Review: Some Remarks
Some Remarks is a very mixed bag of Neal Stephenson’s shorter writings. Stephenson’s novels are usually tomes, so it’s interesting to see some of his shorter work. But then about a third of the book is an epic article for Wired that describes laying an undersea telecom cable, so shorter is relative; the article is as long as a novelette.
One of the things I enjoy about Stephenson’s writing is that he often sees commonplace things in new ways, combined with a close correlation between the things he and I think are commonplace. This collection treats me to his take on the Star Wars movies as well as the aforementioned telecom cables. We look at similar things and I like the way he sees them.
As much as I enjoy his writing, I can’t really recommend this as a starting place. The topics, formats, length, and genres of the pieces vary widely. There are short stories, addresses, interviews, articles and a book foreword. I found them all interesting and engaging to some degree, but I think new readers would be best served by one of his novels.