Forty minutes of awesome

July 16, 2008

I loved Snow Crash, couldn’t make it through The Diamond Age, and haven’t yet grown the balls to take on Cryptonomicon … but I know an undeniably brilliant writer when I read him, and Neal Stephenson is just that. I’m awed by his wordsmithing and worldsmithing. I aspire to write a tenth as well as this man. He’s a rulebreaker and genreblender, which is reason enough to admire him.

So imagine my delight when I found this 40-minute lecture Stephenson recently gave to a roomful of lucky (and likely equally clever) folks back in May at London’s Gresham College. While the presentation’s title implies a snoozer (”Science Fiction as a Literary Genre”), it’s far from it. There’s talk of Aliens’ Ripley in here, as well as a celebration of geeks, sympathy for “mundanes” and a definition of the phrase “idea porn.” It’s a masterful, insightful, fun talk.

If you have 40 minutes to spare, take a gander his presentation. This is what being the smartest guy in the room looks like.

If streaming video ain’t your thing, visit this page to download the 350+MB video file, or audio file. (Links are on the right-hand side of the page.)

–J.C.

Posted by J.C. Hutchins | Filed Under All Posts, Miscellaneous, Whimsy