Neal Stephenson Waxes Philosophical In His Latest Novel "Fall"

Over the years, I have derived enormous pleasure and intellectual stimulation from Neal Stephenson's novels. In the case of his latest tome, "Fall," I had a different experience.The narrative revolves around two worlds: Meatspace and Bitworld. Meatspace is the plane of existence that we live in the flesh here on earth. Bitworld is a digital realm that consist of entities that are pure neural connections. In the foreseeable future, neural science will have allowed machines to scan human brains and digitize each neural connection. These composite connections and memories are captured before the moment of death, and sent into the ether as digital reincarnations of the disembodied person who life in Meatspace is about to end.

As the narrative develops, as Bitworld becomes populated with more and more digital entities, is recapitulating the history of mankind in many respects, including elements of Creation stories and mythologies from a variety of cultures and religions, a Fall from Grace, an Adam and Eve, a Garden and an Exile from the Garden. And finally, an Armageddon.

Stephenson explores several levels of philosophical inquiry as he develops the interactions between Bitworld and Meatspace. Metaphysics  predominates, as he examines the nature of reality. Certainly Epistemology is much on his mind - how do we know the things that we know. Ethical questions abound as rules of living in a digital world evolve.

The problem with all of this intellectual wrangling is that for the first time in my experience of reading a Stephenson work, I found that he failed to create real characters that I care about. I found myself plodding through the nearly thousand pages. I am accustomed to experiencing a Neal Stephenson novel like a fine steak that is delicious, nutritious, and requires just the right amount of chewing. In the case of "Fall,"I felt like I was forcing myself to finish a heaping plate of rutabagas. Not terrible - but not something I would Yelp about.  I simply did not care about the fate of any of the characters.

Al