼   ► really it had because it has all the [TS]

00:04:37 ◼   ► tropes and feels of that terrain and is [TS]

00:04:39 ◼   ► isn't it [TS]

00:04:40 ◼   ► extrapolation of the the most massively [TS]

00:04:43 ◼   ► multiplayer online game culture rain [TS]

00:04:45 ◼   ► which is the which is the invented more [TS]

00:04:48 ◼   ► or less arco invented by by Richard [TS]

00:04:51 ◼   ► fourth rescue is one of the main [TS]

00:04:52 ◼   ► characters in the book it's not World of [TS]

00:04:55 ◼   ► Warcraft right but it is like it and [TS]

00:04:57 ◼   ► it's sort of the it's played a sort of [TS]

00:05:00 ◼   ► the next evolution of that so there's a [TS]

00:05:02 ◼   ► little bit of speculation in there but [TS]

00:05:04 ◼   ► really it's it's our world although with [TS]

00:05:07 ◼   ► Stevenson's traditional attention to [TS]

00:05:08 ◼   ► detail that extrapolation is i would say [TS]

00:05:11 ◼   ► hell of a lot better than ernest cline [TS]

00:05:13 ◼   ► xin in ready player one in terms of what [TS]

00:05:16 ◼   ► the Oasis is versus terrain is much you [TS]

00:05:18 ◼   ► know i think is much more grounded [TS]

00:05:20 ◼   ► there's a good hundred pages devoted to [TS]

00:05:22 ◼   ► exactly what the terrain of the world is [TS]

00:05:25 ◼   ► like with name [TS]

00:05:27 ◼   ► thank you yaso so too [TS]

00:05:31 ◼   ► there's so much here because there's a [TS]

00:05:32 ◼   ► thousand pages and that's why this [TS]

00:05:34 ◼   ► podcast will last for a thousand hours [TS]

00:05:35 ◼   ► or maybe not but but I want to go back [TS]

00:05:39 ◼   ► to so there isn't one is right it is i [TS]

00:05:42 ◼   ► was surprised on the one hand that [TS]

00:05:44 ◼   ► there's nothing you know counterfactual [TS]

00:05:46 ◼   ► there's nothing that seems like it [TS]

00:05:49 ◼   ► couldn't happen today which i think is [TS]

00:05:51 ◼   ► interesting and then and then despite [TS]

00:05:53 ◼   ► Stephenson having all these different [TS]

00:05:55 ◼   ► genres that he's played in i was really [TS]

00:05:57 ◼   ► surprised at the turn he took because we [TS]

00:06:00 ◼   ► end up in the last half of this book in [TS]

00:06:02 ◼   ► basically an action movie which is its [TS]

00:06:06 ◼   ► well I think it's well done but it is [TS]

00:06:09 ◼   ► funny because it's not what I expect [TS]

00:06:10 ◼   ► from Neil Stephens now I don't know what [TS]

00:06:12 ◼   ► I expected I guess I expected something [TS]

00:06:14 ◼   ► less common and maybe a a weirder you [TS]

00:06:19 ◼   ► know less common kind of genre instead [TS]

00:06:21 ◼   ► of like guys with guns fighting other [TS]

00:06:24 ◼   ► guys with guns but that's what we got [TS]

00:06:28 ◼   ► I was surprised that certain most of [TS]

00:06:30 ◼   ► neal stephenson's books he's kind of [TS]

00:06:31 ◼   ► famous for going on tangents that are [TS]

00:06:33 ◼   ► enjoyable to read but you really lasts a [TS]

00:06:36 ◼   ► couple hundred pages and yeah like I'm [TS]

00:06:37 ◼   ► not sure what's going on in this book he [TS]

00:06:39 ◼   ► seems to have decided at one point okay [TS]

00:06:42 ◼   ► i'm going to get rid of everything [TS]

00:06:43 ◼   ► extraneous it's going to be all plot for [TS]

00:06:46 ◼   ► 400 pages and as I am I going to like it [TS]

00:06:49 ◼   ► exactly [TS]

00:06:50 ◼   ► put that in your pipe and smoke it but [TS]

00:06:52 ◼   ► what I found really interesting along [TS]

00:06:53 ◼   ► those lines is also that like you start [TS]

00:06:56 ◼   ► out not only do you start thinking the [TS]

00:06:57 ◼   ► plots going in one direction but there [TS]

00:06:59 ◼   ► are certain characters that you start [TS]

00:07:00 ◼   ► out thinking okay this gets pretty [TS]

00:07:02 ◼   ► important and then you know some of [TS]

00:07:04 ◼   ► those characters don't make it all the [TS]

00:07:06 ◼   ► way through the book but like so like [TS]

00:07:08 ◼   ► solace solace boyfriend right [TS]

00:07:10 ◼   ► oh he was pegged for death let's be fair [TS]

00:07:13 ◼   ► yeah but on the flip side there are [TS]

00:07:14 ◼   ► other characters you think are totally [TS]

00:07:16 ◼   ► like extraneous right like I mean like [TS]

00:07:18 ◼   ► you know cough [TS]

00:07:19 ◼   ► yes it's so cool officer or I love III [TS]

00:07:22 ◼   ► thought even I thought even Abdallah [TS]

00:07:23 ◼   ► Jones of course who is sort of caught [TS]

00:07:26 ◼   ► topless in this random you know we'll go [TS]

00:07:29 ◼   ► through the plot i'm sure a little bit [TS]

00:07:30 ◼   ► he's sort of seems like a threat like a [TS]

00:07:31 ◼   ► random character to encounter like he's [TS]

00:07:34 ◼   ► there is a plot device right and then he [TS]

00:07:35 ◼   ► turns into this hugely important major [TS]

00:07:38 ◼   ► character throughout the rest of the [TS]

00:07:39 ◼   ► book it's like a relay race though is [TS]

00:07:41 ◼   ► like they're running this isn't this is [TS]

00:07:42 ◼   ► like an ultramarathon and their [TS]

00:07:44 ◼   ► characters are running running and only [TS]

00:07:46 ◼   ► a few of them like zula for instance [TS]

00:07:48 ◼   ► makes the way all the way through it and [TS]

00:07:50 ◼   ► make an excellent review [TS]

00:07:53 ◼   ► yeah Peter hands off to Abdullah [TS]

00:07:55 ◼   ► Abdullah becomes that takes up that [TS]

00:07:57 ◼   ► missing character position you know it's [TS]

00:07:59 ◼   ► really ok here we go well now we got [TS]

00:08:00 ◼   ► zulu natal Ivanovic sort of starts off [TS]

00:08:03 ◼   ► as being kind of important and then you [TS]

00:08:05 ◼   ► know he's he dies going [TS]

00:08:08 ◼   ► marlin and I do know your name to the [TS]

00:08:10 ◼   ► who said something about characters who [TS]

00:08:11 ◼   ► are so significant and then is willing [TS]

00:08:14 ◼   ► to to murder their darlings you know he [TS]

00:08:16 ◼   ► sets up these from Yvonne is a great [TS]

00:08:17 ◼   ► character and gets crazier and crazier [TS]

00:08:19 ◼   ► and then he is called and maybe it's a [TS]

00:08:21 ◼   ► whole new bill he exits on a high note [TS]

00:08:23 ◼   ► you don't want to be mean you can't get [TS]

00:08:26 ◼   ► any crazier than that certain level of [TS]

00:08:28 ◼   ► crazy for a while [TS]

00:08:29 ◼   ► what I really like about ream d is [TS]

00:08:31 ◼   ► actually I can't compare it to lost in a [TS]

00:08:34 ◼   ► way except it's lost except everything [TS]

00:08:36 ◼   ► comes together at the end but makes a [TS]

00:08:38 ◼   ► lot of sense because you have these [TS]

00:08:40 ◼   ► pages upon pages of these various [TS]

00:08:42 ◼   ► characters backstory you get a character [TS]

00:08:44 ◼   ► Olivia that's introduced to the middle [TS]

00:08:46 ◼   ► of the book for you know you're like [TS]

00:08:47 ◼   ► okay where did she come from she is not [TS]

00:08:50 ◼   ► been mentioned at all previous to this [TS]

00:08:51 ◼   ► and you just have to be patient and [TS]

00:08:53 ◼   ► trust that she's going to get woven into [TS]

00:08:55 ◼   ► the story appropriately and she does [TS]

00:08:57 ◼   ► that I think happens with most of these [TS]

00:08:59 ◼   ► characters [TS]

00:09:00 ◼   ► oh yeah then you end up with you know [TS]

00:09:01 ◼   ► Sheamus Costello later on [TS]

00:09:03 ◼   ► who's sort of you know comes up like 710 [TS]

00:09:06 ◼   ► yeah i would order the characters that [TS]

00:09:08 ◼   ► are introduced later in the book are [TS]

00:09:09 ◼   ► better than only all but a handful of [TS]

00:09:11 ◼   ► ones that you meet near the outset like [TS]

00:09:13 ◼   ► the characterizations get more [TS]

00:09:15 ◼   ► interesting by and the and the uh you [TS]

00:09:19 ◼   ► know the military man I mean they're [TS]

00:09:20 ◼   ► they're good kind of archetypes to yeah [TS]

00:09:22 ◼   ► well i mean but i loved for example i [TS]

00:09:24 ◼   ► love the duality in the this whole thing [TS]

00:09:26 ◼   ► sort of starts off the beginning and [TS]

00:09:27 ◼   ► kinda gets under woman between the two [TS]

00:09:29 ◼   ► writers Donald and Devin you know I'm so [TS]

00:09:33 ◼   ► that part it is but it makes know if [TS]

00:09:36 ◼   ► there's no plot [TS]

00:09:37 ◼   ► they're really like you kept expecting [TS]

00:09:39 ◼   ► that to go in more of a direction [TS]

00:09:41 ◼   ► wait a second i just realized i think he [TS]

00:09:42 ◼   ► did something to us since we've only had [TS]

00:09:44 ◼   ► the opportunity in our lives and may [TS]

00:09:45 ◼   ► never have a chance to read this entire [TS]

00:09:46 ◼   ► book again because we have jobs and [TS]

00:09:48 ◼   ► things it's possible that if you go back [TS]

00:09:51 ◼   ► and read the book closely that the two [TS]

00:09:53 ◼   ► riders approach to fiction is actually [TS]

00:09:55 ◼   ► mirror two elements the book as you said [TS]

00:09:57 ◼   ► that I realized oh he might be playing [TS]

00:09:59 ◼   ► with us and the two writers are actually [TS]

00:10:01 ◼   ► contending through the plot of the book [TS]

00:10:02 ◼   ► some things that are implausible and [TS]

00:10:04 ◼   ► follow one path and something follow [TS]

00:10:05 ◼   ► another it's possible but now we have to [TS]

00:10:08 ◼   ► read the book a couple more times so I [TS]

00:10:09 ◼   ► mean that's an interesting reading of it [TS]

00:10:10 ◼   ► i think that somebody could go back and [TS]

00:10:12 ◼   ► no I mean but I i think there is a yeah [TS]

00:10:15 ◼   ► there's an interesting reason there with [TS]

00:10:16 ◼   ► the tensions of like you know sort of [TS]

00:10:18 ◼   ► popcorn me plot vs I think that's more [TS]

00:10:19 ◼   ► ground date and those are sort of two [TS]

00:10:21 ◼   ► things that are clearly a war with [TS]

00:10:23 ◼   ► Stevenson himself in this book that's a [TS]

00:10:24 ◼   ► good catch going honda that's very very [TS]

00:10:27 ◼   ► good because you've got you've got just [TS]

00:10:28 ◼   ► to touch on this for a second [TS]

00:10:29 ◼   ► you've got d squared who is this [TS]

00:10:33 ◼   ► completely just arrogant a Cambridge [TS]

00:10:38 ◼   ► dawn who is writes a I guess limited [TS]

00:10:42 ◼   ► amount of fantasy but it's incredibly [TS]

00:10:44 ◼   ► impeccably researched and Tolkien right [TS]

00:10:47 ◼   ► yeah and then you've got for catalytic [TS]

00:10:50 ◼   ► or don't just look brings them out and [TS]

00:10:53 ◼   ► he's a fantasy not and it it is an [TS]

00:10:55 ◼   ► internally consistent and he just cranks [TS]

00:10:57 ◼   ► out book and george george RR martin of [TS]

00:11:00 ◼   ► course no 26 year I meri teri about [TS]

00:11:05 ◼   ► quantity alright i'm sorry you know it's [TS]

00:11:07 ◼   ► the quantity and the sort of all right [TS]

00:11:09 ◼   ► yeah you got this very easy he's not [TS]

