Anathema (novel)

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Anathem is a novel by the American writer Neal Stephenson , published in 2008 in the USA by the publisher William Morrow & Company . The novel received the Locus Award for the best SF novel of the year in 2009 . The German translation by Juliane Gräbener-Müller and Nikolaus Stingl was published by Manhattan in 2010 .

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Anathem is set on the planet Arbre , where the protagonist Erasmas lives in a monastery-like community of scientists, philosophers and mathematicians who are chosen to save the world from an impending catastrophe. Erasmas (short: Raz) lived most of his life in the 3,400 year old community. Stephenson describes the rest of society, the so-called secular world , as "endless landscape of casinos and megastores that is plagued by recurring cycles of booms and busts, dark ages and renaissances, world wars and climate change." The planet Arbre has a history and culture, which roughly corresponds to that of the earth, whereby Stephenson deliberately obscures this with numerous word creations and alienations of meanings.

Emergence

The novel written in the context of Stephenson's work in the project Clock of the Long Now the Long Now Foundation . In this context, a CD with the title IOLET: Music from the World of Anathem was created , which contains eight experimental vocal pieces by David Stutz and the proceeds of which will go to the project.

Stephenson not only created a new world in the novel, but also uses new word creations and alienated meanings to bring the ideas behind the terms to the fore and to free them from their (earth) historical and cultural connotation. To make it easier for readers to find their way around this vocabulary, the book contains a short glossary at the back . In addition, each chapter begins with the definition of one of these words, which usually also relates to the corresponding chapter. The title of the book comes from the term anathem , a ritual that accompanies the exclusion of a person from a monastic community. He derives it from both the English “anthem” ( hymn ) and the Greek “ anathema ” (excommunication).

Numerous characters in the novel are equivalent to people from the history of philosophy , mathematics and natural sciences , for example Thelenes ( Socrates ) or Protas ( Plato ). Rules like Gardan's scales ( Occam 's razor ) also have their earthly counterparts. Like Stephenson's earlier novels, Anathem is influenced by scientific ideas and theories, including numerous references to quantum mechanics , in particular the many-worlds interpretation , the De Broglie-Bohm theory , phase space, and Hamiltonian mechanics .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Neal Stephenson's remarks on the genesis of the novel Anathem Acknowledgments the extended edition - Clocks, Orreries, etc. , accessed on July 26, 2020 English.
  2. ↑ http://blog.longnow.org/2008/08/22/iolet-the-music-of-anathem/ Iolet: The Music of Anathem