Anathem

Anathem

Cover of the hardcover first edition, featuring an analemma behind the author's name
Author	Neal Stephenson
Language	English
Genre	Science fiction
Publisher	William Morrow and Company
Publication date	2008-09-09
Publication place	United States
Media type	Print (Hardback)
Pages	928 pp
ISBN	ISBN 9780061474095 (first edition, hardback), ISBN 006147410X (mass market paperback)
OCLC	191930336
Dewey Decimal	813/.54 22
LC Class	PS3569.T3868 A53 2008

Anathem is a speculative fiction novel by Neal Stephenson, published in 2008. Major themes include the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics and the philosophical debate between Platonic realism and formalism.

Plot summary

Anathem is set on and around the planet Arbre. Thousands of years prior to the events in the novel, society was on the verge of collapse. Intellectuals entered concents, much like monastic communities but without the religious elements. Here, the avout—a term for intellectuals living under vows and separated from saecular society, fraa for male avout and suur for female avout—retain only limited access to tools and technology and are watched over by officials answering to the outside world (known as the Sæcular Power). The concents are therefore slow to change, unlike the rest of Arbre, which goes through many cycles of booms and busts.

The narrator and protagonist Erasmas is a fraa at the Concent of Saunt Edhar (Saunt, abbreviated St., is a corruption of the ancient word savant and is a title bestowed on influential intellectuals of the past). His primary teacher, Orolo, discovers that alien beings are orbiting Arbre—a fact that the Sæcular Power attempts to cover up. Orolo secretly observes the aliens with an illegally obtained (according to concent Discipline) camera, and enlists Erasmas to help collect this data. Erasmas is unaware of the content of the research until he deciphers it after Orolo is banished in a rite called "Anathem".

Several months pass, and Erasmas falls in love with suur Ala, another avout at Saunt Edhar. Immediately after this, the Sæcular Power removes her along with several other avout, requiring their help with a secret project. Erasmas, still upset about Orolo’s banishment, throws himself into his work. The presence of the alien ship soon becomes an open secret among many of the avout. Several weeks later, a laser shines down from the ship and illuminates part of Saunt Edhar. Now that the aliens have shown themselves openly, the Sæcular Power removes many avout from Saunt Edhar, this time including Erasmas.

Erasmas and the rest of the avout are told to travel to Saunt Tredegarh, another concent several thousand miles away. Erasmas and some like-minded avout desire to find Orolo and so split off to travel via Bly's Butte where they surmise he has gone to continue his observations. Upon arriving there Erasmas and a smaller group are sent to follow Orolo to the isolated concent of Orithena, on the other side of Arbre. A mysterious fraa named Jad, who is seemingly hundreds of years old, tells Erasmas to find Orolo, suggesting that he has valuable information about the aliens, who by this time have come to be known as the Geometers because of graphical proof of Pythagoras' Theorem (which in the alternate world of the book is referred to as "Adrakhones' Theorem") seen on the side of their ship.

After a dangerous journey, Erasmas arrives at Orithena. Orolo teaches Erasmas about mystic traditions among the avout, and how he believes that the Geometers are not simply from another planet, but from another cosmos which is influenced by Arbre. Orolo had signaled the Geometers using lasers, and a small spacecraft lands on Orithena. The female Geometer on board is dead of a recent gunshot wound. She brings with her four vials of blood—presumably that of the Geometers—and much evidence about their technology. Shortly thereafter, the Geometers propel a massive metal rod at a nearby volcano, destroying Orithena. Orolo sacrifices his life to rescue the dead Geometer's remains.

Erasmas soon arrives at Saunt Tredegarh, which is home to a joint conference (convox) of the avout and the Sæcular Power. This is one of the secret projects of the Sæcular Power, where many of the avout of Saunt Edhar (including suur Ala), have been taken. Much research is done on the Geometers, who come from four planets in four distinct parallel worlds (cf. Many-worlds interpretation): Urnud, Troa, Fthos, and Laterre (Earth). The conference is infiltrated by a Laterran linguist, Jules Verne Durand. He explains that the Geometers are experiencing internal conflict, but that the ruling faction intends to attack and raid Arbre for its resources. Durand offers to assist the avout in resisting the Geometers, believing that they can bring the situation to a peaceful conclusion.