00:11:11 ◼   ► here after speed notice george RR martin [TS]

00:11:14 ◼   ► has more consistency know he is a he is [TS]

00:11:16 ◼   ► a pulpit [TS]

00:11:16 ◼   ► to see novelist like a like a 1 terry [TS]

00:11:19 ◼   ► brooks or uh honorary salvatori ok there [TS]

00:11:23 ◼   ► you know I mean the guy is like the guys [TS]

00:11:24 ◼   ► who write like the D&D books right like [TS]

00:11:26 ◼   ► the novelization of all that and just [TS]

00:11:28 ◼   ► crank those suckers out the level above [TS]

00:11:30 ◼   ► admit he's making real money so that's [TS]

00:11:31 ◼   ► part of making real money but he's not [TS]

00:11:33 ◼   ► necessarily be putting your great i'm [TS]

00:11:36 ◼   ► not sure he's not being real money until [TS]

00:11:38 ◼   ► he until Easter with to raising its your [TS]

00:11:41 ◼   ► right right yeah he's making it up in [TS]

00:11:42 ◼   ► volume i can see the point but he [TS]

00:11:45 ◼   ► popularizing the the all the ideas that [TS]

00:11:49 ◼   ► the the dawn has he's the one who kind [TS]

00:11:52 ◼   ► of popularizers that makes it accessible [TS]

00:11:54 ◼   ► and it is it is a part of the success so [TS]

00:11:57 ◼   ► we're going to take Glenn's idea about [TS]

00:11:59 ◼   ► these two warring parts of you know [TS]

00:12:02 ◼   ► maybe it's an evil neal stephenson's [TS]

00:12:04 ◼   ► mind it's also interesting because [TS]

00:12:06 ◼   ► because the offer all of the highfalutin [TS]

00:12:09 ◼   ► this of the dawn the fact is it's the [TS]

00:12:12 ◼   ► it's the other guy who makes it all [TS]

00:12:15 ◼   ► successful even though he breaks some of [TS]

00:12:17 ◼   ► the things that are in and and was back [TS]

00:12:21 ◼   ► in right he has to come back in and fit [TS]

00:12:23 ◼   ► everything in the end right one there's [TS]

00:12:24 ◼   ► the Apostle pakka lips which has thank [TS]

00:12:26 ◼   ► you for what is to come forward green [TS]

00:12:28 ◼   ► that that was pretty good [TS]

00:12:30 ◼   ► that entire section of the book where [TS]

00:12:32 ◼   ► they're just like know all of these [TS]

00:12:33 ◼   ► words have no adequate molecule meetings [TS]

00:12:36 ◼   ► and they often be rewritten and anywhere [TS]

00:12:38 ◼   ► that's your hundred-page digression [TS]

00:12:40 ◼   ► although it does serve as a plot purpose [TS]

00:12:43 ◼   ► because the idea is that there's this [TS]

00:12:44 ◼   ► kind of war of the war the war [TS]

00:12:48 ◼   ► yeah of the different colors yeah I want [TS]

00:12:51 ◼   ► to come back to that we get the point [TS]

00:12:52 ◼   ► the plot because i have some issues with [TS]

00:12:53 ◼   ► it but well it's it's a fascinating [TS]

00:12:56 ◼   ► it's a fascinating digression now but [TS]

00:12:58 ◼   ► it's also somewhat the catalyst for for [TS]

00:13:01 ◼   ► a lot of this true enemy and mirrors yes [TS]

00:13:04 ◼   ► so structurally eat how this so there's [TS]

00:13:07 ◼   ► so much here there's too much [TS]

00:13:10 ◼   ► let us let us sum up so the plot here is [TS]

00:13:12 ◼   ► I think you can summarize it it's [TS]

00:13:13 ◼   ► actually a very simple plot right is [TS]

00:13:16 ◼   ► there's of itself it's a story of a [TS]

00:13:18 ◼   ► family and some people in it and in the [TS]

00:13:20 ◼   ► end the family comes back there is an [TS]

00:13:22 ◼   ► overarching thing about the fourth rest [TS]

00:13:24 ◼   ► family I really might open actually i [TS]

00:13:26 ◼   ► love i have that it starts i love that [TS]

00:13:28 ◼   ► opening chapter [TS]

00:13:30 ◼   ► we're thanksgiving and it's this guy [TS]

00:13:33 ◼   ► who's like kind of on the outs with his [TS]

00:13:35 ◼   ► family and you don't know why and it [TS]

00:13:36 ◼   ► turns out it's because he left home and [TS]

00:13:38 ◼   ► became successful but but in a sort of a [TS]

00:13:42 ◼   ► questionable way it and you know it's [TS]

00:13:45 ◼   ► just it's fascinating and then there's [TS]

00:13:46 ◼   ► the his niece who is also kind of an [TS]

00:13:48 ◼   ► outsider and the texture of that like [TS]

00:13:51 ◼   ► the mud out because they're out in in [TS]

00:13:53 ◼   ► like Missouri right and now it's a Iowa [TS]

00:13:56 ◼   ► Iowa alright so there in the Midwest and [TS]

00:13:58 ◼   ► it's and it's cold and it's muddy and [TS]

00:14:00 ◼   ► they're shooting at cans and bottles and [TS]

00:14:02 ◼   ► stuff after a while the Thanksgiving [TS]

00:14:05 ◼   ► dessert is being served or something and [TS]

00:14:08 ◼   ► it's just I love the texture of it and I [TS]

00:14:10 ◼   ► thought you know what this is not what I [TS]

00:14:12 ◼   ► expected from you'll see even somebody [TS]

00:14:13 ◼   ► gonna go with it because i really [TS]

00:14:15 ◼   ► enjoyed that part of it well so that the [TS]

00:14:18 ◼   ► story so he's I mean so here's the only [TS]

00:14:20 ◼   ► the very bare-bones one which is that he [TS]

00:14:22 ◼   ► and another follow developed a world of [TS]

00:14:24 ◼   ► warcraft like game he winds up hiring is [TS]

00:14:27 ◼   ► nice after meeting her at this gathering [TS]

00:14:28 ◼   ► she has a boyfriend who's kind of a [TS]

00:14:30 ◼   ► slightly asperger e idiot and needs to [TS]

00:14:33 ◼   ► raise some money fast because he's [TS]

00:14:35 ◼   ► overextended the real estate market gets [TS]

00:14:37 ◼   ► hooked up with Russian mafia a virus [TS]

00:14:39 ◼   ► infects machine destroy some of the [TS]

00:14:40 ◼   ► Russian mafias information and then you [TS]

00:14:43 ◼   ► wind up in this worldwide trip is that [TS]

00:14:45 ◼   ► people get carried along to China [TS]

00:14:47 ◼   ► because this crazy russian guy this sort [TS]

00:14:50 ◼   ► of mafioso wants to looks like his house [TS]

00:14:53 ◼   ► of cards is falling apart [TS]

00:14:54 ◼   ► he wants to track down the author of the [TS]

00:14:56 ◼   ► virus whose he decides to personally [TS]

00:14:57 ◼   ► blame for all these ills they wind up [TS]

00:15:00 ◼   ► that's how the whole first arc of the [TS]

00:15:01 ◼   ► story is getting to China figuring this [TS]

00:15:03 ◼   ► out tracking down the people who wrote [TS]

00:15:05 ◼   ► the rim d virus which infected the [TS]

00:15:07 ◼   ► Russian systems unintentionally and a [TS]

00:15:09 ◼   ► lot of other people stuff they get there [TS]

00:15:11 ◼   ► then you hand off to the next part [TS]

00:15:12 ◼   ► because they go in expecting to kill all [TS]

00:15:14 ◼   ► these room d virus writers these hackers [TS]

00:15:17 ◼   ► or Stewart holding data free ransom and [TS]

00:15:20 ◼   ► instead they run into a muslim terrorism [TS]

00:15:21 ◼   ► cell in China this industrial or [TS]

00:15:24 ◼   ► commercial City they wanted firing up [TS]

00:15:27 ◼   ► firing on that apartment full of Muslims [TS]

00:15:30 ◼   ► and Islamic terrorists who are planning [TS]

00:15:33 ◼   ► to blow stuff up and then you get the [TS]

00:15:36 ◼   ► handoff and so zula Richards nice [TS]

00:15:39 ◼   ► there's a programmer her boyfriends kill [TS]

00:15:40 ◼   ► the Russian mafioso is killed [TS]

00:15:42 ◼   ► Zula is handed off [TS]

00:15:43 ◼   ► to Abdullah Jones and then takes the [TS]

00:15:45 ◼   ► ball any runs where he goes he goes it [TS]

00:15:47 ◼   ► goes and they wound up traveling again [TS]

00:15:49 ◼   ► you know a large distances gets them out [TS]

00:15:52 ◼   ► of China eventually into Canada where [TS]

00:15:55 ◼   ► through a large series of adventures [TS]

00:15:56 ◼   ► they finally wind up crossing the border [TS]

00:15:59 ◼   ► through an area that Richard fourth rass [TS]

00:16:01 ◼   ► when he was a drug runner before you [TS]

00:16:03 ◼   ► started the video game company had [TS]

00:16:04 ◼   ► figured that was a way to avoid were [TS]

00:16:06 ◼   ► controlled by going through old mines [TS]

00:16:07 ◼   ► and meanwhile a British spy who's going [TS]

00:16:10 ◼   ► to involve the China tracks and they're [TS]

00:16:12 ◼   ► Richard tracks them down and Richards [TS]

00:16:14 ◼   ► family the rest of them wind up being [TS]

00:16:15 ◼   ► sort of exactly survivalists but [TS]

00:16:18 ◼   ► fundamentalist living on the other side [TS]

00:16:19 ◼   ► of this mining tunnel where it comes out [TS]

00:16:23 ◼   ► so you get Islam Islamic radicals [TS]

00:16:26 ◼   ► killing people across Canada joining [TS]

00:16:28 ◼   ► together crossing into America and [TS]

00:16:30 ◼   ► hitting the salt of the earth religious [TS]

00:16:33 ◼   ► fundamentalists for the big final [TS]

00:16:34 ◼   ► showdown what you think that's pretty [TS]

00:16:37 ◼   ► good pretty good though [TS]

00:16:38 ◼   ► that's pretty good friend to sort of the [TS]

00:16:39 ◼   ► main skills and apply its think there's [TS]

00:16:41 ◼   ► two sides of the first is like we learn [TS]

00:16:43 ◼   ► all about the video game we learn all [TS]

00:16:44 ◼   ► about the culture and whatever and [TS]

00:16:46 ◼   ► they're on their way to try and always [TS]

00:16:47 ◼   ► trying to stop in the second half is [TS]

00:16:48 ◼   ► essentially you know Muslim extremists [TS]

00:16:52 ◼   ► on the run terminating in this sort of [TS]

00:16:54 ◼   ► run across the border yet no that's [TS]

00:16:57 ◼   ► that's exactly it you've got you've got [TS]

00:16:58 ◼   ► half the book which is setting up the [TS]

00:17:00 ◼   ► the you know multiplayer universe and [TS]

00:17:04 ◼   ► the gold farmers in China and trying to [TS]

00:17:07 ◼   ► figure all that out and then the second [TS]

00:17:09 ◼   ► half is largely this action story [TS]

00:17:13 ◼   ► involving the terrorists in canada and [TS]

00:17:16 ◼   ► crossing the border and all of that it [TS]

00:17:18 ◼   ► turns out you need to know almost [TS]

00:17:19 ◼   ► nothing about the entire video game [TS]

00:17:20 ◼   ► backstory in order to understand the [TS]

00:17:22 ◼   ► second half of the book that pretty much [TS]

00:17:24 ◼   ► disappears after back-to-back yeah right [TS]

00:17:26 ◼   ► it becomes a communications tool later [TS]

00:17:28 ◼   ► as opposed to a plot point Walton and [TS]

00:17:30 ◼   ► not to mention you know hundreds of [TS]

00:17:31 ◼   ► pages there and there's literally [TS]

00:17:33 ◼   ► hundreds of pages where Richard who sort [TS]

00:17:34 ◼   ► of his setup as the main character in [TS]

00:17:36 ◼   ► the first you know hundred pages just [TS]

00:17:38 ◼   ► not there's no 40 years he goes away [TS]

00:17:40 ◼   ► yeah by the book might be about him and [TS]

00:17:42 ◼   ► I kept waiting for him to come back I'm [TS]

00:17:43 ◼   ► like that word where we're going to go [TS]

00:17:45 ◼   ► back to him right [TS]

00:17:46 ◼   ► I said it's it's like lost each [TS]

00:17:48 ◼   ► character has their section it's amazing [TS]

