Dr. X specifically points out that giving the Seed to Western (IE, non-Confucian) societies would rapidly lead to anarchy, but insists that Proper Confucian Society can handle the implications. Content Warning: The source novel includes sexual abuse and violence, misogynistic slurs as characterization, and physical violence. Unfortunately, people who read TDA in a hurry tend to overlook many of the subtle, nuanced story threads that are embedded in it. Rebel groups are working underground to create the Seed, a native, alternate form of nanotechnology. (NOT interested in AI answers, please). Judy Blume. The Mouse Army is doing it's own thing. The part that is confusing me is as follows: . [4] The protagonist's name points directly to Little Nell from Dickens' 1840 novel The Old Curiosity Shop. So, yeah - I'm a bit confused too. If you fall of the tech-speak train you start to glaze over a bit and get confused, or at least I do. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top, Not the answer you're looking for? After high school, Caitlin travels the world and cant understand why Vix, by now at Harvard on a scholarship and determined to have a better life than her mother has had, wont drop out and join her. - and it is like a roller coaster coming off the rails and crashing very, very suddenly on the last page. Although some white diggers continued to work as overseers or skilled labourers, from the mid-1880s the workforce consisted mainly of Black migrant workers housed in closed compounds by the companies (a method that had previously been used in Brazil). Neal's SF novel, The Diamond Age, promises more of the same. Lacking the presence of a real person, the Han girls develop loyalty to each other (including Nell, another user of the Primer) rather than adopting the Confucian ethics that dominate in the Celestial Kingdom. Is Miss Matheson from Diamond Age, YT from Snow Crash? full of green tea. Two of them are gay, one straight and one bisexual. How can I detect when a signal becomes noisy? Courts, governments, and jurisdictions in The Diamond Age? rev2023.4.17.43393. Children were laughing, parents were smiling, and grandparents were crying of joy, as they saw their hard work bearing fruit. I'm afraid you'll have to check your need for believable characters with me. It is also hinted that property rights are so expansive that the Protocol recognizes children as the economic assets of their parents. RELEASE DATE: Jan. 16, 1995. The book explicitly recognizes the achievements of several existing nanotechnology researchers: Feynman, Drexler, and Ralph Merkle are seen among characters of the fresco in Merkle-Hall, where new nanotechnological items are designed and constructed. Very interesting. I don't think X truly understood what he was giving them: he thought they would be educated, sure, but looking back from a more mature perspective, the sort of education the Primer dishes out is serious stuff. As the predominantly agrarian societies of European South Africa began to urbanize and industrialize, the region evolved into a major supplier of precious minerals to the world economy; gold especially was urgently needed to back national currencies and ensure the continued flow of expanding international trade. The conflict between Afrikaners and English speakers led to the establishment of the Afrikaner Bond in 1879. Looking for something to do he ended up developing much of the ractive technology the performances used, and creating many of the self-animated characters that filled the lesser roles of the theatres virtual plays. The result has been centuries of chaos.". This is the third Neal Stephenson book Ive read, the first two being. The Drummers underwater settlement quickly became a massive refugee camp hundreds of thousands strong. Its free and takes less than 10 seconds! The Diamond Age: Or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer is a science fiction novel by American writer Neal Stephenson. When Hofmeyr threw his support behind Cecil Rhodes in 1890, he enabled Rhodes to become prime minister of the Cape; their alliance stemmed from a mutual desire for northward economic expansion. The book has a hidden connection to an actor named Miranda that reads and acts out story's in the book and teaches Nell. Here's a numerical token you can use to reclaim it at the end of the day. Initially, individual diggers, Black and white, worked small claims by hand. The South African Republic (Transvaal), virtually bankrupt, had suffered military humiliation at the hands of the Pedi, and support for President Thomas F. Burgers had declined because of this. He basically takes a subversive book makes it more Chinese and respectful of authority but he makes the authority the owner of the missing book. An illicit copy of the book falls into the hands of an abused little girl, Nell. So, without further ado here it is: Aftermath I admit ruefully that Stephenson's vocabulary is better than mine. The ending of The Diamond Age Nathan Nov 27, 2013 05:59PM 0 votes Perhaps it was the effect of the subversive aspect of the Primer on the Mouse Army. She kept a very close relationship with Nell, and revered in the success of her adopted daughter. As production rapidly centralized and mechanized, however, ownership and labour patterns were divided more starkly along racial lines. Scribes have faithfully copied the tomes in Princess Nells possession, disseminating the Knowledge downward to the smaller and smaller groups in the hierarchy, with solutions to problems bubbling up and being summarised by the officers. Yet I don't think I ever truly understood the story, and certainly not the ending. Suppose you wanted to write a new Victorian bildungsroman about the Boxer Rebellion. So, yeah - I'm a bit confused too. All I could do is count heads and make remarks about the colour and gender and fate of each major character. As the Master said, Let the producers be many and the consumers few.' In the extremely globalized future depicted in the novel, these cultural divisions have largely supplanted the system of nation-states that divides the world today. In fact I think it also predicts a lot of the future of nanotechnology and entertainment. Except for the fact that it lacked an ending. To subscribe to this RSS feed, copy and paste this URL into your RSS reader. 