Erasmas, along with a select group, receives training to board the Geometers' ship, the Daban Urnud, and to disable its weaponry. They unknowingly bring with them tiny neutron bombs, which the Sæcular Power intends to use as a bargaining chip should part of their mission fail.

The avout board the ship and the narrative of the novel splits several ways, in keeping with the book's theory of multiple parallel universes. Several avout trained in martial arts destroy the ship's main weapon, perishing in the attack. Jad, meanwhile, leads Erasmas into the command center of the "Daban Urnud", where it emerges that the avout of one thousand years in the past used their incanting powers to summon the ship to their cosmos from another, parallel one. Later, Erasmas awakes in a hospital to the news that Jad died during their launch, despite his presence throughout the trip. It remains unclear which (or how many) of these contradictory narratives is real and what may have happened in different world lines that have crossed and overlapped. However, Jad hints that the Incanters and Rhetors (avout skilled in a mysterious art of moving between parallel universes) were able to change records and memories, so that Jad may have survived in some world lines.

A funeral forms part of the signing of peace between the races, but with sæcular and avout now as equal powers. The avout inaugurate a "reconstitution", revising many of the rules restricting their work and lifestyle. The closing scene has Erasmas marrying Ala.

The "Discipline"

In the novel, avout follow a life path called the Discipline, sometimes referred to as Cartasian Discipline, after Saunt Cartas, the founder of the mathic world. It is a set of rules governing what is (and is not) allowed for avout to know and/or do, and was codified centuries before the time of the story in the Second New Revised Book of Discipline.

Chief among these is that the avout are separated, both mentally and literally, from the Sæculum, or outside world. There are different levels of separation. For example, within a concent, there are different terms of residency. There are 1-, 10-, 100-, and 1,000-year orders. Each of these celebrates "Apert", a festival opening the concent to the outside world and allowing the flow of information between them, on an interval determined by that number. For example, a 10-year order would celebrate Apert once every ten years, remaining isolated otherwise. Likewise, a 100-year order would only celebrate Apert every hundred years, and a 1,000-year order once every 1,000 years. It is an essential part of this that at any time an order celebrates Apert, all orders below it also celebrate Apert. For example, a Millenarian (1,000-year) order would celebrate in the year 3000. Because 3000 is also a multiple of 100, 10, and 1, Centenarian, Decenarian, and Unarian orders would also celebrate. Exceptions to this rule include "hierarchs" (those who administer the concent) who are required to confer with the Sæcular Power on decisions of weight.

The main secondary aspect of the Discipline is that the avout are only allowed to own their "bolt, chord, and sphere". These objects are made with "newmatter" (matter with a modified atomic structure to be more versatile) and are used as clothing.

There are several restrictions governing, for example, the use of genetic engineering, computers, or other "praxis" (technology). Due to the restrictions, avout can only work on an entirely theoretical basis de facto.

Philosophical and scientific content and influences

Large portions of the book involve detailed discussions of mathematics, physics, and philosophy. Most of these discussions use fictional Arbran terminology, but treat ideas from actual science and philosophy. Stephenson acknowledges the work of author Julian Barbour as the source for much of this material.

A major theme of the novel is the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics, which accounts for the various "worldtracks" and "narratives" explored by Fraa Orolo and manipulated by Fraa Jad. Another major theme is the recurring philosophical debate between characters espousing mathematical Platonic realism (in the novel called "Halikaarnians") and characters espousing mathematical formalism (in the novel called "Procians").

Stephenson cites the work of Roger Penrose as a major influence on the novel. Specific ideas from Penrose's work include: the idea that the human mind operates in certain fundamental ways as a quantum computer, espoused in Penrose's The Emperor's New Mind; Platonic realism as a philosophical basis for works of fiction, as in stories from Penrose's The Road to Reality; and the theory of aperiodic tilings, which appear in the Teglon puzzle in the novel. Stephenson also cites as an influence the work of Kurt Gödel, whom the character Durand mentions by name in the novel.

Much of the Geometers' technology seen in the novel reflects existing scientific concepts. The alien ship moves by means of nuclear pulse propulsion, a technique developed by ARPA.

As an appendix to the novel, Stephenson includes three "Calca", discussions among the avout of purely philosophical or mathematical content. The first is a discussion of a cake cutting procedure corresponding to the geometric problem of "doubling the square" presented in Plato's Meno. The second presents configuration spaces (in the novel called "Hemn spaces") as a way of representing three-dimensional motion. The third discusses a "complex" Platonic realism, in which several realms of Platonic ideal forms (in the novel called the "Hylaean Theoric Worlds") exist independently of the physical world (in the novel called the "Arbran Causal Domain"). The mathematical structure of a directed acyclic graph is used to describe the way in which the various realms can influence one other, and even the physical world can function as part of the realm of ideal forms for some worlds "downstream" in the graph.