00:17:50 ◼   ► what kind of a head-fake an author can [TS]

00:17:53 ◼   ► give a reader in the sense that [TS]

00:17:57 ◼   ► we start at the very beginning of the [TS]

00:17:59 ◼   ► book with Richard fourth rest and then [TS]

00:18:02 ◼   ► by the end of that chapter zula and [TS]

00:18:04 ◼   ► Peter have pulled up and he's befriend [TS]

00:18:06 ◼   ► befriended them a little better said [TS]

00:18:07 ◼   ► hello to them and and and i think they [TS]

00:18:09 ◼   ► go somewhere and it's funny because [TS]

00:18:13 ◼   ► without that chapter [TS]

00:18:16 ◼   ► you could probably you would probably go [TS]

00:18:18 ◼   ► in assuming that zula is the main [TS]

00:18:20 ◼   ► character but he gives you this head [TS]

00:18:24 ◼   ► fake where he says no no this is richard [TS]

00:18:26 ◼   ► fourth-fastest that is the is the main [TS]

00:18:28 ◼   ► character here and he's not do list the [TS]

00:18:30 ◼   ► main characters her book is this is [TS]

00:18:31 ◼   ► really soon but absolutely Richard [TS]

00:18:33 ◼   ► bookends it is facilitating plot element [TS]

00:18:35 ◼   ► but it's and she's a great i think she's [TS]

00:18:37 ◼   ► a great character I mean she does things [TS]

00:18:39 ◼   ► that are extreme but not unrealistic you [TS]

00:18:42 ◼   ► can say I can't believe that aerotrain [TS]

00:18:44 ◼   ► refugee adopting America's our parents [TS]

00:18:47 ◼   ► adopted parents killed gone through all [TS]

00:18:48 ◼   ► this managed to get her in on and [TS]

00:18:50 ◼   ► whip-smart you can see her being that [TS]

00:18:52 ◼   ► resourceful it's not like you know the [TS]

00:18:54 ◼   ► girl her or something it's like it's a [TS]

00:18:56 ◼   ► real so i'm sticking up for Mythbusters [TS]

00:18:58 ◼   ► are it's it's things that somebody [TS]

00:19:00 ◼   ► pushed to extremist with capabilities [TS]

00:19:02 ◼   ► would do she just sort of just low-tech [TS]

00:19:04 ◼   ► smart things right and she gets a couple [TS]

00:19:06 ◼   ► of lucky breaks but he also just [TS]

00:19:08 ◼   ► realizes when there's an opportunity and [TS]

00:19:10 ◼   ► knows when attenuates for it yeah well [TS]

00:19:12 ◼   ► you have that nice section when they're [TS]

00:19:14 ◼   ► all trapped in the basement [TS]

00:19:16 ◼   ► they've this is at the point where [TS]

00:19:18 ◼   ► they've been locked to two chains and [TS]

00:19:21 ◼   ► the broth Russian mafia is going to to [TS]

00:19:25 ◼   ► go kill the Chinese hackers and the [TS]

00:19:27 ◼   ► she's trapped with two other hackers who [TS]

00:19:29 ◼   ► instantly take out lock-picking tools or [TS]

00:19:31 ◼   ► I guess she she gives great yeah she [TS]

00:19:33 ◼   ► gives him her Bobby their hair pins and [TS]

00:19:35 ◼   ► they instantly start lock kicking but [TS]

00:19:37 ◼   ► you notice she not being a hacker is not [TS]

00:19:40 ◼   ► well versed in the art of lock-picking [TS]

00:19:41 ◼   ► it does not spend her days idly [TS]

00:19:43 ◼   ► practicing so she actually has to wait [TS]

00:19:45 ◼   ► for them it's just a nice touch it's [TS]

00:19:47 ◼   ► like no not all three characters are [TS]

00:19:49 ◼   ► expert lock Pickers it's just the same [TS]

00:19:51 ◼   ► as a hobby certain people pick up right [TS]

00:19:53 ◼   ► well but the to the fact that she's [TS]

00:19:55 ◼   ► smart and does things like I mean the [TS]

00:19:57 ◼   ► one that got me was when she's locked in [TS]

00:20:00 ◼   ► the bathroom of the i rise in China and [TS]

00:20:02 ◼   ► she writes the long note and sticks it [TS]

00:20:03 ◼   ► in the drainpipe just thinking like hail [TS]

00:20:05 ◼   ► mary hey maybe somebody will find this [TS]

00:20:07 ◼   ► and I kind of felt like you know reading [TS]

00:20:09 ◼   ► that ever [TS]

00:20:10 ◼   ► reading in thinking and it sounds like [TS]

00:20:13 ◼   ► that's just kind of a throwaway plot [TS]

00:20:14 ◼   ► point and maybe someone will find it [TS]

00:20:16 ◼   ► like way way down the road or whatever [TS]

00:20:18 ◼   ► and then I sort of forgot about it and [TS]

00:20:20 ◼   ► then came back and actually made it [TS]

00:20:22 ◼   ► actually turns out to be important [TS]

00:20:24 ◼   ► i also got to say I think this book is [TS]

00:20:26 ◼   ► also Sokolov's as well like he's a [TS]

00:20:29 ◼   ► strong second player he cums in you [TS]

00:20:31 ◼   ► think at some of these Russian heavies [TS]

00:20:33 ◼   ► me totally stereotypical and he is [TS]

00:20:36 ◼   ► remarkably resourceful he's addy is [TS]

00:20:38 ◼   ► somehow a decent man even though his [TS]

00:20:41 ◼   ► former Spetsnaz not even though he kills [TS]

00:20:44 ◼   ► people [TS]

00:20:44 ◼   ► he has the keys the kind of guy that's [TS]

00:20:46 ◼   ► always in books of this sort he has a [TS]

00:20:48 ◼   ► kind of honor a co-designer whole yeah [TS]

00:20:51 ◼   ► something's obviously with the soul [TS]

00:20:53 ◼   ► yeah it's not exactly pretty goal [TS]

00:20:55 ◼   ► because he's doing things that are [TS]

00:20:56 ◼   ► logical and sensible his big problem he [TS]

00:20:58 ◼   ► doesn't kill people out of anger he [TS]

00:20:59 ◼   ► kills them out of necessity to protect [TS]

00:21:01 ◼   ► the client or protect himself and to [TS]

00:21:03 ◼   ► further the mission and he's and his [TS]

00:21:05 ◼   ► dynamic with ivana right where he's like [TS]

00:21:07 ◼   ► slowly certifying this guy pretty sure [TS]

00:21:10 ◼   ► that he's actually going crazy and [TS]

00:21:12 ◼   ► trying to like figure out how do we get [TS]

00:21:14 ◼   ► out of this situation because there's [TS]

00:21:15 ◼   ► the people above on of we're going to be [TS]

00:21:17 ◼   ► really pissed off when they find out [TS]

00:21:19 ◼   ► what happened [TS]

00:21:20 ◼   ► how are we going to get out of this [TS]

00:21:21 ◼   ► saves from three days of the Condor [TS]

00:21:22 ◼   ► moment in there where Sokolov's like [TS]

00:21:24 ◼   ► well they want me to go out to this ship [TS]

00:21:26 ◼   ► but this is not always goes they tell [TS]

00:21:28 ◼   ► you to go to the ship something goes [TS]

00:21:30 ◼   ► wrong they shoot you [TS]

00:21:31 ◼   ► she never know she never knows no Olivia [TS]

00:21:33 ◼   ► never knows what happened to me somethin [TS]

00:21:36 ◼   ► went wrong it's like I'm not going to do [TS]

00:21:37 ◼   ► the thing they tell me to do I thought [TS]

00:21:39 ◼   ► he was gonna die there [TS]

00:21:40 ◼   ► there is no way he was gonna die he he [TS]

00:21:42 ◼   ► knew it [TS]

00:21:43 ◼   ► yeah I know yeah the one hand you think [TS]

00:21:45 ◼   ► he's like oh he's too clever for that [TS]

00:21:46 ◼   ► but on the other hand you like I mean [TS]

00:21:48 ◼   ► people died in this book right and so it [TS]

00:21:49 ◼   ► would have been out of the question for [TS]

00:21:51 ◼   ► him to be like well he served his plot [TS]

00:21:53 ◼   ► purpose you know maybe he's gonna bite [TS]

00:21:56 ◼   ► it here he doesn't mean that's nice no [TS]

00:21:58 ◼   ► but it's nice to have that tension right [TS]

00:21:59 ◼   ► like there's too many too many like [TS]

00:22:01 ◼   ► action movies where it's like what this [TS]

00:22:02 ◼   ► is the hero he can't die obviously right [TS]

00:22:05 ◼   ► you know he's the protagonist we're [TS]

00:22:06 ◼   ► going to see him through all the way to [TS]

00:22:07 ◼   ► the end but whenever you know an author [TS]

00:22:10 ◼   ► doesn't mind killing off their [TS]

00:22:11 ◼   ► characters as we've seen several times [TS]

00:22:13 ◼   ► earlier in the book you you get a little [TS]

00:22:15 ◼   ► worried for the characters that you kind [TS]

00:22:16 ◼   ► of like right because you're not sure [TS]

00:22:18 ◼   ► they did easily they could kill them off [TS]

00:22:21 ◼   ► I can't believe nobody has mentioned [TS]

00:22:23 ◼   ► show [TS]

00:22:24 ◼   ► gore yeah I said I don't like this [TS]

00:22:26 ◼   ► pronouncement drunk or the Hungarian [TS]

00:22:29 ◼   ► Hungarian hacker rather lovely villa to [TS]

00:22:32 ◼   ► love Lord kilgorn he's loved Lord I like [TS]

00:22:35 ◼   ► all the secondary characters in this in [TS]

00:22:38 ◼   ► this wonderful look well I and then [TS]

00:22:41 ◼   ► chocolate is another good example of [TS]

00:22:42 ◼   ► somebody who's like kind of seems like [TS]

00:22:44 ◼   ► well as he comes in with the bad guys [TS]

00:22:46 ◼   ► maybe he's important maybe not and then [TS]

00:22:48 ◼   ► turns out to be another very major [TS]

00:22:49 ◼   ► character and i love i love the Triad [TS]

00:22:51 ◼   ► that he force with he forms with you she [TS]

00:22:54 ◼   ► and Marlon right like you know where [TS]

00:22:56 ◼   ► they're on the ship and they're likely [TS]

00:22:57 ◼   ► candidate the engineer and yeah i love i [TS]

00:23:00 ◼   ► love that sort of unlikely pairing the [TS]

00:23:02 ◼   ► deal is everybody is incredibly [TS]

00:23:04 ◼   ► pragmatic you notice that in this book [TS]

00:23:06 ◼   ► there are few insane people like [TS]

00:23:07 ◼   ► Abdullah Jones and and it off but [TS]

00:23:10 ◼   ► everybody else is like okay problem [TS]

00:23:13 ◼   ► happening how do I get out tonight huh [TS]

00:23:15 ◼   ► well you know moose and squirrel have [TS]

00:23:17 ◼   ► chosen scroll a bomb final logo want the [TS]

00:23:21 ◼   ► bomb how do I get out alive [TS]

00:23:22 ◼   ► I jumped through a window Abdul Jones [TS]

00:23:24 ◼   ► may be insane because he's a terrorist [TS]

00:23:26 ◼   ► but he is very practical as well right [TS]

00:23:28 ◼   ► here lyrics talking like he's one more [TS]

00:23:31 ◼   ► very smartly pregnant in fact he is so [TS]

00:23:33 ◼   ► business like that one of the things I [TS]

00:23:36 ◼   ► really enjoyed about his scenes where he [TS]

00:23:38 ◼   ► gathers the various the various guys [TS]

00:23:40 ◼   ► first company's initial crew and then [TS]

00:23:42 ◼   ► he's got the ones who are sort of like [TS]

00:23:44 ◼   ► the one of the terrorists and be [TS]

00:23:45 ◼   ► together like well I BTW if if they ever [TS]

00:23:48 ◼   ► call me I'm in Canada but if they ever [TS]

00:23:50 ◼   ► call me for a job I'm there knowing that [TS]

00:23:52 ◼   ► nobody's ever called him and then he [TS]

00:23:54 ◼   ► calls them into like oh okay all right [TS]

00:23:57 ◼   ► for the garage haha he's he's but he's [TS]

00:24:00 ◼   ► kind of like sociopathically charming [TS]

00:24:02 ◼   ► right like he's got net but he's [TS]

00:24:04 ◼   ► professional and what strikes me is that [TS]

00:24:05 ◼   ► some of the people he's working with or [TS]

00:24:07 ◼   ► not and you can sense a he he hates them [TS]

