Neal Stephenson interview on Slashdot

[jrtom]

http://interviews.slashdot.org/interviews/04/10/20/1518217.shtml

Both informative and damned funny in spots. For those wishing to jump straight to the funny bits, check out the answer to question (4):

In a fight between you and William Gibson, who would win?

Comments

[jrtom.livejournal.com]

I am so not in a position to be able to take a truly informed position on this, and I'm not trying to argue either side particularly. All I was trying to point out is that, as best I can tell, there's a difference of opinion among reputable academics on this subject--the key word being "opinion". I respect your opinion, but I wouldn't say that Stephenson was guilty of an error of fact, just of being an adherent of a particular position...and I wouldn't be too surprised to find that he wasn't even aware that there was a controversy. (I wasn't until you brought it up.)

This is one reason why I'm glad I'm an academic in a subject in which "correctness" is not generally thought to be a matter of which school of thought you follow. :) (I'm not trying to cast aspersions or to denigrate other subjects; I just find that my own mindset is most compatible with CS and so forth.)

[gwyd.livejournal.com]

I suspect the folks arguing that way are not even aware of the classical material. The Greek novels were only discovered and translated about 15 years ago. (I can't be exact without going through a whole lot of boxes to find my copies.) My experience is historians seldom have a clue about what's going on in other historical specialties. It wouldn't surprise me at all if it wasn't the same in literature departments. Greek and Roman Lit classes tend to be taught by classisists anyway.