Journal #5: The Book of Knowledge

This is the second science fiction novel that I have read, and to say, “Wow!” is an understatement. I think about the world that we live in and how we can make it better and to have the “primer” would definitely help out our educational system. Diamond Age starts off similar to Mirrorshades by Bruce Sterling. It talks about Bud and the sites that were injected into his body. The way the sites at first made Bud’s muscles spasm is still a mystery to me. But as I read on, I find out just how far down this rabbit hole goes. At first I asked myself what is a site. Then I was reminded of the character, Nell, and how she learned about things through the “primer.” If Nell did know about something, she would ask the “primer” what it was, and the “primer” would show her a picture. However, I did not have the luxury of my book showing me pictures of what certain words meant. The thought of having a booklet that told you everything there was to know about everything is simply amazing.

The technology that was talked about in this novel was simply mind-boggling. Just the thought of the laundry list of technological items that I would try to visualize, such as, ractors, primers, aerostats, matter compiler, etc., makes my ears tingle. I thoroughly enjoyed the talk about the island that was created in the beginning of the novel. The idea of nano-technology bringing the right amount of atoms together in the right spot at the right time to create the island was exciting and perplexing. I found it hard to mentally visualize this sequence taking place with the elements coming together to create this island. Also, the electronic horses were ingenious. These horses are nothing like the horses we have now. The characters in the book only had to say a command, such as (to quote Neal Stephenson) “unlimited speed” and the horse would take off with cheetah-like velocity.

I also found that this book has a lot of valuable things to think about. To me it seemed as though there were a lot of mentors in this novel. Hackworth looked to Lord Fickle McGraw for advice, Judge Fang looked to Dr. X, and Nell looked to the “primer,” Colonel Napier, and Miranda. It felt like an old kung-fu movie at times in the same way that kung-fu masters would bestow great knowledge on their students. In some of these cases, I had to stop and think about the implications that the advice would have in that character’s life. Also, this book took most of the religions, races, and social classes and made them all cohesive. This I found to be quite interesting because in the future society (i.e., social classes and races) will conform into groups, or for a lack of a better term “phyles.”

The way the stories went back and forth between the characters was absolutely intoxicating. I found myself getting lost in the labyrinth of twists and turns of some of these very complex characters. Nell’s character was the best out of all of them. She went from the absolute bottom and rose to the top. Of course she went through a lot in the beginning with her mother and her boyfriends beating on her. But by the end of the book, Nell was a diamond in the rough. It felt like when Nell first received the “primer” that she was going to transcend all of the other characters in the way that she progressed in the novel. This book is way ahead of our mental capacity to fully appreciate how gifted we can truly become.