Cryptonomicon
Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson
Epic novel weaving three generations of men and women with code cracking, WWII and encryption of data.
I have only barely begun reading this novel, but I thought I would come share two parts that I thought were hilarious. The copy I have is just over 900 pages and I have read 150 pages so far.
One day a couple of weeks later, as the two of them sat by a running stream in the woods above the Delaware Water Gap, Alan made some kind of outlandish proposal to Lawrence involving penises. It required a great deal of methodical explanation, which Alan delivered with lots of blushing and stuttering. He was ever so polite, and several times emphasized that he was acutely aware that not everyone in the world was interested in that sort of thing.
Lawrence decided that he was probably not one of those people.
Alan seemed vastly impressed that Lawrence had paused to think about it at all and apologized for putting him out. They went directly back to a discussion of computing machines and their friendship continued unchanged. But on their next bicycle ride…they were joined by a new fellow, a German named Rudy von something-or-other.
Alan and Rudy’s relationship seemed closer, or at least more multilayered, than Alan and Lawrence’s. Lawrence concluded that Alan’s penis scheme must have finally found a taker.
Hilarious! That made me laugh out loud at the airport this past week. And here’s another part that I found funny. It made me laugh out loud on the airplane:
‘What advice do you, as the youngest American fighting man ever to win both the Navy Cross and the Silver Star, have for any young Marines on their way to Guadalcanal?’
Shaftoe doesn’t have to think very long. ‘Just kill the one with the sword first.’
‘Ah,’ Reagan says. ‘Smart–you target them because they’re officers, right?’
‘No, fuckhead!’ Shaftoe yells. ‘You kill ’em because they’ve got fucking swords! You ever had anyone running at you waving a fucking sword?’
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Awesome book! Took you long enough to read it. 😛
I love this book so much! I’ve read it 3 times and I may have to read it again in celebration of you reading it! I even read the math parts, that’s how much I like this book, I read about math!
I also just bought this book for my friends Matt and Wendy, actually what I did was exchange a book that Wendy had bought with a gift card her mom gave her, for Cryptonomicon. Why the exchange? Well when we got back to Wendy and Matt’s house from the bookstore, Matt told us they already had a copy of one of the books Wendy had picked out (Deception Point by Dan Brown for those interested). So, Wendy gave me the book and receipt and then one day last week at lunch I went back to the bookstore, convienently near my work, and traded it for Cryptonomicon! Because I love this book and Shaftoe reminds me of Matt. Also there is a character named Amy in the book and she is super!
You’re gonna force me to read this one again, even if it is sickeningly long. I just ordered a library transfer to get his first book in, so that’s next on my list though.
Which book was his first? Was it Snowcrash or something else?
Yeah, that’s it…. the name was escaping me when I posted.