Reading the Chunksters discussion

One of my grandfathers was in the British navy in WW2, but as he had been a shipping broker before the war, he was mostly based in the British ports planning naval maneuvres and convoys. No real fighting. My other grandfather was in a protected occupation in an iron foundry.

My niece's boyfriend is in the army now. He's been to a country where there is unrest, but not exactly to a war zone as far as I know.

Are you still in the military, Lorna?

The Phreaking chapter was an eye-opener! I had no idea that level of spying was possible, but it is a real thing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_Eck...

Otherwise I'm still struggling to figure out what Randy and his buddies are doing, exactly. Sometimes I think they're not sure themselves (except for Avi).

Antaeus stood out more for me, with Alan recognising Rudy's writing as you said. And Afloat, that was almost like Hunger Games, with everybody getting killed off in different and newly horrible ways until only one is left!

That was my favourite chapter.

"Do I look like a Negro yet?" Shaftoe asks Root.
"I have traveled a bit," Root says, "and you don't look like a Negro to me. But to a German who has never seen the genuine article, and who's looking through a periscope--what the heck?"

It's all a bit bizarre. There is the question of why they disguise themselves, as you say, Lorna, and also why Root and Shaftoe appear to hang around in the sea waiting to be captured while everyone else is picked up by the Royal Navy submarine (and then sadly torpedoed, but I don't think that was in the plan...)

Rosemary wrote: "The Phreaking chapter was an eye-opener! I had no idea that level of spying was possible, but it is a real thing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_Eck...

Otherwise I'm still struggling to ..."

Thanks for the link. I thought that part of Phreaking was interesting too. I didn't know that level of spying was possible before hearing you say this. Although, I assumed it could be possible. I knew that this was along the same lines for how they are designing thought controlled computers.

I had some stock in a technology company a few years ago who was researching the way alpha waves could be used to control a computer. It is all very science fiction-like. :)

https://www.computerworld.com/article...

Lorna wrote: "Okay this book has gotten wilder and wilder and if you've done the reading you know what I'm taking about:..."

Totally know what you are talking about. Just wow!

There were so many things that I loved about this section. I loved the point of view of Yamamoto. To reflect on those last private moments he had before his plane crashed was so bold and brilliant, in my opinion. It just makes me realize how special life is, which seems like a simplistic way to describe something that feels too complex for me to explain properly.

My favorite quote from the chapter was, "As the seat tears loose from the broken dome and launches into space, he grips his sword, unwilling to disgrace himself by dropping his sacred weapon."

I also liked how there are little reminders here and there that this is still a fictional story. Sometimes, the lines blur a little bit with the presence of Turing. I have to remind myself that this isn't actually what happened because Lawrence and Rudy are fictional characters, but with the war, the Germans, and Turing. Sometimes, I get a little lost and go to a place where I start to question whether this is what actually happened.

Then, I am snapped back to reality when I see Finux, which is obviously the fictional version of Linux. I think it is so clever the way the real history is scattered throughout a story without losing the ability to see that this is not a true story.

I didn't really catch the control Stephenson has over the story until now even though he has been using Nipponese instead of Japanese the whole time. It would be incredibly difficult to separate the fiction from the reality if he had referred to them as the Japanese.

Does anyone else lose sight sometimes that this is a fictional story?

It would be a much better tv show than a movie. I hate when they cut long books down for a movie.

What a fun question too. I have never done that before but that sounds like fun.

I’m just getting back to this and finished the Skipping chapter. Wow, what a heart pounding chapter! There have been a couple of really great action sequences with this one and the one where Shaftoe rescues the safe and morphine from the U-boat.

I just finished the Antaeus chapter. From skimming the above comments it sounds like I have some exciting chapters coming up!

I'm not hosting Thanksgiving either, but I've just been busy with other things lately and my brain has been mush when it comes to concentrating on reading my print books. As to preparing for Thursday, I am making stuffing and pumpkin pie (this is the first year I grew my own sugar pie pumpkins and made the puree, so crossing my fingers the end product turns out OK). I'll probably make orange-cranberry relish too, although my cousin and I are usually the only ones who eat it. lol.

I just read the Phreaking chapter. Count me in as another who had no idea this level of spying was possible. I’m glad I googled van Eck phreaking when it was first mentioned so I understood what was going on, but the details described in the book flew right over my head. The content of Tom Howard’s word document sure took a sharp turn from reading about the intricacies of spying, though! I couldn’t help but laugh at the punchline at the end of the story.

Without trying to flip back in the book and find it, I can’t remember when Tom Howard was introduced and why Randy et al are spying on him.

I was puzzled for a second when Randy spied the “palmtop computer” on the bed and it was said that “Randy’s heard of this product”. Then I remembered that this book was published nearly 20 years ago and that we did not all have “palmtops” in the name of iPhones and such back then. And that 20 years back doesn’t feel like so long ago. :(

@linda I lost track of when Tom was introduced too, so I was inspired to figure it out since I am not the only one. Turns out he is part of the Epiphyte corporation and was introduced in the chapter Nondisclosure.

He is introduced with Cantrell, and the two appear to be pretty close. They both were wearing bracelets with instructions to freeze them if they were found near death so they could be revived at a later date when technology had advanced to the point to bring them back to life.

In the chapter Crypt, it says he is the vice president for systems technology at Epiphyte corporations and it looks like he is putting together the backend of the cryptocurrency system they are building, which is called the Crypt for short.

He was definitely under the radar before Cantrell tried to win a bet he made with him. I guess Tom said that phreaking wasn't possible and Cantrell was determined to show him that it was, which gave us a more detailed look into the life of someone with a stocking fetish. lol

Linda wrote: "I was puzzled for a second when Randy spied the “palmtop computer” on the bed and it was said that “Randy’s heard of this product”. Then I remembered that this book was published nearly 20 years ago and that we did not all have “palmtops” in the name of iPhones and such back then. And that 20 years back doesn’t feel like so long ago. :( "

I know, right? The Palm PDA! My boss had one, and he used to spend way more time syncing the darn thing than he ever saved by using it. It feels like ancient history, and then it feels like just yesterday ...

Rosemary wrote: "I know, right? The Palm PDA!"

Ha ha! I was never (and will never be) a person who keeps up on the latest tech, but I remember our IT person here at work having one too way back when. I tend to upgrade to the "newest" tech after about 95% of the people around me already have it. To illustrate, I still had a flip-phone this time last year. :D

Marie wrote: "@linda I lost track of when Tom was introduced too, so I was inspired to figure it out since I am not the only one. Turns out he is part of the Epiphyte corporation and was introduced in the chapte..."

Thank you, Marie! OK, now I remember the whole bracelet and freezing bit, so that helps out a bunch.

Oh gosh. Reading the Afloat chapter on Thanksgiving day was probably not the best idea. That was unsettling and horrific. :(

Yes, the Hunger Games comparison is perfect for the Goto chapter. I really felt bad for the survivor who made it all the way to shore, so happy and in disbelief that he was laughing, only to be bitten by a deadly snake. But I would have rather been him than the poor guy who got captured by the New Guineans. I liked this chapter too, it was just that the last sentence did not leave a good visual in my mind as I was about to go enjoy a meal. Lol.

Shaftoe asking if he looked like a negro yet was hilarious. I thought they all donned the disguise because it was a Trinidadian ship they were using, so they wanted to blend in and not look like obviously allied naval units.