00:24:10 ◼   ► right just like they don't I got to use [TS]

00:24:13 ◼   ► the ladies like you got your lucky its [TS]

00:24:14 ◼   ► hard to find good help right I don't [TS]

00:24:16 ◼   ► know there's like Rapids B&C players [TS]

00:24:18 ◼   ► he's got the razor was killed with a CD [TS]

00:24:20 ◼   ► by the way but he's got right he's going [TS]

00:24:23 ◼   ► to make sure she's got yellow shirts [TS]

00:24:25 ◼   ► well I also likes I can't remember who [TS]

00:24:27 ◼   ► describes him as this I think it's [TS]

00:24:28 ◼   ► either a either Sheamus or Olivia but [TS]

00:24:32 ◼   ► someone points out that he's not likely [TS]

00:24:35 ◼   ► he's not a martyr right [TS]

00:24:37 ◼   ► he thinks he's too thinks he's too [TS]

00:24:39 ◼   ► valuable right you keep saying he'll [TS]

00:24:41 ◼   ► wait for them the right moment but it's [TS]

00:24:43 ◼   ► never the right moment you get the [TS]

00:24:45 ◼   ► impression he's kind of maybe kind of a [TS]

00:24:47 ◼   ► coward like it in deep inside and sort [TS]

00:24:49 ◼   ► of like thinks he's really smart but [TS]

00:24:51 ◼   ► he's also kind of untouchable and then [TS]

00:24:54 ◼   ► he sort of slowly sees his plans all [TS]

00:24:56 ◼   ► fall apart even though they're very [TS]

00:24:57 ◼   ► carefully laid and he's devoted all [TS]

00:24:59 ◼   ► these time to the men in one monkey [TS]

00:25:01 ◼   ► wrench in the plan and everything goes [TS]

00:25:03 ◼   ► to hell yeah you know what i would say [TS]

00:25:05 ◼   ► there's other arc of the story which is [TS]

00:25:07 ◼   ► that I think what I think one of the [TS]

00:25:08 ◼   ► things that I'm he's playing with his he [TS]

00:25:10 ◼   ► creates these remarkable like I would [TS]

00:25:12 ◼   ► argue in the past that used to have a [TS]

00:25:13 ◼   ► couple of good characters in a [TS]

00:25:15 ◼   ► Stephenson book and everyone else sort [TS]

00:25:16 ◼   ► of window dressing and it's everything [TS]

00:25:18 ◼   ► in the service of the plot and you know [TS]

00:25:20 ◼   ► there's a lot of movie mannequins around [TS]

00:25:22 ◼   ► in this he's developed only a few really [TS]

00:25:25 ◼   ► good simultaneous plots and a whole [TS]

00:25:27 ◼   ► bunch of really great characters and [TS]

00:25:30 ◼   ► sort of moves them all around the board [TS]

00:25:31 ◼   ► so sometimes you have things like the [TS]

00:25:33 ◼   ► video game being predominant and your [TS]

00:25:35 ◼   ► focus on very plot e sorts of things [TS]

00:25:37 ◼   ► understand the way of the world he's got [TS]

00:25:39 ◼   ► this whole thing going on we're trying [TS]

00:25:40 ◼   ► to the wharf realignment on the side and [TS]

00:25:42 ◼   ► then you've got all the stuff where it's [TS]

00:25:44 ◼   ► very strongly character-driven like this [TS]

00:25:46 ◼   ► is not how you would imagine someone [TS]

00:25:47 ◼   ► would write the scene but this is how [TS]

00:25:49 ◼   ► would probably play out like Azula and [TS]

00:25:51 ◼   ► Abdullah stuff where she actually [TS]

00:25:53 ◼   ► respects her because she's on her AGame [TS]

00:25:55 ◼   ► right she's somebody who if she were [TS]

00:25:59 ◼   ► inside he'd be absolutely pleased to [TS]

00:26:01 ◼   ► have you know working with him so one of [TS]

00:26:04 ◼   ► the things that are this that did remind [TS]

00:26:08 ◼   ► me of other neal stephenson stuff you [TS]

00:26:09 ◼   ► mentioned the boat there are there are [TS]

00:26:11 ◼   ► segments one of things i always liked [TS]

00:26:13 ◼   ► about him and especially the baroque [TS]

00:26:14 ◼   ► cycle is there there are segments of of [TS]

00:26:17 ◼   ► the books he writes that he willfully [TS]

00:26:19 ◼   ► commits to and that they they take on a [TS]

00:26:22 ◼   ► life of their own and they're not that [TS]

00:26:25 ◼   ► important to book and he could just move [TS]

00:26:26 ◼   ► things along and say you know suffice it [TS]

00:26:29 ◼   ► to say they were on a boat and a boat [TS]

00:26:31 ◼   ► scene struck me as that it's like it [TS]

00:26:34 ◼   ► suddenly we're in a totally different [TS]

00:26:35 ◼   ► book which is there are people and [TS]

00:26:37 ◼   ► they're stuck in a boat and they have no [TS]

00:26:38 ◼   ► gas and they're drifting in the South [TS]

00:26:40 ◼   ► China Sea and that none of them know how [TS]

00:26:42 ◼   ► to be on a boat and they don't know [TS]

00:26:44 ◼   ► and that was great and it's so you know [TS]

00:26:48 ◼   ► again that's like a whole very well [TS]

00:26:50 ◼   ► first off it's practically life of pi [TS]

00:26:52 ◼   ► but it's it's there you know and he [TS]

00:26:55 ◼   ► commits to it and and those characters [TS]

00:26:56 ◼   ► and we've invested in you know that he [TS]

00:26:59 ◼   ► doesn't get that shirt ripped and I feel [TS]

00:27:01 ◼   ► I felt like that when they when they [TS]

00:27:02 ◼   ► crash-land the jet in in canada in the [TS]

00:27:05 ◼   ► snowy back reina de yeah and they had [TS]

00:27:08 ◼   ► and they find a you know like I'm [TS]

00:27:09 ◼   ► disused you know shut down like mining [TS]

00:27:13 ◼   ► camp and they're there for a while and [TS]

00:27:16 ◼   ► then they been and then the guys come [TS]

00:27:18 ◼   ► back and they've killed some people and [TS]

00:27:19 ◼   ► stolen there's there there's smoke truck [TS]

00:27:22 ◼   ► or whatever and then they use that that [TS]

00:27:24 ◼   ► was fully committed to in a way that i [TS]

00:27:27 ◼   ► really like how he can kind of take the [TS]

00:27:29 ◼   ► set pieces and compartmentalize them and [TS]

00:27:31 ◼   ► and really commit to them so that you [TS]

00:27:34 ◼   ► get engrossed and and it's really you [TS]

00:27:36 ◼   ► know i said this about a few authors [TS]

00:27:39 ◼   ► that i really like it feels like that [TS]

00:27:40 ◼   ► could be a whole books worth of an idea [TS]

00:27:42 ◼   ► and he just tosses it off as you know a [TS]

00:27:45 ◼   ► couple hundred pages inside this or a [TS]

00:27:47 ◼   ► hundred pages inside this thousand-page [TS]

00:27:49 ◼   ► book [TS]

00:27:50 ◼   ► well that's the same thing with the with [TS]

00:27:51 ◼   ► the word realignment I mean ready player [TS]

00:27:53 ◼   ► one you know would have fit neatly [TS]

00:27:55 ◼   ► inside a few chapters of this book in [TS]

00:27:57 ◼   ► terms of the amount of plot [TS]

00:27:59 ◼   ► sophistication and the length [TS]

00:28:01 ◼   ► yeah yeah ready player one through five [TS]

00:28:04 ◼   ► importantly that's the thing that [TS]

00:28:06 ◼   ► strikes me about Stephenson having read [TS]

00:28:07 ◼   ► 2.55 of his novels I is oriental decimal [TS]

00:28:13 ◼   ► places well i know well as iphone pages [TS]

00:28:16 ◼   ► but it's interesting because a lot of a [TS]

00:28:19 ◼   ► lot of the time when i was reading this [TS]

00:28:21 ◼   ► book and then we're not was also reading [TS]

00:28:22 ◼   ► snow crash and now cryptonomicon it [TS]

00:28:25 ◼   ► feels like if he had wanted to this [TS]

00:28:28 ◼   ► could very easily been a george RR [TS]

00:28:29 ◼   ► martin let's write five or six books [TS]

00:28:31 ◼   ► about this topic but Stephenson phone [TS]

00:28:34 ◼   ► seems to find a way to craft a coherent [TS]

00:28:37 ◼   ► narrative over the course of one book [TS]

00:28:39 ◼   ► that doesn't necessarily feel like he [TS]

00:28:40 ◼   ► should be chopping it up into segments [TS]

00:28:43 ◼   ► which I find interesting is a lot of [TS]

00:28:47 ◼   ► mechanisms running I think that's the [TS]

00:28:49 ◼   ► thing is he's a he's an incredible [TS]

00:28:50 ◼   ► watchmaker in his worst books the hot [TS]

00:28:53 ◼   ► springs go out of control and destroy [TS]

00:28:55 ◼   ► the inside your kind of left with like [TS]

00:28:56 ◼   ► what the [TS]

00:28:57 ◼   ► like the end of cryptonomicon i will not [TS]

00:28:59 ◼   ► spoil it for you ready I'm left going [TS]

00:29:01 ◼   ► like there were a lot of plots and they [TS]

00:29:03 ◼   ► all unraveled at the end I never felt [TS]

00:29:05 ◼   ► like a Stephenson's worse problems while [TS]

00:29:07 ◼   ► he was bad attending yeah always been [TS]

00:29:09 ◼   ► bad endings [TS]

00:29:10 ◼   ► he's all like he's gotten he's gotten [TS]

00:29:12 ◼   ► better i mean i think i think baroque [TS]

00:29:14 ◼   ► cycle through an M through 3d he's shown [TS]

00:29:18 ◼   ► progress in each of those I was not [TS]

00:29:20 ◼   ► horribly disappointed at the end of this [TS]

00:29:22 ◼   ► is like it's what i would say obviously [TS]

00:29:24 ◼   ► it was like 40 disappointed culminates [TS]

00:29:26 ◼   ► in a huge climactic fight right like you [TS]

00:29:28 ◼   ► know just exactly what you expect to get [TS]

00:29:30 ◼   ► a nice little day newmont at the end [TS]

00:29:31 ◼   ► where it sort of wraps up what happens [TS]

00:29:33 ◼   ► to the characters in case you're curious [TS]

00:29:34 ◼   ► that's right and and that's that like [TS]

00:29:36 ◼   ► you know he's I think you know knowing [TS]

00:29:38 ◼   ► when to stop has always been his problem [TS]

00:29:41 ◼   ► and I think either he's got a you know [TS]

00:29:42 ◼   ► an editor who's like hey Neal you got [TS]

00:29:44 ◼   ► plenty here this is good wrap it up or [TS]

00:29:46 ◼   ► he's just sort of figured out like oh [TS]

00:29:48 ◼   ► yeah I've come to the end here I was [TS]

00:29:50 ◼   ► really impressed about how the [TS]

00:29:52 ◼   ► ridiculous amount of plot and the [TS]

00:29:54 ◼   ► ridiculous amount of characters kind of [TS]

00:29:56 ◼   ► came together at the end because you [TS]

00:29:58 ◼   ► really you have them coming from all [TS]

00:29:59 ◼   ► angles you even have Marlon yuxia you [TS]

00:30:02 ◼   ► have them winding up in the same place [TS]

00:30:04 ◼   ► in Iowa it's just impressive how how he [TS]

00:30:08 ◼   ► makes the travels and the fact that like [TS]

00:30:10 ◼   ► through this entire book I had no clue [TS]

00:30:13 ◼   ► what was going to happen next [TS]

00:30:15 ◼   ► couldn't even fathom it I assumed like [TS]

00:30:17 ◼   ► with the terrorists all right they're [TS]

00:30:19 ◼   ► going to get to Canada and maybe the US [TS]

00:30:20 ◼   ► but the rest of the characters no idea [TS]

00:30:24 ◼   ► well he you find that later again if you [TS]

00:30:26 ◼   ► if i have the gumption someday to read [TS]

00:30:28 ◼   ► this book i have read and then I think [TS]

00:30:30 ◼   ► two or three times and there are lots of [TS]

00:30:32 ◼   ► breadcrumb see plants when officers [TS]

00:30:34 ◼   ► tried before shot to win but she [TS]

00:30:35 ◼   ► realized this like going back and [TS]

00:30:37 ◼   ► looking a little bit like oh yeah you [TS]

00:30:38 ◼   ► know back there in the first scene he's [TS]

