"Interface"

I just finished Stephen Bury and Neal Stephenson's Interface. The book was decently good, but I found the conclusion dissatisfying. It felt like a deus ex machina, insofar as all the actions were sped-up and suddenly everything came together; however, it was not optimistic. Even the characters I liked turned out to be slightly crooked.

Despite my quarrels with the conclusion, the writing was as crisp and clever as I've come to expect from Neal Stephenson. My favorite piece -- that made me laugh aloud -- was this (p. 148):

The operations were conceptually simple. Incisions were made along lines that had been drawn along the lines that had been drawn on the patients' shaven heads.
...
"It was a debacle. I am personally ashamed. I will never do anything like that again. The level of incompetence makes me physically ill. I may shoot myself," Dr. Radhakrishnan was saying.

It builds so nicely. It's not just a debacle, he's not just personally ashamed. The text crescendos.

This post's theme word, pong, colloquially, can mean, "a strong, unpleasant smell; a stink." I heard it used thusly in the phrase, "a bestial and pongoid fashion." I think. Otherwise, I've no idea what "pongoid" means. The OED also has "pong" as derisive slang for a person of Asian descent.

Subjunctive

Thank you, years of Latin and French, for giving me the knowledge to use the subjunctive in my writing, and the confidence to defend its use. Would that knowledge of the subjunctive were more widespread!


This post's theme word: catachresis, "the misuse of words."