Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Squeee!

George Clooney is apparently making a mini-series of The Diamond Age!

Hmm, I'd better actually read it, then, eh?

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

I loved Diamond Age, but I'm a bit of a Stephenson junkie. Working my way through Quicksilver (bits at a time, in the bathtub) at the moment. I suppose I always have mixed feelings about favorite books being turned into movies, but Clooney's a good old sock and Good Night, and Good Luck was fantastic, in my book... but then I am a Strathairn junkie, too. Guess my judgement is just a bit less than objective.

Anonymous said...

I am on my fourth 900+ page Stephenson tome in a row. I cannot possibly read another one until I have at least tried to reduce the very large pile of books by my bed by other authors.
But if George is involved I might just have to.

Billy said...

If it wasn't for this blog I wouldn't know who Neal Stephenson was. I haven't read any of it though.

Annie said...

My flatmate loves Neal Stephenson, but she always buys hardbacks and they're just too heavy.

Anonymous said...

Mmmm... George... (sigh)

Mangonel said...

You haven't read Diamond Age? But I've read Diamond Age! You haven't? Really?

OK, so the ending left me completely confused, so what? No big deal.

Have you come across 'Interface' by 'Stephen Bury', half of whom is Neal Stephenson? It's a cracker.

Anonymous said...

Ooh, good call, Mangonel. I loved Interface and also recommend it.

BTW Diamond Age is shorter than some of NS's other work. Still has his trademark problem with semi-lame endings, though. But still good.

extemporanea said...

Read Diamond Age instantly, Patroc! It's my favourite Stephenson even giving my undying passion for Snow Crash, (which has survived three years of me teaching it to university students remarkably well). Nanotech! Neo-Victorians! you can't go wrong.

Anonymous said...

Crikey! Quick! To the Amazon machine!

And I haven't even *heard* of 'Interface'. Call myself a Neal Stephenson fan? I hang my head in shame.

Wyndham said...

I'm going to take a crack at The Baroque Trilogy this year. Im a fan of Clooney as a matinee idol but the news of any George Clooney produced tv/film fills me with an ennui and a torpor I cannot describe - they are uniformly worthy and dull. Good Night And Good Luck made me feel sorry for McCarthy.

Tim F said...

Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Wyndham? Odd, patchy, badly structured, but hardly worthy, surely.

I had never heard of Mr Stephenson's oeuvre, either. Does that make me sound like a judge who asks "What is a Jade Goody"?

Wyndham said...

Fair point, Tim, fair point. I'm a fan of Clooney as a matinee idol but the news of any George Clooney produced tv/film fills me with an ennui and a torpor I cannot describe - they are uniformly worthy and dull with the exception of Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind which is odd, patchy and badly structured.

Mangonel said...

Valerie - 'semi-lame endings'! Spot on. And, of course, phew - I thought it was just me.

patroclus said...

Stephenson's endings are notoriously bad. Fortunately, they usually only take up about half a page, leaving 899.5 pages of meandering, arcane joyousness.

Anonymous said...

I like the endings, like life they just sort of fizzle out.

Anonymous said...

No.
Reading rots your soul.
So does having a soul.

patroclus said...

I know Kieran, I've lived in Reading.

violet said...

I think I'm in the wrong blog. The last book I read was 'Attack of the Deranged Mutant Killer Monster Snow Goons' by Bill Watterson. It did not have 900 pages. It did have lots of pictures.

LUMPUS said...

i red the GOOLAG ARSHIPERLARGO by ALEAXANDER SALT N ITCHIN

theres no pichers

Mangonel said...

Ooh! Love Bill Watterson! And he does terrific endings too.