00:30:40 ◼   ► planting the seed you know yeah he was a [TS]

00:30:41 ◼   ► of Richard was a drug runner he figured [TS]

00:30:44 ◼   ► out this great way to get through the [TS]

00:30:45 ◼   ► border without having to build its own [TS]

00:30:46 ◼   ► tunnels and so you know over that period [TS]

00:30:49 ◼   ► of time it's like you realize oh that's [TS]

00:30:51 ◼   ► where his brother settle to sort of the [TS]

00:30:52 ◼   ► black black black sheep of the family [TS]

00:30:54 ◼   ► the one is really far out there and as [TS]

00:30:57 ◼   ► you go along you realize these [TS]

00:30:58 ◼   ► converging all of these crumbs to the [TS]

00:31:00 ◼   ► resort in the north side of this tunnel [TS]

00:31:02 ◼   ► and the homesteading people the [TS]

00:31:05 ◼   ► fundamentalist on the south side and you [TS]

00:31:07 ◼   ► can sort of feel it all sort of coming [TS]

00:31:09 ◼   ► together and it's going to all pass [TS]

00:31:10 ◼   ► do that through that tunnel one way or [TS]

00:31:12 ◼   ► the other looks like a GPS right you [TS]

00:31:14 ◼   ► know point and you've no point being [TS]

00:31:16 ◼   ► that you have no idea what route it's [TS]

00:31:17 ◼   ► actually going to take so here's my [TS]

00:31:20 ◼   ► here's my highfalutin analysis of this [TS]

00:31:23 ◼   ► which is I was struck by how much of [TS]

00:31:28 ◼   ► this book is about people being [TS]

00:31:31 ◼   ► culturally out of place it in in a in a [TS]

00:31:38 ◼   ► foreign culture or out of alignment with [TS]

00:31:41 ◼   ► their culture and i'll just run off a [TS]

00:31:43 ◼   ► few examples you have the war of [TS]

00:31:45 ◼   ► realignment which is all about people [TS]

00:31:46 ◼   ► forming cultures and drawing lines [TS]

00:31:48 ◼   ► between themselves that that actually [TS]

00:31:50 ◼   ► comes out of this universe built by d [TS]

00:31:55 ◼   ► squared which is then a lived-in by [TS]

00:31:59 ◼   ► Skeletor who does not really have the [TS]

00:32:01 ◼   ► same he doesn't really match it but on a [TS]

00:32:05 ◼   ► personal level you get zula who is a an [TS]

00:32:09 ◼   ► African child adopted by white people in [TS]

00:32:12 ◼   ► in America you've got Abdullah Jones who [TS]

00:32:17 ◼   ► is a I believe in african descent [TS]

00:32:21 ◼   ► Welshman who converts to Islam and [TS]

00:32:25 ◼   ► becomes a jihadist you've got Olivia who [TS]

00:32:29 ◼   ► is an Englishwoman of Chinese descent [TS]

00:32:32 ◼   ► which allows her to be turned into an [TS]

00:32:34 ◼   ► operative for mi6 in Asia even though [TS]

00:32:38 ◼   ► she's very English you've got Richard [TS]

00:32:41 ◼   ► and Richards brothers who are both sort [TS]

00:32:45 ◼   ► of like disaffected from culture the [TS]

00:32:48 ◼   ► brothers are totally cut off from [TS]

00:32:50 ◼   ► american society basically living in [TS]

00:32:52 ◼   ► this homestead Richard is cut off from [TS]

00:32:54 ◼   ► his family you know you've got it goes [TS]

00:32:58 ◼   ► on and on the these where where so many [TS]

00:33:00 ◼   ► people and so many situations in this [TS]

00:33:02 ◼   ► book are about people who are not i mean [TS]

00:33:07 ◼   ► on one level it's just they're not quite [TS]

00:33:08 ◼   ► what you'd expect they're not quite [TS]

00:33:11 ◼   ► they don't fit the mold but I think [TS]

00:33:12 ◼   ► that's purposeful that that a lot of [TS]

00:33:15 ◼   ► this almost everybody in this is [TS]

00:33:17 ◼   ► somebody who is that what you show is [TS]

00:33:20 ◼   ► from another part of China and has and [TS]

00:33:23 ◼   ► culturally is complete [TS]

00:33:24 ◼   ► really different from where she ends up [TS]

00:33:25 ◼   ► and and she's missing lines like [TS]

00:33:27 ◼   ► everybody in this book is a round peg [TS]

00:33:30 ◼   ► strut that stuck in a square hole you [TS]

00:33:33 ◼   ► and you get this with be scared Scotty [TS]

00:33:35 ◼   ► squared and skeletor you already sort of [TS]

00:33:36 ◼   ► mentioned d squared C squared the whole [TS]

00:33:38 ◼   ► land and well and nobody's going to tag [TS]

00:33:41 ◼   ► d squared is never as d square never [TS]

00:33:43 ◼   ► play the video game and your is getting [TS]

00:33:45 ◼   ► dragged and totally invested in there to [TS]

00:33:47 ◼   ► build up contingency legions and [TS]

00:33:49 ◼   ► skeletor doesn't know this highfalutin [TS]

00:33:51 ◼   ► literary work because he's a whole pack [TS]

00:33:54 ◼   ► and he gets dragged into this thing with [TS]

00:33:56 ◼   ► arguments about apostrophes right right [TS]

00:33:58 ◼   ► but anyway I think I think it's good you [TS]

00:34:00 ◼   ► know I think Stephenson is that that's [TS]

00:34:03 ◼   ► certainly an undercurrent here is that [TS]

00:34:04 ◼   ► the these are all about people who are [TS]

00:34:07 ◼   ► in who are not sort of what you'd expect [TS]

00:34:09 ◼   ► in the role that therein and a and i [TS]

00:34:14 ◼   ► love that I i think that i think that's [TS]

00:34:16 ◼   ► great but I i think it's got to be the [TS]

00:34:18 ◼   ► most obvious examples being sulla and [TS]

00:34:20 ◼   ► Abdallah Jones who are not if they're [TS]

00:34:25 ◼   ► not from where they're from and that [TS]

00:34:27 ◼   ► some says something about that's part of [TS]

00:34:30 ◼   ► their character and I think that's [TS]

00:34:31 ◼   ► really interesting [TS]

00:34:32 ◼   ► I mean but in database root for writing [TS]

00:34:34 ◼   ► it creates tension right because they're [TS]

00:34:36 ◼   ► different from all the people around [TS]

00:34:37 ◼   ► them and that creates conflict and [TS]

00:34:39 ◼   ► that's what drives the plot forward [TS]

00:34:40 ◼   ► everybody's in that situation in this [TS]

00:34:41 ◼   ► book that's why I think it's more than [TS]

00:34:43 ◼   ► just him structuring it for conflict i [TS]

00:34:45 ◼   ► think that he's he's trying to do this [TS]

00:34:48 ◼   ► on purpose to have it this this book is [TS]

00:34:50 ◼   ► in some way I think about being somebody [TS]

00:34:53 ◼   ► who's out of place right down to the [TS]

00:34:55 ◼   ► fact of somebody who doesn't understand [TS]

00:34:56 ◼   ► an MMO can't really understand what's [TS]

00:34:59 ◼   ► going on inside the MMO because they are [TS]

00:35:00 ◼   ► not they don't fit in the culture it's [TS]

00:35:03 ◼   ► all a cultural misfit even though even [TS]

00:35:05 ◼   ► though the Russian even Ivana is kind of [TS]

00:35:09 ◼   ► like broken he his bosses don't you know [TS]

00:35:12 ◼   ► he's not behaving properly he doesn't [TS]

00:35:14 ◼   ► fit in anymore and sokoloff doesn't [TS]

00:35:16 ◼   ► really fit anymore because he's got this [TS]

00:35:18 ◼   ► job but he doesn't really clearly he [TS]

00:35:20 ◼   ► doesn't really fit what they're asking [TS]

00:35:21 ◼   ► him to do which is it goes on and on it [TS]

00:35:23 ◼   ► and it i just kept being fascinated by [TS]

00:35:25 ◼   ► finding that every single person views [TS]

00:35:27 ◼   ► themselves as being like disaffected [TS]

00:35:29 ◼   ► from the the job they're in or the [TS]

00:35:31 ◼   ► culture there in or they're different in [TS]

00:35:33 ◼   ► some way you know and i I just I I [TS]

00:35:36 ◼   ► that was that's my that's my take on it [TS]

00:35:39 ◼   ► I don't like to talk about some of the [TS]

00:35:41 ◼   ► characters we didn't like or like you [TS]

00:35:45 ◼   ► know there are some characters that were [TS]

00:35:46 ◼   ► disposable like Peter I think Peter the [TS]

00:35:49 ◼   ► boyfriend as my boyfriend is great [TS]

00:35:50 ◼   ► because he's sort of unlikable when you [TS]

00:35:52 ◼   ► meet him and you figure well you know [TS]

00:35:54 ◼   ► the character development [TS]

00:35:55 ◼   ► we're gonna learn to understand why we [TS]

00:35:56 ◼   ► should like him it's like no he's kind [TS]

00:35:58 ◼   ► of a jerk he makes really bad decisions [TS]

00:36:01 ◼   ► and they get worse and worse and finally [TS]

00:36:03 ◼   ► he when he's killed i gotta say i love [TS]

00:36:06 ◼   ► the fact that Ivana is like [TS]

00:36:09 ◼   ► indifferently at times a gentleman and [TS]

00:36:11 ◼   ► he thinks doula is worthy of respect [TS]

00:36:12 ◼   ► because of how she comports herself and [TS]

00:36:14 ◼   ► her intelligence and he even off despite [TS]

00:36:17 ◼   ► being in this situation where he's crazy [TS]

00:36:19 ◼   ► and he's lost all this money from the [TS]

00:36:20 ◼   ► consortium he represents that is chasing [TS]

00:36:23 ◼   ► to China he still trying to defend that [TS]

00:36:25 ◼   ► notion so Peter is killed [TS]

00:36:27 ◼   ► not because Peter did something wrong or [TS]

00:36:29 ◼   ► croston he's killed because Yvonne up is [TS]

00:36:32 ◼   ► offended that Peter has left his [TS]

00:36:34 ◼   ► girlfriend chained by yvonne off [TS]

00:36:36 ◼   ► downstairs to die and Peter should be [TS]

00:36:38 ◼   ► there [TS]

00:36:39 ◼   ► why does Peter steal the credit cards [TS]

00:36:42 ◼   ► that gets him in this also he's got he's [TS]

00:36:43 ◼   ► behind it's a mortgage thing days under [TS]

00:36:46 ◼   ► these underwater he's underwater and [TS]

00:36:48 ◼   ► he's worried he's gonna lose his loft [TS]

00:36:49 ◼   ► and by extension that means that you [TS]

00:36:50 ◼   ► can't run the thing is doing its like [TS]

00:36:52 ◼   ► it's it's not that well defined but i [TS]

00:36:54 ◼   ► think it's sort of supposed to be this [TS]

00:36:55 ◼   ► like a bad reason [TS]

00:36:56 ◼   ► well you haven't had a very casual thing [TS]

00:36:58 ◼   ► instead of borrowing money from people [TS]

00:37:00 ◼   ► selling it [TS]

00:37:01 ◼   ► filing for bankruptcy is like when I [TS]

00:37:02 ◼   ► used to do this I know how to do it [TS]

00:37:04 ◼   ► I'm going to do one last haul my last [TS]

00:37:07 ◼   ► job that I retire and causes everything [TS]

00:37:09 ◼   ► else to happen [TS]

00:37:10 ◼   ► yeah a sort of blend you do blend is the [TS]

00:37:12 ◼   ► other thing is the thing that set this [TS]

00:37:13 ◼   ► all in motion of course is Peter on the [TS]

00:37:14 ◼   ► one hand then Richard who completely [TS]

00:37:16 ◼   ► essentially innocently spreads rindy the [TS]

00:37:19 ◼   ► virus so that it it triggers this event [TS]

00:37:22 ◼   ► Peters callousness the casualness of can [TS]

00:37:24 ◼   ► you give me a USB stick he hands in one [TS]

00:37:26 ◼   ► and then that's where everything goes [TS]

00:37:28 ◼   ► right don't forget don't forget Wallace [TS]

00:37:31 ◼   ► in there to write the match has been lit [TS]

00:37:32 ◼   ► a fleeting character who and yet we've [TS]

00:37:35 ◼   ► got that chain right Wallace gives way [TS]

00:37:37 ◼   ► to Avon of gives way to Jones you know [TS]

00:37:40 ◼   ► and sort of you know everything goes [TS]

