Cryptonomicon
question
Suggestion of time-travel in Cryptonomicon?
katie
Apr 21, 2011 04:05PM
Maybe I just misunderstood it, but there's some dialog on the very ending of Chapter 24 that seems to suggest some kind of time traveling:
I've never found anything about this passage on the net. Does anyone have any thoughts about it?
They both puff on their cigarettes and look out across the large body of water before them, which Shaftoe has learned is called the Bay of Naples. "Well anyway," Shaftoe says, "what did it say on those papers?"
"A lot of detailed information about military convoys between Palermo and Tunis. Evidently stolen from classified German sources," Root says.
"Old convoys, or..."
"Convoys that were still in the future," Root says calmly. Shaftoe finishes his cigarette, and does not speak for a while. Finally he says, "Fuckin' weird." He stands up and begins walking back towards the barn.
I've never found anything about this passage on the net. Does anyone have any thoughts about it?
reply
flag
I haven't read this in over a decade, so I'm missing some of the context. However, could it just be planning documents? Or I remember Randy's ancestor was doing some work on making it seem that they hadn't broken the codes by randomizing stuff. Could it be related to that?
Definitely planning. So it is a statement of the source! More than a statement of time travel.
I think Root was just talking about convoys that were still in the future at the time when they were stolen... So yeah, planned deployments and that sort of thing.
However, I think from memory (it's been a long time since I read either) that it is implied that Root is actually Enoch Root, from Quicksilver, which makes him many hundreds of years old by this point; which isn't that surprising, given that it was hinted all throughout the quicksilver series that he'd cracked the secret to the philosophers stone.
However, I think from memory (it's been a long time since I read either) that it is implied that Root is actually Enoch Root, from Quicksilver, which makes him many hundreds of years old by this point; which isn't that surprising, given that it was hinted all throughout the quicksilver series that he'd cracked the secret to the philosophers stone.
It might clear your head to understand that Cryptonomicon was written prior to Quicksilver The Root, Waterhouse and Shaftoe families appear throughout Crypto, and the Baroque Cycle books
Caio wrote: "Maybe I just misunderstood it, but there's some dialog on the very ending of Chapter 24 that seems to suggest some kind of time traveling:
They both puff on their cigarettes and look out across ..."
It's not time travel. Shaftoe and Root were given the job of manufacturing an alternative reason (alternative to the allies having broken the german codes) for knowing where a bunch of stuff that allowed the allies to blast the hell out of the germans. They were setting up what was supposed to look like a spy outpost that had been there for several months. So they were spreading around old newspapers and records of German troop movements that they had supposedly painstakingly observed firsthand so that the germans could discover it and say "Ah! so that's how they knew to bomb the crap out of us at that place. It's not because they broke our codes, it's because they had spies inside our territory.
That's what all of Shaftoe/Root's missions were. they were all smokescreens to hide the fact that the allies had broken the german codes.
They both puff on their cigarettes and look out across ..."
It's not time travel. Shaftoe and Root were given the job of manufacturing an alternative reason (alternative to the allies having broken the german codes) for knowing where a bunch of stuff that allowed the allies to blast the hell out of the germans. They were setting up what was supposed to look like a spy outpost that had been there for several months. So they were spreading around old newspapers and records of German troop movements that they had supposedly painstakingly observed firsthand so that the germans could discover it and say "Ah! so that's how they knew to bomb the crap out of us at that place. It's not because they broke our codes, it's because they had spies inside our territory.
That's what all of Shaftoe/Root's missions were. they were all smokescreens to hide the fact that the allies had broken the german codes.
I can't find the exact quote on this, but I remember reading an interview with Neal Stephenson, and he said using the same character names from Cryptonomicon in the Baroque Cycle "just felt right" and wasn't supposed to be anything more.
I got the feeling, between Cryptonomicon and The Baroque Cycle, that Enoch Root is a position, not a person.
"I can't find the exact quote on this, but I remember reading an interview with Neal Stephenson, and he said using the same character names from Cryptonomicon in the Baroque Cycle "just felt right" and wasn't supposed to be anything more."
This is the kind of Stephenson quote that drives me nuts. No way would he just use the same name because it just felt right. For someone who crafts such detailed and epic stories, everything in intentional. It's as though he carries his gift for narrative misdirection into his interviews.
This is the kind of Stephenson quote that drives me nuts. No way would he just use the same name because it just felt right. For someone who crafts such detailed and epic stories, everything in intentional. It's as though he carries his gift for narrative misdirection into his interviews.
It isn't time travel. Enoch Root is, one would gather from this and the Baroque Cycle, if Not acctuall Immortal, then less mortal then most of us. If you paide attention in the Cryptonomicon, You noticed Enoch Root says he speaks "like a 17th Century Alchemist" In the course of the Baroque Cycle you find out that this is basicly what he is! I read the Cycle 1st, so discovering this quote in the Cryptonomicon was amusing!.
Perhaps one of neals next works will be a 5 volume prequel to the Barouqe Cycle, involvine the discovery of fire, alternating with Prometheous stealing it from the Gods and giving it to mandkind! LOL Of course Enoch Root would be present.
Perhaps one of neals next works will be a 5 volume prequel to the Barouqe Cycle, involvine the discovery of fire, alternating with Prometheous stealing it from the Gods and giving it to mandkind! LOL Of course Enoch Root would be present.
all discussions on this book
|
post a new topic
