In the Beginning...Was the Command Line
1999
- computer technology
- nonfiction
- operating systems (computers)
- humor, form, essays
- american wit and humor, science
- long now manual for civilization
The story
This is "the Word" -- one man's word, certainly -- about the art (and artifice) of the state of our computer-centric existence. And considering that the "one man" is Neal Stephenson, "the hacker Hemingway" (Newsweek) -- acclaimed novelist, pragmatist, seer, nerd-friendly philosopher, and nationally bestselling author of groundbreaking literary works (Snow Crash, Cryptonomicon, etc., etc.) -- the word is well worth hearing. Mostly well-reasoned examination and partial rant, Stephenson's In the Beginning...was the Command Line is a thoughtful, irreverent, hilarious treatise on the cyber-culture past and present; on operating system tyrannies and downloaded popular revolutions; on the Internet, Disney World, Big Bangs, not to mention the meaning of life itself.
What it’s like
Dry, witty and digressive, with the rhythm of a long, talky essay that keeps doubling back to tease its own tangents. Think of a warm desk lamp over a cluttered laptop at night, or a slow Sunday afternoon with a mug going cold beside you: the mood is conversational and unhurried, a friend thinking out loud about machines and money and manners. The prose is loose and playful, full of extended metaphors (a theme-park analogy stretches across whole sections), sudden jokes, and blunt asides that undercut the author's own sincerity in a good-humoured way. Emotionally it sits in amused, mildly exasperated affection for technology rather than fear of it. There is no violence, sexual content or peril; the only sharpness is rhetorical, aimed at corporate software habits and the hype around them. Its arc is one of argument unfolding, a set of observations building toward a wry conclusion about how people relate to the tools they depend on. It suits readers who enjoy opinionated nonfiction, anyone curious about operating systems without wanting a technical manual, and fans of Stephenson's humour who want something lighter and more discursive than his novels.
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