Fan girl.
So Neal Stephenson did a book signing at Cody's. I went because, well, it sounded more exciting than problem sets.
It's funny to see this random physical incarnation of the person who supposedly created the books I adored so much in high school. He looks younger than I would have guessed, shaved head, goatee. Long philosopher hands. There was a solid hour and a half of Q&A. He talked for a long time, looking out on this sea of nerds asking him questions of varying stupidity.
At some point I started taking notes.
On having written his last three books with fountain pens, and how they mold in Seattle: "There's a store called Seattle Pen... in Seattle. I actually became known there as the Moldy Gentleman Guy... They probably talked a lot about me in the back office. I became sort of this weird character."
"An educational mission... that sounds really boring, so I'm reluctant to admit to having such a thing."
"There are scenes in my books that you read, and you think, 'Wouldn't that be a cool movie.' It's the two or three hundred pages of prose in between those scenes that makes it hard... There have been plans under way for 20 years (I can't believe I'm saying that) to make things I have written into a movie, and you know what? I'm healthy, I'm happy, if it doesn't happen that's fine."
On the lack of Dramatis Personae: "I couldn't bring myself to write a biography of Yevgeny the Raskolnik. That just wouldn't click."
"One of the unexpected pleasures of writing historical novels like this is that people sidle up to you and whisper 'The 1950s!"
"Moby Dick, I really got into it... and there's a giant whale in it.. that kills people."
"My starting point for the Diamond Age was, 'How could we have a world with ubiquitous nanotechnology in which everyone wasn't dead?'"
"The Diamond Age is a utopia if you think that our problem is not having enough stuff."
"For a long time, Japan was the darling of the cyberpunk writers. Well, I didn't want to do that again. So, you know, China's really big. And it's right next to Japan."
On the possibility of a game based on his books: "There are WWII U-boat games that are just immensely historically detailed... it all happens in real time, so you track these ships for days... What I think it would be is the same thing with pirate ships."
After all that, I waited in a long line with my new gigantic hardback, my name written in clear lettering on a post-it on the page that I wanted signed. And then I had my little moment where I got to hand him my books, a random fan in the sea of nerds clamoring for a slice of his attention.