Anathem
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This page is for the novel by Neal Stephenson. For the rite celebrated by the avout of a concent, see anathem.
Anathem is a novel, first printed in 2008, by Neal Stephenson. It contains the account of Fraa Erasmas of the Concent of Saunt Edhar, who begins the tale as an unassuming avout trying to keep up with his studies, and by the end has traversed continents and seas, faced extraordinary dangers, met unexpected persons, and perhaps even saved the world as he knows it.
The novel was inspired by the real-life Clock of the Long Now, an attempt to build a clock that will function with minimal intervention for 10,000 years. Stephenson has said that when asked to submit ideas for the Clock of the Long Now,
"In my little back-of-the-napkin sketch, I drew a picture showing a clock with concentric walls around it. I proposed that you could have a system of gates where it was open for a while at a certain time of year, or decade, or whatever, when you could go in and out freely. But if you were inside it when the gate closed, you'd be making a commitment to stay in until it opened again. And I talked about clock monks who would tend the clock. I put that idea in cold storage because I was working on the Baroque Cycle. When I recovered, I decided, what the hell, I'm just going to try writing this." [1]
[edit] The World of Anathem trailer
In August 2008 a video trailer for Anathem was released. The trailer, directed and edited by Brady Hall, includes recreations of scenes from the novel and excerpts of Iolet::Music from the World of Anathem by David Stutz.
The scenes recreated in the trailer are:
- Erasmas and Ala using a pin to record flashes on a leaf, in a darkened maintenance shack inside the Praesidium
- Erasmas watching an aerocraft take Paphlagon away following his Voco
- Erasmas reading a book in his cell
- Fraa Lio fighting four Saeculars on the last night of Apert
- Lio, and then Erasmas, look up to see an object moving across the stars
- Erasmas in a Saecular city surrounded by advertisements (one of which is Neal Stephenson), this may be during Apert as Erasmas wears his bolt
- A member of the Ringing Vale fights off several Geeth after Erasmas is attacked in Mahsht
- Erasmas stands behind a seated man who is speaking in a very animated fashion (this may be Lodoghir during a Messal in Tredegarh
- A cloaked figure gestures (possibly Jules Verne Durand while disgused as Zh'vaern) 1:48
- Rope from the kitchen is tugged during Messal 1:51
- Fraa Jad droning a Thousander chant (possibly while at the Bazian Orthodox Monastery near Bly's Butte)
- Suur Ala turns as she is called out for Voco
- Erasmas holding Sphere as it expands
- Fraa Jad working on Teglon in Caravansery of Elkhazg
- Fraa Erasmas looks up at the sky
The The World of Anathem trailer also includes excerpts from Music from the World of Anathem, specifically "Cellular Automata" and the "Thousander Chant." (And one more ?)
[edit] References
- ↑ "Novelist Neal Stephenson Once Again Proves He's the King of the Worlds" by Steven Levy, Wired, 18Aug2008[1]
[edit] External Links
- Anathem at the official Neal Stephenson web site
- Anathem and the Long Now, at the web site of The Long Now Foundation
- Official Video Trailer for Anathem by Seattle filmmaker Brady Hall
- Streaming selections from "Music from the World of Anathem"
