io9 
Aug 12, 2008 12:00 PM
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It's less than a month before the release of Neal "Snow Crash" Stephenson's new novel Anathem, and you're probably starting to wonder what the hell that title means. Never fear — Amazon has just posted this video of Stephenson explaining the title, as well as many of the other words and ideas he invented for this epic about science monks on another planet. I've just started reading the novel, and I'm really enjoying its stately pace and gentle humor. In many ways, it reads like an inverted history of Earth, where scientists are the monks in cloisters and religious people design crappy cell phones. You can also see Stephenson reading a chunk of Anathem in another video on Amazon. Anathem [via Amazon]
It's less than a month before the release of Neal "Snow Crash" Stephenson's new novel Anathem, and you're probably starting to wonder what the hell that title means. Never fear — Amazon has just posted this video of Stephenson explaining the title, as well as many of the other words and ideas he invented for this epic about science monks on another planet. I've just started reading the novel, and I'm really enjoying its stately pace and gentle humor. In many ways, it reads like an inverted history of Earth, where scientists are the monks in cloisters and religious people design crappy cell phones. You can also see Stephenson reading a chunk of Anathem in
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