מסכים. מצד שני, לניל סטיבנסון היה
משהו מעט שונה לומר בעניין:
In the Tolkien, not the endocrinological or Snow White sense, Randy is a Dwarf. Tolkien´s Dwarves were stout, taciturn, vaguely magical characters who spent a lot of time in the dark hammering out beautiful things, e.g. Rings of Power. Thinking of himself as a Dwarf who hung up his war-ax for a while to go sojourning in the Shire, where he was surrounded by squabbling Hobbits (i.e., Charlene´s friends), had actually done a lot for Randy´s peace of mind over the years. He knew perfectly well that if he were stuck in academia these people, and the things they said, would seem momentous to him. But where he came from, nobody had been taking these people seriously for years. So he just withdrew from the conversation and drank his wine and looked out over the Pacific surf and tried not to do anything really obvious like shaking his head and rolling his eyes. Then the topic of the Information Superhighway came up, and Randy could feel faces turning in his direction like searchlights, casting almost palpable warmth on his skin. Dr. G. E. B. Kivistik had a few things to say about the Information Superhighway. He was a fiftyish Yale professor who had just flown in from someplace that had sounded really cool and impressive when he had gone out of his way to mention it several times. His name was Finnish, but he was British as only a non-British anglophile could be. Ostensibly he was here to attend War as Text. Really he was there to recruit Charlene, and really really (Randy suspected) to fuck her. This was probably not true at all, but just a symptom of how wacked out Randy was getting by this point. Dr. G. E. B. Kivistik had been showing up on television pretty frequently. Dr. G. E. B. Kivistik had a couple of books out. Dr. G. E. B. Kivistik was, in short, parlaying his strongly contrarian view of the Information Superhighway into more air time than anyone who hadn´t been accused of blowing up a day care center should get. A Dwarf on sojourn in the Shire would probably go to a lot of dinner parties where pompous boring Hobbits would hold forth like this. This Dwarf would view the whole thing as entertainment. He would know that he could always go back out into the real world, so much vaster and more complex than these Hobbits imagined, and slay a few Trolls and remind himself of what really mattered. That was what Randy always told himself, anyway. But on the Night in Question, it didn´t work. Partly because Kivistik was too big and real to be a Hobbit - probably more influential in the real world than Randy would ever be. Partly because another faculty spouse at the table - a likable, harmless computerphile name Jon - decided to take issue with some of Kivistik´s statements and was cheerfully shot down for his troubles. Blood was in the water. Randy had ruined his relationship with Charlene by wanting to have kids. Kids raise issues. Charlene, like all of her friends, couldn´t handle issues. Issues meant disagreement. Voicing disagreement was a form of conflict. Conflict, acted out openly and publicly, was a male mode of social interaction - the foundation for patriarchal society which brought with it the ususal litany of dreadful things. Regardless, Randy decided to get patriarchal with Dr. G. E. B. Kivstik. "How many slums will we bulldoze to build the Information Superhighway?" Kivstik said. This profundity was received with thoughtful nodding around the table. Jon shifted in his chair as if Kivstik had just drooped an ice cube down his collar. "What does that mean?" he asked. Jon was smiling, trying not to be a conflict-oriented patriarchal hegemonist. Kivstik, in response, raised his eyebrows and looked around at everyone else, as if to say Who invited this poor lightweight? Jon tried to dig himself out from his tactical error, as Randy closed his eyes and tried not to wince visibly. Kivistik had spent more years sparring with really smart people over high table at Oxford than Jon had been alive. "You don´t have to bulldoze anything. There´s nothing there to bulldoze," Jon pleaded. "Very well, let me put it this way," Kivistik said magnanimously - he was not above dumbing down his material for the likes of Jon. "How many on-ramps will connect the worlds ghettos to the Information Superhighway?" Oh, that´s much clearer, everyone seemd to think. Point well taken, Geb! No one looked at Jon, that argumentative pariah. Jon looked helplessly over at Randy, signaling for help. Jon was a Hobbit who´d actually been out of the Shire recently, so he knew Randy was a dwarf. Now he was fucking up Randy´s life by calling upon Randy to junp up on the table, throw off his homespun cloak, and whip out his two-handed ax.
יש כמובן עוד, אבל מי שזיהה כבר זיהה, ומי שלא בטח לא המשיך לקרוא, אז מה זה משנה?