About Neal Stephenson

I read the novels of Neal Stephenson in a class. I'd like to introduce him. Firstly, I found his home page. I noticed that he has bearded chin ,but he has bald head...However, actually, his looks has nothing to do with his works. Second, I found the thickness of his books is quite thick. I mean, his works have plenty of volume. It seems to be difficult for me to read all of his works. Third, there are some pictures of his handwritten manuscript. These were changed by him again and again. I feel his passion for novels.

I read two works of him in a class. The one is “Anathem,” and the other is “Quicksilver.” The former is a kind of SF story. The later is one of the series of historical epic. However, these two works have a common point.

The former has a lot of difficult metaphors. For example, the story says that “'When a child gets sick, do you pray? Sacrifice to a pained stick? Or blame it an old lady?'” This story might be difficult to understand. However, there is a key of this story; religion. So, “sacrifice to a painted stick” has a religious meaning, and “an old lady” means a witch.

The later is story about witch trial. So, this story also has a religious meaning.