00:37:42 ◼   ► downhill from there [TS]

00:37:43 ◼   ► I like Wallace though as as briefly as [TS]

00:37:46 ◼   ► we see him as well as long as you last [TS]

00:37:48 ◼   ► yeah yeah I was surprised that the ex [TS]

00:37:50 ◼   ► we killed by the mob the monster who is [TS]

00:37:52 ◼   ► also the gamer I do kind of enjoy that [TS]

00:37:54 ◼   ► enjoy that there is a rent like i enjoy [TS]

00:37:55 ◼   ► that sort of bizarreness that bed comes [TS]

00:37:58 ◼   ► with this fact that like you know at the [TS]

00:37:59 ◼   ► view hand-waving oh it's a game it's [TS]

00:38:01 ◼   ► really popular more popular in World of [TS]

00:38:02 ◼   ► Warcraft and the people that we see [TS]

00:38:04 ◼   ► playing it include the bookkeeper for [TS]

00:38:07 ◼   ► the mob basically we get the name is [TS]

00:38:11 ◼   ► Kelly realize it shames yeah the CIA [TS]

00:38:13 ◼   ► operative I was thinking even just a [TS]

00:38:14 ◼   ► throwaway character that Richard sees in [TS]

00:38:16 ◼   ► the diner and he looks over he's like a [TS]

00:38:18 ◼   ► coffee shop out visiting Skeletor right [TS]

00:38:20 ◼   ► and there's a guy playing t rain and so [TS]

00:38:22 ◼   ► he calls up you know his buddy at the at [TS]

00:38:25 ◼   ► the office and says oh yeah how many [TS]

00:38:26 ◼   ► people are logged on from this diner [TS]

00:38:28 ◼   ► whatever like we got the impression that [TS]

00:38:29 ◼   ► there's people out there in the middle [TS]

00:38:30 ◼   ► of no Missouri or wherever he is [TS]

00:38:32 ◼   ► visiting this guy who are playing this [TS]

00:38:34 ◼   ► game this game is huge i can we talk [TS]

00:38:36 ◼   ► let's talk about the word realign middle [TS]

00:38:37 ◼   ► because I think that's an extremely [TS]

00:38:39 ◼   ► interesting development in here which is [TS]

00:38:42 ◼   ► to say basically they end up so like any [TS]

00:38:46 ◼   ► you know game of this sort of a sort of [TS]

00:38:48 ◼   ► you know promulgated on the idea that [TS]

00:38:49 ◼   ► we've got good we got your characters [TS]

00:38:52 ◼   ► and evil characters whether it's by A&E [TS]

00:38:53 ◼   ► or something like warcraft you can be on [TS]

00:38:55 ◼   ► the enzyme and all the sudden you know [TS]

00:38:57 ◼   ► there is this sort of interesting [TS]

00:38:58 ◼   ► realization that it doesn't really make [TS]

00:38:59 ◼   ► sense because the people who are quote [TS]

00:39:01 ◼   ► unquote evil aren't doing anything [TS]

00:39:04 ◼   ► particular different from the people at [TS]

00:39:06 ◼   ► work photon quote good so it's an [TS]

00:39:08 ◼   ► arbitrary distinction actually says the [TS]

00:39:10 ◼   ► same coin but they need it right because [TS]

00:39:12 ◼   ► it makes the tension it makes the [TS]

00:39:14 ◼   ► conflict in the game and so this war of [TS]

00:39:17 ◼   ► realignment is shifting from instead of [TS]

00:39:19 ◼   ► it being about good versus evil [TS]

00:39:21 ◼   ► it's about something very different and [TS]

00:39:23 ◼   ► I think you know without sort of delving [TS]

00:39:24 ◼   ► directly into it i think it's about [TS]

00:39:26 ◼   ► taste right now that's what it kind of [TS]

00:39:28 ◼   ► comes down and it emerges from it it [TS]

00:39:31 ◼   ► emerges from the game it's not intended [TS]

00:39:33 ◼   ► by the game and it emerges from the fact [TS]

00:39:35 ◼   ► that the game is being played by human [TS]

00:39:38 ◼   ► beings who have differences and [TS]

00:39:40 ◼   ► different worldviews that go way beyond [TS]

00:39:43 ◼   ► picking when you set up the game well [TS]

00:39:45 ◼   ► i'm going to be evil because I want to [TS]

00:39:46 ◼   ► be one of those cool characters that's [TS]

00:39:47 ◼   ► only available in evil [TS]

00:39:49 ◼   ► well I think it kind of reflects on the [TS]

00:39:50 ◼   ► game itself because when you think about [TS]

00:39:52 ◼   ► the the reason why terrain was created [TS]

00:39:54 ◼   ► in the first place is Richard basically [TS]

00:39:56 ◼   ► says well you know why was popular and [TS]

00:39:59 ◼   ► that's great but this basically gives us [TS]

00:40:01 ◼   ► a way to monetize all [TS]

00:40:03 ◼   ► these chinese gold farmers and make gold [TS]

00:40:05 ◼   ► farming an actual legitimate profession [TS]

00:40:07 ◼   ► see already you have that where the [TS]

00:40:10 ◼   ► Americans are playing the game for [TS]

00:40:12 ◼   ► completely different reason than the [TS]

00:40:15 ◼   ► rest of the cut the rest of the world so [TS]

00:40:17 ◼   ► you already have that imbalance and to [TS]

00:40:19 ◼   ► bring in even more well you have the [TS]

00:40:21 ◼   ► people who want to play the game as d [TS]

00:40:24 ◼   ► squared envisioned it you know with you [TS]

00:40:26 ◼   ► know with all old costuming and correct [TS]

00:40:30 ◼   ► colors and things like that and then you [TS]

00:40:31 ◼   ► have and and and this is a real tension [TS]

00:40:33 ◼   ► with a lot of online games where it's [TS]

00:40:35 ◼   ► like there's the people who want to play [TS]

00:40:36 ◼   ► for the like the role-playing story [TS]

00:40:38 ◼   ► elements and then there are the people [TS]

00:40:40 ◼   ► that were there to play you know a [TS]

00:40:41 ◼   ► hack-and-slash game and don't care [TS]

00:40:43 ◼   ► really except the stories just there as [TS]

00:40:45 ◼   ► a crutch right you know the world is [TS]

00:40:47 ◼   ► there's a crunch and then there's the [TS]

00:40:48 ◼   ► other people who are just really into [TS]

00:40:49 ◼   ► everything that's that's you know [TS]

00:40:51 ◼   ► created by that world and and that's a [TS]

00:40:53 ◼   ► very I think that's a very real [TS]

00:40:55 ◼   ► distinction in you know a lot of games [TS]

00:40:57 ◼   ► that exists today and so it's kind of [TS]

00:40:59 ◼   ► fascinating to see that taking on like [TS]

00:41:00 ◼   ► what if those were to become the [TS]

00:41:02 ◼   ► factions and I mean I don't know is [TS]

00:41:04 ◼   ► there is there an implicit sort of class [TS]

00:41:07 ◼   ► warfare almost between them [TS]

00:41:09 ◼   ► given the representations that we get of [TS]

00:41:11 ◼   ► like Donald and Devin you know as the [TS]

00:41:14 ◼   ► two polarizing figures [TS]

00:41:16 ◼   ► oh it certainly seems like adequately oh [TS]

00:41:18 ◼   ► one of them lives in a castle and the [TS]

00:41:20 ◼   ► other was in the trail [TS]

00:41:21 ◼   ► yeah good point it's an excellent like [TS]

00:41:24 ◼   ► they're both kind of majestic [TS]

00:41:26 ◼   ► infrastructures in their own ways [TS]

00:41:28 ◼   ► well and they're both kind of jackasses [TS]

00:41:30 ◼   ► right i remember reading a remembering [TS]

00:41:31 ◼   ► lord of the rings and then sort of [TS]

00:41:33 ◼   ► Shannara and you know if I refined [TS]

00:41:36 ◼   ► childhood recollections right so there's [TS]

00:41:38 ◼   ► different kinds of things like sort of [TS]

00:41:39 ◼   ► Shinar like yeah there was a mythos i [TS]

00:41:40 ◼   ► think i got develop more but it was [TS]

00:41:42 ◼   ► really like a big hack him up [TS]

00:41:44 ◼   ► it was much more of a hack them up [TS]

00:41:45 ◼   ► Vision Quest you know broad strokes [TS]

00:41:47 ◼   ► thing versus you know for like a book [TS]

00:41:49 ◼   ► created in order to enshrine languages [TS]

00:41:52 ◼   ► with a grammar that a cut cambridge dawn [TS]

00:41:54 ◼   ► had developed and attracts different [TS]

00:41:56 ◼   ► people some people want first-person [TS]

00:41:57 ◼   ► shooters that they just kill lots of [TS]

00:42:00 ◼   ► stuff and I mean penny arcade the comic [TS]

00:42:02 ◼   ► is constantly full of basically that [TS]

00:42:04 ◼   ► tension between this is a really subtle [TS]

00:42:06 ◼   ► game and look we have these scrolls and [TS]

00:42:08 ◼   ► plant that kills y'all kill John [TS]

00:42:10 ◼   ► and that's I think that's a constant [TS]

00:42:12 ◼   ► tension between the sophistication of [TS]

00:42:15 ◼   ► some aspects of game design and this [TS]

00:42:18 ◼   ► desire to be highfalutin you know here's [TS]

00:42:19 ◼   ► a virtual environment which we could do [TS]

00:42:21 ◼   ► anything so why we just shooting people [TS]

00:42:22 ◼   ► but it's like the constant arguments [TS]

00:42:24 ◼   ► that we get over whether or not video [TS]

00:42:25 ◼   ► games are art right you know Roger Ebert [TS]

00:42:29 ◼   ► i know has delved into that pool and a [TS]

00:42:31 ◼   ► variety of other people as well but is [TS]

00:42:33 ◼   ► that idea is it is there some sort of [TS]

00:42:35 ◼   ► higher can it can it reach a higher [TS]

00:42:37 ◼   ► realm or is it just about killing people [TS]

00:42:39 ◼   ► or is there are inherent in the idea of [TS]

00:42:42 ◼   ► something even if it's just about [TS]

00:42:43 ◼   ► killing people like you know that again [TS]

00:42:45 ◼   ► this could be a whole book and yet it's [TS]

00:42:47 ◼   ► sort of ends up being falls by the [TS]

00:42:49 ◼   ► wayside as Randy progresses i have to [TS]

00:42:52 ◼   ► say that I one thing i like about this [TS]

00:42:54 ◼   ► novelties i'm assuming because of the [TS]

00:42:56 ◼   ► way Neal Stephenson works that I learned [TS]

00:42:58 ◼   ► a lot this was a day after school [TS]

00:43:00 ◼   ► special about the Russian mob and [TS]

00:43:02 ◼   ► chinese people living in different parts [TS]

00:43:05 ◼   ► of the country and British Columbia's [TS]

00:43:07 ◼   ► byways and highways you know what he was [TS]

00:43:09 ◼   ► writing long features for wired like I [TS]

00:43:11 ◼   ► believe he traveled around the world [TS]

00:43:12 ◼   ► possibly twice once to follow [TS]

00:43:15 ◼   ► fiber-optic and where it was being built [TS]

00:43:16 ◼   ► in weird places like the middle of [TS]

00:43:18 ◼   ► indonesian jungles and and another time [TS]

00:43:21 ◼   ► we followed container ships you know [TS]

00:43:23 ◼   ► like what it was the unit of container [TS]

00:43:24 ◼   ► and how its developed and where they go [TS]

00:43:26 ◼   ► and I feel like this is kind of the [TS]

00:43:28 ◼   ► equivalent equivalent of that but it's [TS]

00:43:30 ◼   ► the he went the the the detail is so [TS]

00:43:33 ◼   ► refined [TS]

00:43:34 ◼   ► I don't believe he made it up everybody [TS]

00:43:36 ◼   ► here played massively multiplayer games [TS]

00:43:39 ◼   ► before and not massively I'm not that I [TS]

00:43:43 ◼   ► heavily now I mean I played games that [TS]

00:43:45 ◼   ► have that multiplayer element the same [TS]

00:43:48 ◼   ► serve you know like an MMORPG minus the [TS]

00:43:50 ◼   ► first and that's not what you say I've [TS]

00:43:53 ◼   ► played World of Warcraft once or twice [TS]

00:43:55 ◼   ► alright wow I I'm i love you i have a [TS]

00:43:59 ◼   ► little bit i played in the beta of world [TS]

00:44:01 ◼   ► of warcraft which I realizes now since [TS]

00:44:03 ◼   ► that was when my son was in utero that's [TS]

