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stoutfellowI'm currently making my slow way through The System of the World, the third volume of Neal Stephenson's "Baroque Cycle". Stephenson almost always enchants me; he spins a good story, and (Shandyite that I am) I love his odd digressions. But there's something about this book that isn't sitting well with me.
The story is told, for the most part, from the point of view of Dr. Daniel Waterhouse, an elderly scholar who has returned to England from Massachusetts Colony in the early 1700s. Stephenson takes some pains to use period language (and, sometimes, spelling), but sometimes he - I'll say "deviates", rather than "stumbles". So far - about a quarter of the way through - I've seen him use the words "mesmerist" and "scientist" and allude to the phrase "(willing) suspension of disbelief". Given that the infamous Dr. Mesmer lived in the early 19th century, the first is definitely an anachronism. I'm less sure about the second, but I seem to recall that that word didn't come into common use until the mid-to-late 19th century. ("Natural philosopher" was the preferred term earlier, followed by a brief vogue for "sciencist".) And any SF fan knows that the last phrase was the coinage of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, again in the 19th.
It annoys me, because Stephenson is usually pretty good about matters of language; I learned some very nice bits of etymology from the earlier volumes of this very series. The most charitable interpretation I can see is that he's doing it on purpose - but I can't see why.
The story is told, for the most part, from the point of view of Dr. Daniel Waterhouse, an elderly scholar who has returned to England from Massachusetts Colony in the early 1700s. Stephenson takes some pains to use period language (and, sometimes, spelling), but sometimes he - I'll say "deviates", rather than "stumbles". So far - about a quarter of the way through - I've seen him use the words "mesmerist" and "scientist" and allude to the phrase "(willing) suspension of disbelief". Given that the infamous Dr. Mesmer lived in the early 19th century, the first is definitely an anachronism. I'm less sure about the second, but I seem to recall that that word didn't come into common use until the mid-to-late 19th century. ("Natural philosopher" was the preferred term earlier, followed by a brief vogue for "sciencist".) And any SF fan knows that the last phrase was the coinage of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, again in the 19th.
It annoys me, because Stephenson is usually pretty good about matters of language; I learned some very nice bits of etymology from the earlier volumes of this very series. The most charitable interpretation I can see is that he's doing it on purpose - but I can't see why.
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Date: 2008-12-14 11:00 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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