Neal Stephenson

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Neal Stephenson

Stephenson at a book signing
Born October 31, 1959 (1959-10-31) (age 48)
Fort Meade, Maryland
Pen name Stephen Bury
Occupation novelist, short story writer, essayist
Nationality United States
Genres Science fiction, essays
Literary movement Cyberpunk, Postcyberpunk
Influences
Influenced
Official website

Neal Town Stephenson (born October 31, 1959) is an American writer, known primarily for his science fiction works in the postcyberpunk genre with a penchant for explorations of society, mathematics, cryptography, currency, and the history of science. He also writes non-fiction articles about technology in publications such as Wired Magazine, and has worked part-time as an advisor for Blue Origin, a company (funded by Jeff Bezos) developing a manned sub-orbital launch system.

Contents

[edit] Background

Born in Fort Meade, Maryland (home of the NSA and the National Cryptologic Museum) Stephenson came from a family comprising engineers and hard scientists he dubs "propeller heads". His father is a professor of electrical engineering whose father was a physics professor; his mother worked in a biochemistry laboratory, while her father was a biochemistry professor. Stephenson's family moved to Champaign-Urbana, Illinois in 1960 and then to Ames, Iowa in 1966 where he graduated from Ames High School in 1977. Stephenson furthered his studies at Boston University. He first specialized in physics, then switched to geography after he found that it would allow him to spend more time on the university mainframe. He graduated in 1981 with a B.A. in Geography with a minor in physics. Since 1984 Stephenson has lived mostly in the Pacific Northwest and currently resides in Seattle with his family.

[edit] Literary works

His first novel, The Big U, was published in 1984. The Big U received very little attention when it first came out, and was subsequently out of print until Stephenson allowed it to be reprinted in 2001. After The Big U, Stephenson published the eco-thriller Zodiac before rising to prominence in the early 1990s with the novel Snow Crash (1992), which fuses memetics, computer viruses, and other high-tech themes with Sumerian mythology, along with an analysis of the differences between ideologies such as libertarianism, laissez-faire capitalism, and communism. Averaging one novel every four years, he has written several subsequent novels:

With the 2003 publication of Quicksilver, Stephenson debuted The Metaweb (main page as partially preserved in the Wayback Machine at 5 April 2006), a wiki (using the same software as Wikipedia) annotating the ideas and historical period explored in the novel. As of April 25, 2007 the metaweb.com site is no longer an active wiki.

His next novel, Anathem, alleged to be a space opera, is scheduled for release in September 2008.

[edit] Style

 This section may contain original research or unverified claims.
Please improve the article by adding references. See the talk page for details. (August 2007)

The science fiction approach doesn't mean it's always about the future; it's an awareness that this is different.

—Neal Stephenson

Stephenson, at least in his earlier novels, deals heavily in pop culture-laden metaphors and imagery, and in quick, hip dialogue, as well as in extended narrative monologues. The tone of his books generally is more irreverent and less self-serious than in previous cyberpunk novels, notably those of William Gibson.

Stephenson's books tend to have elaborate, inventive plots drawing on numerous technological and sociological ideas at the same time. This distinguishes him from other mainstream science fiction authors who tend to focus on a few technological or social changes in isolation from others. This penchant for complexity and detail suggests a baroque writer. His book The Diamond Age features "neo-Victorian" characters and employs Victorian-era literary conceits, and perhaps could be considered as falling into the steampunk genre. In keeping with the baroque style, Stephenson's books have become longer as he has gained recognition. (At least one printing of Cryptonomicon is well over one thousand pages long and the novel contains various digressions, including a lengthy erotic story about antique furniture and stockings.)

Characteristic of his style is the "breakdown in events", typically about three quarters into the novel. This is an acceleration in plot development, accompanied by chaos, confusion, and often violence, and an abrupt ending with no conventional denouement and many loose ends. This pattern holds for all of Stephenson's books, including (when taken as a whole) The Baroque Cycle.

[edit] Bibliography

[edit] Fiction

[edit] Non-fiction

[edit] References

 This article needs additional citations for verification.
Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (August 2007)
  1. ^ Clooney, Others Develop SCI FI Shows
  2. ^ Stephenson, Neal (2008). Anathem. New York: William Morrow. ISBN 9780061474095. 

[edit] External links

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v • d • e
Works by Neal Stephenson
The Baroque Cycle
Other novels
The Big U (1984) • Zodiac (1988) • Snow Crash (1992) • Interface (1994) • The Diamond Age (1995) • The Cobweb (1996) • Cryptonomicon (1999) • Anathem (2008)
Short stories
"Spew" (1994) • "The Great Simoleon Caper" (1995) • "Jipi and the paranoid chip" (1997)
Essays
Smiley's people (1993) • In the Kingdom of Mao Bell (1994) • Mother Earth Mother Board (1996) • Global Neighborhood Watch (1998) • In the Beginning... was the Command Line (1999)
Persondata
NAME Stephenson, Neal
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Stephenson, Neal Town; Bury, Stephen
SHORT DESCRIPTION American writer
DATE OF BIRTH 31 October 1959
PLACE OF BIRTH Fort Meade, Maryland
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH