Comments on: Wiksilver

By: dsquared

dsquared — Thu, 25 Sep 2003 11:34:28 +0000

Count me as a vote for “absolutely appalling”. This is one of those things where I just have a completely different view from the rest of the world; not even entertainment value. He’s terrible. Just terrible. It’s like being cornered by a pub bore whose cousin was in the SAS and whose brother works for Slashdot.

By: Chun the Unavoidable

Chun the Unavoidable — Thu, 25 Sep 2003 01:48:49 +0000

No, Shai, as Dr. Johnson would remind you, he’s writing for money.

By: Shai

Shai — Thu, 25 Sep 2003 01:07:12 +0000

Everything is overrated if you have an unusually high set of expectations. Stephenson is writing for a particular audience, is he not?

By: Chun the Unavoidable

Chun the Unavoidable — Wed, 24 Sep 2003 23:10:56 +0000

Murph,

You’ll note that I didn’t write that Stephenson has little literary value. Instead, I claimed that his literary value is highly overrated.

I don’t believe in a distinction between literary and entertainment value. Would you care to elaborate on what you think it is?

By: Murph

Murph — Wed, 24 Sep 2003 23:03:54 +0000

Chun— A (female) friend of mine describes Stephenson’s Cryptonomicon as “masturbatory nerdboy fiction. figuratively and literally.” Which perhaps supports your claim that Stephenson’s work has little literary value. However, it also supports a different claim: that his writing has plenty of entertainment value. And that’s all that it requires. Nobody’s trying to claim that Stephenson is the next Shakespeare or Dostoevsky. Read him and enjoy him, or go watch tv and let the rest of us read in peace.

By: Chun the Unavoidable

Chun the Unavoidable — Wed, 24 Sep 2003 20:44:55 +0000

I’d like to turn this comment-thread into a referendum on Stephenson’s literary value. My initial impression: vastly overrated.

By: Norbizness

Norbizness — Wed, 24 Sep 2003 13:56:16 +0000

And I say “Quicksilver”, meaning the bike messenger movie starring Kevin Bacon.