State of Protest

Book Review — Cryptonomicon, by Neal Stephenson

On the surface, Cryptonomicon is a straightforward historical fiction about how the key to winning a war is having better technology than one’s enemy. A deeper look, however, reveals that it is a moral and practical guide for those who are willing and able to fight oppressive regimes by eschewing brute force in favor of cunning.

Sometimes labeled as science fiction, Cryptonomicon is a detailed excerpt from the lives of a handful of men and women spanning two distinct, but related periods of time — World War II and the tech boom of the 1980s. Stephenson tells the tale of the oft-overlooked underground intelligence aspect of war while he creates a parallel of covert modern-day corporate manipulations, and he slowly fills in the blanks of the chronology of the characters who are intricately connected by blood and causality.

Stephenson peppers his lengthy novel with anecdotes that reveal his extensive knowledge of the technology and battles of World War II as well as modern computing and corporate etiquette. The comprehensive detailed technical explanations of cryptography, security, and other technology might distract a casual reader, but should entrance any technophile who is captivated by the amazing amount of knowledge at Stephenson’s fingertips and the way it’s presented by the book’s characters.¹

The main character of the novel is Randall “Randy” Lawrence Waterhouse, the 1980s descendant of his covertly influential veteran grandfather. Throughout the novel, Randy embodies an uncommon intellect coupled with a common pursuit — love and happiness. Although Stephenson’s scattered but thorough focus on anecdotes and technical details detracts somewhat from Randy’s potential lovability, after some conversations with the mysterious Enoch Root, Randy gains some enlightenment that may clue the reader into why connecting to one of the overtly selfish characters isn’t easy — it’s all about the bigger picture. Root’s apparent agelessness, as well as the fact that the rest of the characters, including Randy, seem but cogs in a great machine, lends credence to the idea that it takes such individual sacrifice to create a greater good. Arguably the most interesting characters are embodied in Grandfather Lawrence Waterhouse and Goto Dengo, who, in the WWII era, started technological frameworks upon which others relied to further the greater good — winning the war and generally defeating that which is, at least according to Root, evil.

Enoch Root explains to Randy the difference between people who “worship” Ares (the Greek god of war) and people who “worship” Athena (the Greek god of what Root describes as something like cunning). The former are the bellicose oppressors, like the Nazis, and the latter are, like the intelligence agencies of the Allied forces, the technological cunning that is required to overcome the oppressors. Randy’s gradual realization is that he has been tasked with carrying the torch of Athena, along with his fellow associates.

Despite what I’ve heard about Stephenson’s writing style being loquacious and too tangential without having a satisfactory end, Cryptonomicon was entertaining enough to keep me interested and complete enough for me to be satisfied and wanting to read more of Stephenson’s work. Although I interrupted the novel halfway to read the entire Old Man’s War series (plus The Android’s Dream, all of which I highly recommend) by John Scalzi, I easily returned to Cryptonomicon, anxious to see how the characters were faring. I believe that I merely needed a brief hiatus from the thickness.

I recommend Cryptonomicon for anyone who likes covert intelligence ops (especially related to World War II), cryptography, technology, hacking, information technology governance, or just about everyone who reads Boing Boing or the like. Others might get sidetracked, bored, or entirely lost. The next Stephenson book on my list is Snow Crash. I’m currently reading His Dark Materials series.

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Notes:

Can atheists “worship” an ideal? In other words, can we hold something other than atheism in such high regard that we essentially praise it, follow it quasi-dogmatically? Enoch Root suggests implicitly that those who blindly worship Ares, or war for war itself, are destructive and need to be stopped, and can only be stopped with cunning, and, again implicitly, by those who either knowingly or by action worship metis (the Greek “cunning”).

Although Cryptonomicon didn’t delve too deeply into religious belief, it sets the tone for a reflection of our current world situation — a few prominent and dogmatic religious organizations currently effectively run the planet. Root’s warning about worshippers of Ares seems to point directly to believers as those who fight to fight, and indicates that the counter is embodied in those who favor Athena (cunning) — the rationalists. Does this mean that even atheists might need to hold something other than nature to a near-divine degree?

1. Stephenson is an author who likes to use the same characters, or the same named characters (with similar characteristics) in his otherwise unconnected novels, creating a Marvel-like continuity that’s potentially confusing to literalists, but exciting to fans. For instance, a Google search of “Enoch Root,” a major character in Cryptonomicon, indicates that he is a character in both The Baroque Cycle and Cryptonomicon, although the books aren’t sequential in any way, or, as comic enthusiasts would say, aren’t even in the same universe. This sort of character regeneration is not new, especially among science fiction and fantasy authors. Robert A. Heinlein reincarnates Lazarus Long, whether named such or not. Stephen King regurgitates his greasy-haired villain, Randall Flagg, in the Dark Tower series, The Stand, and Eyes of the Dragon. Asimov’s famous Robot Series intersects with his Foundation series late in the novels. [<]