00:44:05 ◼   ► like seven years ago now that their 7th [TS]

00:44:08 ◼   ► anniversary i believe Josh my wife [TS]

00:44:10 ◼   ► played that much more than me actually [TS]

00:44:12 ◼   ► and then and then she had a baby and [TS]

00:44:14 ◼   ► then there were two children and that [TS]

00:44:15 ◼   ► was that for World of Warcraft but sort [TS]

00:44:17 ◼   ► of a lot more time we did play at some [TS]

00:44:19 ◼   ► and and and that gave me enough of a [TS]

00:44:21 ◼   ► perspective on it I think 22 to get [TS]

00:44:24 ◼   ► it's about but I wonder what that would [TS]

00:44:26 ◼   ► be does this book make as much sense do [TS]

00:44:29 ◼   ► you feel if you've never really played [TS]

00:44:31 ◼   ► those games do you feel as if you [TS]

00:44:33 ◼   ► understand what they're about by reading [TS]

00:44:35 ◼   ► this doesn't have that kind of tour you [TS]

00:44:37 ◼   ► know I'd feel speaking as someone who's [TS]

00:44:39 ◼   ► never played an actual MMO but has [TS]

00:44:42 ◼   ► played a lot of other games i think [TS]

00:44:44 ◼   ► there's stuff that translates even in [TS]

00:44:47 ◼   ► that two other you know from other sorts [TS]

00:44:49 ◼   ► of gaming or for other interactions with [TS]

00:44:51 ◼   ► people it there are very recognizable [TS]

00:44:54 ◼   ► ideas in here and it's not a huge [TS]

00:44:56 ◼   ► stretch in you you know especially [TS]

00:44:57 ◼   ► someone who's universe kind of in gaming [TS]

00:44:59 ◼   ► culture like I'm familiar enough with [TS]

00:45:01 ◼   ► the tropes and thing and an element so [TS]

00:45:03 ◼   ► that make up an MMO to sort of recognize [TS]

00:45:06 ◼   ► them here and it seems pretty clear you [TS]

00:45:07 ◼   ► know that this is a pretty accurate [TS]

00:45:09 ◼   ► description of what goes on and it's not [TS]

00:45:13 ◼   ► hard to extrapolate you know the kind of [TS]

00:45:15 ◼   ► people that you're going to run into [TS]

00:45:16 ◼   ► people like you know the trolls right [TS]

00:45:18 ◼   ► who are there to just sort of do you [TS]

00:45:21 ◼   ► know cause havoc to a certain extent and [TS]

00:45:24 ◼   ► and proper rivers understand right yeah [TS]

00:45:26 ◼   ► the griefers and you know all that I [TS]

00:45:28 ◼   ► mean that's really interesting and I [TS]

00:45:29 ◼   ► think I think what's fascinating to me [TS]

00:45:31 ◼   ► about the world of T rain as its [TS]

00:45:34 ◼   ► described is the sort of key that [TS]

00:45:36 ◼   ► Richard hooks into in coming up with it [TS]

00:45:39 ◼   ► which is let's take gold farming and [TS]

00:45:42 ◼   ► legitimize it and and build our game [TS]

00:45:45 ◼   ► around it right and not only do that but [TS]

00:45:48 ◼   ► like you know basically in order to make [TS]

00:45:51 ◼   ► sure that it works [TS]

00:45:52 ◼   ► duplicate the exact same sort of [TS]

00:45:54 ◼   ► structures that we deal with in real [TS]

00:45:55 ◼   ► life if you had to farm gold what makes [TS]

00:45:58 ◼   ► sense i mean it's if you if you're going [TS]

00:46:00 ◼   ► to produce that kind of a game you need [TS]

00:46:02 ◼   ► that kind of a structure to back it up [TS]

00:46:04 ◼   ► you can't just randomly put gold there [TS]

00:46:06 ◼   ► because somebody is going to figure out [TS]

00:46:08 ◼   ► the algorithms and Exploited right but [TS]

00:46:11 ◼   ► you wouldn't have to explain that in a [TS]

00:46:12 ◼   ► book write and say like all the others [TS]

00:46:13 ◼   ► golden shows up with you get into how it [TS]

00:46:16 ◼   ► works and it's fascinating [TS]

00:46:18 ◼   ► I've never done an important either so i [TS]

00:46:20 ◼   ► have no idea how they play but I didn't [TS]

00:46:21 ◼   ► feel I don't feel lost in the [TS]

00:46:22 ◼   ► environment but i have to say i like [TS]

00:46:24 ◼   ► again Stephenson is accuracy the fact [TS]

00:46:27 ◼   ► that technical details were accurate was [TS]

00:46:29 ◼   ► awesome especially after reading ready [TS]

00:46:31 ◼   ► player one with impossible you know [TS]

00:46:33 ◼   ► verizon see [TS]

00:46:34 ◼   ► whatever crash yes and it's it borders [TS]

00:46:36 ◼   ► on precondition I i like um one of the [TS]

00:46:40 ◼   ► things that always struck me about about [TS]

00:46:42 ◼   ► world of warcraft is the do you know [TS]

00:46:44 ◼   ► where your character died is unlike him [TS]

00:46:46 ◼   ► in a ready player one when your [TS]

00:46:48 ◼   ► character dies and they're dead and you [TS]

00:46:50 ◼   ► gotta start over [TS]

00:46:51 ◼   ► yeah that would really haha umm you go [TS]

00:46:54 ◼   ► into like a limbo state and you go back [TS]

00:46:56 ◼   ► to where you were uh you know the last [TS]

00:46:58 ◼   ► time off [TS]

00:46:59 ◼   ► yeah you gotta go to run as a ghost and [TS]

00:47:01 ◼   ► go back to you know it's you're [TS]

00:47:04 ◼   ► basically a time penalty when you die [TS]

00:47:06 ◼   ► and so I love how you know it's got its [TS]

00:47:10 ◼   ► got a death mechanism and it's got an [TS]

00:47:12 ◼   ► idol mechanism where Richard when he has [TS]

00:47:14 ◼   ► taken a viewers when ya when he richard [TS]

00:47:17 ◼   ► has taken by abdullah Jones and and [TS]

00:47:19 ◼   ► dragged it basically across the border [TS]

00:47:22 ◼   ► you know the last thing we see is his [TS]

00:47:25 ◼   ► character which is the basically the god [TS]

00:47:27 ◼   ► of terrain is it just auto walking back [TS]

00:47:30 ◼   ► jogging back to his home i love that [TS]

00:47:33 ◼   ► little detail [TS]

00:47:34 ◼   ► yeah I i want to read my my favorite [TS]

00:47:38 ◼   ► little passage from this book which i [TS]

00:47:41 ◼   ► think you may be fine surprised about [TS]

00:47:43 ◼   ► what part of this book it's from but it [TS]

00:47:45 ◼   ► just made me laugh and it's so absurd [TS]

00:47:47 ◼   ► and it's it describing so so donald d [TS]

00:47:51 ◼   ► squared the the highfalutin cambridge [TS]

00:47:55 ◼   ► Don who has his castle on the Isle of [TS]

00:47:58 ◼   ► Man's he it says surrounded himself with [TS]

00:48:02 ◼   ► toadies who are basically Society for [TS]

00:48:05 ◼   ► Creative Anachronism type people and [TS]

00:48:07 ◼   ► he's living as a consultant to a [TS]

00:48:09 ◼   ► high-tech company he's living in a [TS]

00:48:11 ◼   ► castle that is trying to be immaculate [TS]

00:48:13 ◼   ► immaculately medieval so what happens if [TS]

00:48:16 ◼   ► you want to contact him and and they've [TS]

00:48:19 ◼   ► worked it out and this is my favorite [TS]

00:48:20 ◼   ► passage which was like this so the email [TS]

00:48:23 ◼   ► pipeline network like this down and [TS]

00:48:25 ◼   ► Douglas the primary city of the Isle of [TS]

00:48:27 ◼   ► Man the girlfriend of one of the [TS]

00:48:28 ◼   ► medievalists who dwelled in a flat there [TS]

00:48:30 ◼   ► i happen to rather like tampons would [TS]

00:48:32 ◼   ► read these squares email as it came in [TS]

00:48:34 ◼   ► filter out the junk and print out a hard [TS]

00:48:36 ◼   ► copy of anything that seemed important [TS]

00:48:38 ◼   ► and zip it up in a waterproof messenger [TS]

00:48:40 ◼   ► bag when it came time to walk her dog [TS]

00:48:42 ◼   ► she would stroll at the waterfront [TS]

00:48:43 ◼   ► promenade until she reached the wii [TS]

00:48:45 ◼   ► elephant train station its northern end [TS]

00:48:47 ◼   ► where she would have [TS]

00:48:48 ◼   ► the bag to the station nation with later [TS]

00:48:50 ◼   ► handed over to the conductor of the [TS]

00:48:51 ◼   ► narrow-gauge electrical train that wound [TS]

00:48:53 ◼   ► its way from there up to the interior of [TS]

00:48:54 ◼   ► the island at a certain point along the [TS]

00:48:56 ◼   ► line it would be tossed out onto the [TS]

00:48:58 ◼   ► sighting and later picked up by d [TS]

00:48:59 ◼   ► squared is gamekeeper who would carry it [TS]

00:49:01 ◼   ► up the hill and place its contents on [TS]

00:49:03 ◼   ► the desk of the in-house troubadour who [TS]

00:49:05 ◼   ► had translated into medieval on sea [TS]

00:49:07 ◼   ► chicken and then sing and or recited to [TS]

00:49:10 ◼   ► d squared at mealtime the lord of the [TS]

00:49:12 ◼   ► manor within dictate a response that [TS]

00:49:14 ◼   ► would follow the reverse route back down [TS]

00:49:16 ◼   ► the hill to the girlfriends laptop and [TS]

00:49:18 ◼   ► the internet [TS]

00:49:19 ◼   ► oh wow it's a wonderful guy that might [TS]

00:49:23 ◼   ► have been the most unrealistic part of [TS]

00:49:25 ◼   ► the entire but I don't know some people [TS]

00:49:27 ◼   ► actually it's correct their lives to be [TS]

00:49:29 ◼   ► more like that larry ellison is built [TS]

00:49:31 ◼   ► some kind of Japanese reconstruction on [TS]

00:49:32 ◼   ► top of a little pop in woodside so yeah [TS]

00:49:35 ◼   ► in order to get an email to larry [TS]

00:49:36 ◼   ► ellison like me to send in just a few [TS]

00:49:39 ◼   ► actions you actually have to assassinate [TS]

00:49:40 ◼   ► three people to send email larry ellison [TS]

00:49:42 ◼   ► it's pretty takes a big toll so be [TS]

00:49:44 ◼   ► careful as I realize that's ridiculous [TS]

00:49:46 ◼   ► but I mean there are lots of directors [TS]

00:49:48 ◼   ► great it's like great detail but that's [TS]

00:49:50 ◼   ► it so he's created his own kind of [TS]

00:49:52 ◼   ► physical tr8 right space created this [TS]

00:49:53 ◼   ► this replica of an age that never really [TS]

00:49:57 ◼   ► existed [TS]

00:49:58 ◼   ► why go into the internet when you can [TS]

00:49:59 ◼   ► just buy a castle exactly but I love [TS]

00:50:02 ◼   ► that when they need he goes into the you [TS]

00:50:04 ◼   ► know into T rain he doesn't have shoes [TS]

00:50:06 ◼   ► right but he doesn't need to buy them [TS]

00:50:10 ◼   ► because they cost of these like I waste [TS]

00:50:11 ◼   ► money on shoes I don't you choose here [TS]

00:50:13 ◼   ► and that's fascinating know that I mean [TS]

00:50:14 ◼   ► that's an interesting point right [TS]

00:50:16 ◼   ► because the you this is this guy who who [TS]

00:50:18 ◼   ► who insists upon you know authenticity [TS]

00:50:21 ◼   ► right very similar to do like he wants [TS]

00:50:24 ◼   ► to look real and yet when he goes into [TS]

00:50:27 ◼   ► the game it's I don't want to waste [TS]

00:50:28 ◼   ► money on shoes he has very little [TS]

00:50:31 ◼   ► respect for the game at first right but [TS]

00:50:33 ◼   ► it right and that's fascinating because [TS]

00:50:35 ◼   ► it's a divergence and not you know he's [TS]

00:50:38 ◼   ► a snob right like that's essentially [TS]

00:50:39 ◼   ► what he is he looks down on all of this [TS]

00:50:42 ◼   ► and so it's funny though that he forsake [TS]

00:50:44 ◼   ► his own principles to a certain extent [TS]

00:50:46 ◼   ► once he gets immersed in that world [TS]

