mvp@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
(Mike Van Pelt) writes:
> In article <877iehn5jh.fsf@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
> Mark Jeffcoat <jeffcoat@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>>Enoch Root is likely a little less jarring if you've read
>>Stephenson's previous novel, _Cryptonomicon_.
>
[Spoilers for _Cryptonomicon_:]
>
> I haven't read "The Baroque Cycle", but I have read and
> enjoyed "Cryptonomicon." Enoch Root was something of an odd
> character. I was thinking, in the 21st century parts of the
> story where he finally shows up that Root really should be
> quite a bit older than that. I don't recall catching on to
> any indication that he was an immortal, other than that.
That's most of what I meant by "less jarring".
In my mind, there are two outstanding bits of weirdness
around Root in _Cyrptonomicon_. First, as you said, he
doesn't appear to have aged nearly enough.
Even more miraculously, he dies in Sweden during WWII,
but is still able to pull together enough vigor to
coorespond with Randy 50 years later. It's not clear
just exactly what happened just from _Cryptonomicon_,
but having read _The Baroque Cycle_, we know that Root's
cigar box is stuffed with magic gold, and Rudy von
Hacklheber used it to resurrect him almost immediately
after his death.
Since I have the book here in front of me...
[Scene of Root bleeding to death.]
Rudy is nowhere to be found, and Shaftoe suspects
for a few minutes that he has blown town. But
then suddenly he shows up at Root's bedside holding
an ancient Cuban cigar box, Spanish words all over
it.
[Root finishes dying. Everyone leaves.]
Bobby Shaftoe loiters outside, staring back up the
street. After a minute or two he sees Rudy poke his
head out the door of the doctor's office and look
one way, then the other. He pulls his head back inside
for a moment. Then he and another man walk out of
the office. The other man is wrapped in a blanket
that covers even his head.
-- near the end of chapter 60
>
> The other thing that bother me was that there's no way,
> even if your last name is "Root", that anyone but the
> system administrator is ever going to have an email address
> "root@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
" This was something of a plot point; the
> 21st century protagnoist assumed he was the sysadmin, and
> was about as surprised as I was that he was not. But still.
Does he ever claim not to be the sysadmin for eruditiorum.org?
Root strikes me as the kind of character who would enjoy the pun.
--
Mark Jeffcoat
Austin, TX
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