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The Diamond Age
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Read The Diamond Age

The Diamond Age (1995) (edit title/settings)

or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer

by Neal Stephenson (Author) (edit contributors)

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Description edit see section history

Set in twenty-first century Shanghai, it is the story of what happens when a state-of-the-art interactive device falls into the hands of a street urchin named Nell. Her life-and the entire future of humanity-is about to be decoded and reprogrammed....

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  • “A man and a woman descended the gangway of Atlantis: in a floral dress that explored the labile frontier between modesty and summer comfort, accessorized with a matching parasol, Queen Victoria II of Atlantis. In a natty beige linen suit, her husband, the Prince Consort, whose name, lamentably, was Joe.”
  • “On the left were the spirits of generations past who had showed up too early to enjoy the benefits of nanotechnology and (not explicitly shown, but somewhat ghoulishly implied) croaked from obsolete causes such as cancer, scurvy, boiler explosions, derailments, drive-by shootings, pogroms, blitzkriegs, mine shaft collapses, ethnic cleansing, meltdowns, running with scissors, eating Drano, heating a cold house with charcoal briquets, and being gored by oxen.”
  • “The desk was staffed by concierges whose job was to get the clients out of view as quickly as possible, and they did it so well that an uninitiated passerby might get the impression that Madame Ping’s was some kind of a walk-in kidnapping operation.”
  • “Hackworth was a free man now, wandering through the Aerodrome in an emotional stupor, and only reached his flight by participating in the same flock instinct that all the natives used to reach theirs. Whenever he saw more than one gwailo heading purposefully in one direction, he followed them, and then others started following him, and thus did a mob of foreign devils coalesce among a hundred times as many natives, and finally, two hours after their flight was supposed to leave, they mobbed a gate and climbed aboard the airship Hanjin Takhoma—which might or might not have been their assigned vessel, but the passengers now had a sufficient numerical majority to hijack it to America, which was the only thing that really counted in China.”
  • “The difference between ignorant and educated people is that the latter know more facts. But that has nothing to do with whether they are stupid or intelligent. The difference between stupid and intelligent people—and this is true whether or not they are well-educated—is that intelligent people can handle subtlety. They are not baffled by ambiguous or even contradictory situations—in fact, they expect them and are apt to become suspicious when things seem overly straightforward.”
  • “At 5 am, a shrill reveille erupted from the...brutish <religious structures>....Though...a mile <from the character's home>, it felt like they were right next door....All the other <religious people>, coarcted into the tacky little claves belonging to their <groups, were> turning up their own <speakers> to drown out the <first religious group>, setting off firecrackers or guns -- he could never tell them apart.”
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  • “the difference between ignorant and educated people is that the latter know more facts. But that has nothing to do with whether they are stupid or intelligent. The difference between stupid and intelligent people—and this is true whether or not they are well-educated—is that intelligent people can handle subtlety. They are not baffled by ambiguous or even contradictory situations—in fact, they expect them and are apt to become suspicious when things seem overly straightforward.
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  • From the Son of Heaven down to the mass of the people, all must consider the cultivation of the person the root of everything besides.
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  • The ancients who wished to demonstrate illustrious virtue throughout the kingdom, first ordered well their own states. Wishing to order well their states, they first regulated their families. Wishing to regulate their families, they first cultivated their persons. Wishing to cultivate their persons, they first rectified their hearts. Wishing to rectify their hearts, they first sought to be sincere in their thoughts. Wishing to be sincere in their thoughts, they first extended to the utmost their knowledge. Such extention of knowledge lay in the investigation of things.
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  • “Which path do you intend to take, Nell?” said the Constable, sounding very interested. “Conformity or rebellion?” “Neither one. Both ways are simple-minded—they are only for people who cannot cope with contradiction and ambiguity.”
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  • The old guard believe in that code because they came to it the hard way. They raise their children to believe in that code—but their children believe it for entirely different reasons.” “They believe it,” the Constable said, “because they have been indoctrinated to believe it.”
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  • Ordering matter was the sole endeavor of Life, whether it was a jumble of self-replicating molecules in the primordial ocean, or a steam-powered English mill turning weeds into clothing, or Fiona lying in her bed turning air into Fiona.
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  • In an era when everything can be surveiled, all we have left is politeness.
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  • Now nanotechnology had made nearly anything possible, and so the cultural role in deciding what should be done with it had become far more important than imagining what could be done with it.
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  • The House of the Venerable and Inscrutable Colonel was what they called it when they were speaking Chinese. Venerable because of his goatee, white as the dogwood blossom, a badge of unimpeachable credibility in Confucian eyes. Inscrutable because he had gone to his grave without divulging the Secret of the Eleven Herbs and Spices.
    Highlighted by 27 Kindle customers
  • He had some measure of the infuriating trait that causes a young man to be a nonconformist for its own sake and found that the surest way to shock most people, in those days, was to believe that some kinds of behavior were bad and others good, and that it was reasonable to live one's life accordingly.
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First Sentence edit see section history

The bells of St. Mark’s were ringing changes up on the mountain when Bud skated over to the mod parlor to upgrade his skull gun.

Glossary edit see section history

Series & Lists edit see section history

This is book 75 of 99 in National Public Radio's Top 100 Science Fiction and Fantasy. (authoritative list)

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

  1. Neal Stephenson (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Original Language: English
Publisher: Spectra
Country: United States
Publication Date: 1995
ISBN: 0553096095
Page Count: 455

Awards edit see section history

Classification edit see section history

  • Library of Congress: PS3569.T3868 D53 1995
  • Dewey: 813.54

More Books Like This edit see section history

   
  • Snow Crash

Books with Additional Background Information edit see section history

   
  • In the Beginning...was the Command Line

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