Characters

Erasmas: The protagonist of Anathem; a Decenarian fraa from the Concent of Saunt Edhar. The neglected son of slines, he was Collected by the concent at the age of eight.

Orolo: A Decenarian fraa from the Concent of Saunt Edhar. He is an eminent cosmographer and Erasmas's mentor at the concent, but he's later Thrown Back for using forbidden technology to observe the Geometers before the Sæcular Power has officially confirmed their existence.

Arsibalt: A Decenarian fraa from the Concent of Saunt Edhar and one of Erasmas's friends. The estranged son of a Bazian prelate, he seeks to reconcile religion with theorics.

Lio: A Decenarian fraa from the Concent of Saunt Edhar and one of Erasmas's friends. He's known as an absent-minded eccentric and is interested in military history, Vale-lore, and unusual gardening techniques.

Jesry: A Decenarian fraa from the Concent of Saunt Edhar and one of Erasmas's friends. Unlike Erasmas, Jesry comes from a prosperous burger family, and is bored with the routine of mathic life preceding the arrival of the Geometers. He becomes famous for going into space with the Warden of Heaven (a religious leader of the Sæcular Power) to investigate the Geometers' ship.

Ala: A Decenarian suur from the Concent of Saunt Edhar and later a major organizer of the Convox. Although they disliked each other as children, she and Erasmas become romantically involved in the course of the story.

Jad: A Millenarian fraa from the Concent of Saunt Edhar. Jad is evoked in the same aut as Erasmas and accompanies him to Bly's Butte in search of Orolo. He later reappears at the Convox.

Cord: Erasmas's half-sister and a machinesmith who lives extramuros near the Concent of Saunt Edhar. She accompanies Erasmas on his search for Orolo.

Sammann: An Ita from the Concent of Saunt Edhar who accompanies Erasmas on his search for Orolo.

Production

The novel was partly inspired by Stephenson's involvement with the Clock of the Long Now project, to which he contributed three pages of sketches and notes. A separate compact disc, entitled IOLET: Music from the World of Anathem, containing eight experimental vocal compositions by David Stutz, will be sold separately through CD Baby and the Long Now Foundation, with profits going to The Clock of the Long Now project.

To create the world of Arbre, Stephenson constructs new vocabulary. In order to familiarize the reader with the new words, many of which are analogous to English, Latin, or Greek words and ideas, he put a glossary at the end of the book. Each chapter begins with a definition of one of these words, which usually relates to the chapter in some way. In addition, the Orth language spoken by the characters was created by Jeremy Bornstein at the author's request, and has been documented. The word anathem was invented by Stephenson, based on the word anthem and the Greek word anathema. In the book, an anathem is a mathic ritual by which one is expelled from the mathic world.

Reception

Anathem received mostly positive reviews. Paul Boutin wrote in The Wall Street Journal that "the lasting satisfaction of Anathem derives … from Mr. Stephenson's wry contempt for today's just-Google-it mindset. His prose is dense, but his worldview contagious." On Salon.com, Andrew Leonard described the book as "a page turner and a philosophical argument, an adventure novel and an extended existential meditation, a physics lesson, sermon and ripping good yarn."

Michael Dirda of the Washington Post disagreed, remarking that "Anathem will certainly be admired for its intelligence, ambition, control and ingenuity", but describing it as "fundamentally unoriginal", "grandiose, overwrought and pretty damn dull." The novel entered the The New York Times Best Seller list for Hardcover Fiction at number one, and achieved the rare distinction for a novel by being reviewed in Nature.

Anathem won the Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel in 2009, and collected nominations for the Hugo, Arthur C. Clarke, and John W. Campbell Memorial Awards the same year. In 2008, the novel received a nomination for the British Science Fiction Award.

References

• "But enough about you – Neal Stephenson" – initial blog entry which broke the story
• "Plot of New Neal Stephenson Novel Revealed", io9, March 31, 2008

External links

• Anathem on Stephenson's website.
• Anathem at Worlds Without End
• Stephenson discusses Anathem at Google, September 2008