00:50:48 ◼   ► what's interesting to me there is he's [TS]

00:50:50 ◼   ► completely snobbish about the game until [TS]

00:50:53 ◼   ► Richard basically is like hey look you [TS]

00:50:56 ◼   ► can earn money here you can pay for all [TS]

00:50:59 ◼   ► these wonderful things that you [TS]

00:51:01 ◼   ► I'm putting in your castle and you can [TS]

00:51:03 ◼   ► help us build a world your knowledge of [TS]

00:51:06 ◼   ► this culture is valuable [TS]

00:51:09 ◼   ► right i mean but that essentially [TS]

00:51:10 ◼   ► undermines to a certain extent right [TS]

00:51:12 ◼   ► like because this whole thing is you [TS]

00:51:13 ◼   ► know he didn't last and / yeah exactly [TS]

00:51:16 ◼   ► exactly mr. I mean that six-shot you can [TS]

00:51:18 ◼   ► sell out and make money but go right so [TS]

00:51:21 ◼   ► we're back to that and so he's kind of [TS]

00:51:22 ◼   ► saying that the taste is kind of a low [TS]

00:51:24 ◼   ► in the end right you know like he [TS]

00:51:26 ◼   ► doesn't you know he doesn't necessarily [TS]

00:51:28 ◼   ► the only run skin deep [TS]

00:51:30 ◼   ► well you know and if he's he's a Don [TS]

00:51:32 ◼   ► who's running a food made money ready [TS]

00:51:34 ◼   ► fantasy novels who's already sold out [TS]

00:51:36 ◼   ► right I really didn't see it that way [TS]

00:51:38 ◼   ► right [TS]

00:51:39 ◼   ► he you know he think he like Tolkien [TS]

00:51:40 ◼   ► he's come up with the language and you [TS]

00:51:42 ◼   ► know the whole society and culture you [TS]

00:51:44 ◼   ► know he's kind of like you kind of pic [TS]

00:51:46 ◼   ► from is that guy who desperately wanted [TS]

00:51:48 ◼   ► to be you know respected academically [TS]

00:51:50 ◼   ► but even though he really secretly [TS]

00:51:51 ◼   ► wanted to write all this like trashy [TS]

00:51:53 ◼   ► fantasy so I want to talk about the end [TS]

00:51:56 ◼   ► of the book because it does end in a [TS]

00:51:59 ◼   ► hail of bullets and uh I don't read a [TS]

00:52:03 ◼   ► lot of books that end with this much [TS]

00:52:06 ◼   ► gunplay and there's like a lot of [TS]

00:52:07 ◼   ► detailed I I thought it was strange that [TS]

00:52:10 ◼   ► he was thinking uh experts on ammunition [TS]

00:52:14 ◼   ► and and and weaponry in the [TS]

00:52:17 ◼   ► acknowledgments but no no it i see why [TS]

00:52:20 ◼   ► because it's incredibly detailed in it [TS]

00:52:25 ◼   ► and I just wanted to know what you guys [TS]

00:52:27 ◼   ► thought about the action sequence at the [TS]

00:52:29 ◼   ► end we've gotta chase we have a couple [TS]

00:52:30 ◼   ► different groups coming through the [TS]

00:52:31 ◼   ► mountains there's a helicopter that gets [TS]

00:52:34 ◼   ► shot down by a guy and then somebody [TS]

00:52:37 ◼   ► blow something up but then there's our [TS]

00:52:39 ◼   ► should go to your booby traps in tunnels [TS]

00:52:42 ◼   ► and there's a UH exchange of gunfire on [TS]

00:52:45 ◼   ► a hillside or around like a guy was on [TS]

00:52:47 ◼   ► anymore mind grabbing his chest [TS]

00:52:49 ◼   ► yeah and then and then there's the [TS]

00:52:51 ◼   ► there's that you know the shack and then [TS]

00:52:52 ◼   ► the houses in the settlement and their [TS]

00:52:54 ◼   ► the terrorists coming down from through [TS]

00:52:58 ◼   ► the air coming through the tunnel [TS]

00:52:59 ◼   ► another the other terrorists were coming [TS]

00:53:01 ◼   ► up the street into the neighborhood and [TS]

00:53:04 ◼   ► I mean he has so many pieces and it's [TS]

00:53:08 ◼   ► messy and but it's it is exciting [TS]

00:53:11 ◼   ► um you know it's not what i expected i'm [TS]

00:53:15 ◼   ► just wondering what you guys thought of [TS]

00:53:16 ◼   ► that the the end because the ending [TS]

00:53:18 ◼   ► drops all pretense of being about you [TS]

00:53:20 ◼   ► know p whatever we've said this book is [TS]

00:53:22 ◼   ► about it and in many ways it just comes [TS]

00:53:25 ◼   ► down to people with guns getting in the [TS]

00:53:27 ◼   ► right position so that they can shoot [TS]

00:53:28 ◼   ► other people try mean I I've little I've [TS]

00:53:32 ◼   ► read a lot of tom clancy I've heard a [TS]

00:53:34 ◼   ► few I've read a few tom clancy's and [TS]

00:53:37 ◼   ► there are some tom clancy's that that [TS]

00:53:38 ◼   ► kind of you know the kind of read like [TS]

00:53:40 ◼   ► this it and you know it it's very [TS]

00:53:43 ◼   ► reminiscent of that and yet somehow I [TS]

00:53:45 ◼   ► you know maybe I maybe I just maybe [TS]

00:53:47 ◼   ► myself and caught within that war of [TS]

00:53:49 ◼   ► taste and and wanted to be better than [TS]

00:53:52 ◼   ► that but I mean it is gripped write the [TS]

00:53:56 ◼   ► unit's gripping it's page-turning and I [TS]

00:53:57 ◼   ► think you know he does a very good job [TS]

00:53:59 ◼   ► of sort of not only making it just about [TS]

00:54:02 ◼   ► what the hail of gunfire but also you [TS]

00:54:04 ◼   ► know we do have some some relationship [TS]

00:54:05 ◼   ► stuff going on in these last few pages [TS]

00:54:07 ◼   ► because we have you know Richard [TS]

00:54:09 ◼   ► thinking he's basically you know he's [TS]

00:54:12 ◼   ► toast [TS]

00:54:12 ◼   ► he's just happy that you know he got the [TS]

00:54:14 ◼   ► Sula back and happy that she'll survive [TS]

00:54:17 ◼   ► you know if he doesn't make it out and [TS]

00:54:19 ◼   ► we get you know a number of other [TS]

00:54:21 ◼   ► characters who just sort of are working [TS]

00:54:23 ◼   ► towards some other goal and we get there [TS]

00:54:25 ◼   ► their relationships and interactions [TS]

00:54:26 ◼   ► with some of the other characters and I [TS]

00:54:28 ◼   ► i was surprised in the end that I [TS]

00:54:30 ◼   ► thought more of the characters that we [TS]

00:54:31 ◼   ► liked we're going to bite it and in fact [TS]

00:54:33 ◼   ► the only one who really the old we lose [TS]

00:54:35 ◼   ► to right and they're both kind of minor [TS]

00:54:37 ◼   ► characters I mean not in there you know [TS]

00:54:40 ◼   ► importance but in their screen time [TS]

00:54:43 ◼   ► yeah well i was i was kind of I thought [TS]

00:54:46 ◼   ► he did such a great job i was far more [TS]

00:54:47 ◼   ► interested i should say in the kind of [TS]

00:54:49 ◼   ► the t-brain aspect of this because I [TS]

00:54:52 ◼   ► thought it was so interesting and [TS]

00:54:53 ◼   ► original and I was kind of disappointed [TS]

00:54:55 ◼   ► when it i could it was there is a clear [TS]

00:54:57 ◼   ► shift into ok now it's just going to be [TS]

00:55:00 ◼   ► a thriller [TS]

00:55:01 ◼   ► I mean it's a well-written thriller but [TS]

00:55:03 ◼   ► I was hoping I thought the book could be [TS]

00:55:06 ◼   ► so much more [TS]

00:55:07 ◼   ► it was good but I wanted to be like [TS]

00:55:09 ◼   ► amazing and I just kind of thought it [TS]

00:55:11 ◼   ► ended kind of like a cliche [TS]

00:55:14 ◼   ► well that was that was my feeling when [TS]

00:55:16 ◼   ► they made the turn is that I started to [TS]

00:55:17 ◼   ► think I wonder if this really is him [TS]

00:55:19 ◼   ► realizing that cory doctorow did a whole [TS]

00:55:21 ◼   ► book about gold farmers and and [TS]

00:55:25 ◼   ► an MMO it you know in China and i also [TS]

00:55:28 ◼   ► will do something different [TS]

00:55:29 ◼   ► well i should point out you having for [TS]

00:55:31 ◼   ► the win which I don't like to think I [TS]

00:55:32 ◼   ► don't think there was a minority opinion [TS]

00:55:34 ◼   ► at the time or only one also read it for [TS]

00:55:37 ◼   ► the wind has you know Chinese American [TS]

00:55:40 ◼   ► people and other strange nationalities [TS]

00:55:42 ◼   ► spring the globe and conspiracies and [TS]

00:55:44 ◼   ► mafioso and things being kicked down and [TS]

00:55:47 ◼   ► people being killed unexpectedly in the [TS]

00:55:48 ◼   ► middle of the book it's a big shaggy dog [TS]

00:55:50 ◼   ► story to a very different kind of want a [TS]

00:55:52 ◼   ► lot more political than this because I'm [TS]

00:55:55 ◼   ► not sure there's a only the moral of [TS]

00:55:56 ◼   ► this story is there don't live it [TS]

00:56:00 ◼   ► don't be a terrorist on the left one [TS]

00:56:02 ◼   ► killed exactly don't be late again vs [TS]

00:56:05 ◼   ► you vs well I mean I did the family [TS]

00:56:07 ◼   ► themes are august i think our are part [TS]

00:56:10 ◼   ► of it that that you've got not just the [TS]

00:56:13 ◼   ► family and the fourth rest family that [TS]

00:56:16 ◼   ► have a lot of differences but in the end [TS]

00:56:18 ◼   ► you know I know it's hokey but they that [TS]

00:56:21 ◼   ► that is one of the messages here is like [TS]

00:56:23 ◼   ► people pull together and they may have [TS]

00:56:25 ◼   ► some differences but in the end you know [TS]

00:56:27 ◼   ► the you stick with the people who matter [TS]

00:56:29 ◼   ► to you and you see these different oddly [TS]

00:56:31 ◼   ► paired people come together and you know [TS]

00:56:34 ◼   ► that's sort of a theme of it but it's [TS]

00:56:35 ◼   ► not exactly something kind of deep an [TS]

00:56:38 ◼   ► earth-shattering you know the other one [TS]

00:56:40 ◼   ► is that everyone wants to belong to [TS]

00:56:41 ◼   ► something right so right all those [TS]

00:56:43 ◼   ► outsiders exactly all the characters are [TS]

00:56:45 ◼   ► looking for some connection which is [TS]

00:56:48 ◼   ► also kind of cliche but you know it's a [TS]

00:56:50 ◼   ► theme in lots of stuff and and we do end [TS]

00:56:53 ◼   ► up with a lot of them paired off at the [TS]

00:56:54 ◼   ► end right which I thought was a little [TS]

00:56:57 ◼   ► little it turned into a little bit until [TS]

00:56:59 ◼   ► I guess Shakespearean combinational [TS]

00:57:00 ◼   ► couples everywhere [TS]

00:57:02 ◼   ► yeah everybody's getting married at the [TS]

00:57:04 ◼   ► end except for except for Richard a lot [TS]

00:57:05 ◼   ► of love story hiding inches thousand off [TS]

00:57:08 ◼   ► there is but not i mean not one that [TS]

00:57:11 ◼   ► really makes any sense [TS]

00:57:12 ◼   ► no it's mostly gen hey we're all I mean [TS]

00:57:14 ◼   ► it's like okay so Olivia who i love i [TS]

00:57:17 ◼   ► actually think is a really great [TS]

00:57:18 ◼   ► character one of the funny things about [TS]

00:57:20 ◼   ► Olivia's when she said on her mission [TS]

00:57:22 ◼   ► she specifically told basically please [TS]

00:57:24 ◼   ► don't have sex with anybody which is [TS]

00:57:26 ◼   ► like hey wow that's what I'm just a lady [TS]

00:57:29 ◼   ► is she makes equipment like James Bond [TS]

00:57:31 ◼   ► gets to you and how come I don't ya at [TS]

00:57:33 ◼   ► what I mean she's the most i like their [TS]

00:57:35 ◼   ► relationship the best out of all the [TS]