6.0 stars. Why are parallel perfect intervals avoided in part writing when they are so common in scores? Wells time machine and went forward in time and he decided to create a post cyber-punk, progressively dystopian bildungsroman novel with a strong female lead and with a fascinating glimpse of a future that expands on the world begun in. Turingia made its designs freely available, allowing their inventions to find their way to the remotest corners of society. Five years after the coronation Miranda fell ill, with chill and hot spells shaking her frail body. Stack Exchange network consists of 181 Q&A communities including Stack Overflow, the largest, most trusted online community for developers to learn, share their knowledge, and build their careers. I have just finished reading The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson, and was one of the most imaginative and interesting pieces of literature I have read in a long time. The part that is confusing me is as follows: Both the Fists and the Mouse Army come from the Celestial Kingdom yet they seem opposed - surely Dr X would have wanted the Mouse Army to support the Fists. The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Ladys Illustrated Primer is a 1995 science-fiction coming-of-age novel by Neal Stephenson. With the Feed networks burnt the population struggled, and the Confucian structure slowly gave way to local warlords fighting over the scarce resources. Hackworth did put confusion values in the chinese version of the primer. 7 yr. ago Miranda was grasping at straws to contact Nell. Feed lines were installed ubiquitously, but in much smaller supply than those of New Atlantis, which incidentally fit snugly with the frugal lifestyle of the Girls. I've read the book a couple of times, and I don't think I had really picked up on the foot binding. I have just finished rereading Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age for about the fourth time and am still confused about the ending. Various characters suggest that this caregiving figure is what allows Nell to develop into a well-adjusted, inquisitive, and confident adult. @SteveEd: The mass produced primer would only have been an opportunity for abuse if it had been modified. To quote Dr. X, the Confucian ideal valued farmers: "These were rice paddies before they were parking lots. More recently, developmentalists have divided this age period into two separate stages: Emerging adulthood followed by early adulthood. Snow Crash is without question the biggest SF novel of the 1990s. She finally finds that in Miranda and even though we don't get to see the relationship play out, this ends the device driving the novel. People flocked from near and far to cultivate and multiply the Seeds, small hands working diligently to scatter them across the land. The role of the CEP in the world of the novel could be seen in comparison with the roles of real-life international organizations such as the United Nations and the International Monetary Fund. Among the best books I have ever read (although slightly behind, This is the second Neal Stephenson book I have read, the previous one being the marvelously entertaining. The ending of The Diamond Age. Caitlin, on the other hand, lives part of the year with her wealthy mother Phoebe, whos just moved to Albuquerque, and summers with her father Lamb, equally affluent, on the Vineyard. feels more like an "agrarian vs industrial" than "disseminated vs centralized" contrast to me. I think the issue is the Primer. Stephenson (Snow Crash, 1992) imagines a 21st century in which molecular machines (nanotechnology) can create any desired object or structure. I powered through the last 100 pages more out of feeling of obligation than honest interest in the novel. For questions about "The Diamond Age", otherwise known as "A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer" (1995), a post-cyberpunk novel by Neal Stephenson. Her epitaph said: Miranda, the Mother of Turingia. It's like sometimes authors TRY to be obscure in their writing in order to be "highbrow" to rise about the genre or something. Hackworth is ordered to join the Dreamers, a weird collective intelligence among which, through his subconscious, he designs a nanotech control method for the Celestial Kingdom represented by Dr. X. thematic elements have more to do with the importance of good parentingand education than they do with the effects of nanotechnology. Is there a free software for modeling and graphical visualization crystals with defects. Now you can see what each connection gives you. I'm abandoning this book at 50% - one star because I think I deserve the credit for slogging through it, though. suitable for the unique cultural requirements of the Han readership. Neal Stephenson, quote from The Diamond Age. Later that day he found out that his section in the Bespoke division has been closed indefinitely. Nell spent most of her days organising the life of the Community. . The Feed carries streams of both energy and basic molecules, which are rapidly assembled into usable goods by matter compilers. I did feel that some parts lagged and I did flick forward a bit midway. (Oh, god, so many of my reviews seem to start this way.) What is the connection between Snow Crash and The Diamond Age? 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