the encyclopedic entry of anathem

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Plot summary

Anathem is set on a planet called Arbre, where the protagonist, Erasmas, is among a cohort of secluded scientists, philosophers and mathematicians who are called upon to save the world from impending catastrophe. Erasmas - Raz to his friends - has spent most of his life inside a 3,400-year-old sanctuary. The rest of society — the Sæcular world — is described as an "endless landscape of casinos and megastores that is plagued by recurring cycles of booms and busts, dark ages and renaissances, world wars and climate change." Their planet, Arbre, has a history and culture that is roughly analogous to Earth. Resident scholars, including Raz, are unexpectedly summoned by a frightened Sæcular power to leave their monastic stronghold in the hope that they may prevent an approaching catastrophe.

Characters

Erasmas: The protagonist of Anathem; a decenarian of the Edharian chapter in the Math of Saunt Edhar. He lacks many of the positive qualities of other characters, but happens to consistently be in the right place at the right time.

Arsibalt: A fraa from Math of Saunt Edhar, and one of Erasmas' friends.

Jesry: A fraa from the Math of Saunt Edhar, and one of Erasmas' friends. Unlike Erasmas, Jesry is from a burger family, and is bored with the routine Mathic life leading up to his evokation. He becomes famous for going into space with the Warden of Heaven to investigate the Geometers' ship.

Lio: A fraa from the Math of Saunt Edhar, and one of Erasmas' friends. He shows great interest in vlor (vale lore) and all forms of weaponry and warfare.

Ala: A suur from Math of Saunt Edhar, and later a major organizer of the Convox. Though they do not like each other initially, she and Erasmus develop a relationship throughout the book.

Jad: A millenarian from the Math of Saunt Edhar. Jad is evoked in the same aut as Erasmas, and accompanies him to Bly's Butte in search of Orolo. Later reappears at the Convox.

Orolo: Erasmas's main teacher and influence at Saunt Edhar. He recruits Erasmas into the Edharian Order, but is later Thrown Back for attempting to observe the Geometers long before their existence was confirmed. He dies at Ecba while saving the corpse of a Geometer.

Sammann: An Ita of Saunt Edhar, who accompanies Erasmas to Ecba after his evocation.

Cord: Erasmas' sister, who lives in the saecular world outside of Saunt Edhar. She accompanies Erasmas to Ecba after his evokation.

Production

The novel germinated subsequent to Stephenson's involvement with The Clock of the Long Now project, to which he contributed three pages of sketches and notes. A separate compact disc, entitled IOLET: Music from the World of Anathem, containing eight experimental vocal compositions by David Stutz, will be sold separately through CD Baby and the Long Now Foundation, with profits going to The Clock of the Long Now project .

To create the world of Arbre, Stephenson created an entirely new vocabulary. In order to familiarize the reader with the new words, many of which are analogous to English words and ideas, he put a glossary at the end of the book. Each chapter begins with a definition of one of these words, which usually relates to the chapter in some way. The title of the book takes its name from anathem, a mathic ritual by which one is expelled from the mathic world. The word is a dual derivation of "anthem" and "anathema."

Reception

"Anathem" received mostly positive reviews. Paul Boutin wrote in The Wall Street Journal that "the lasting satisfaction of "Anathem" derives … from Mr. Stephenson's wry contempt for today's just-Google-it mindset. His prose is dense, but his worldview contagious. On Salon.com, Andrew Leonard described the book as "a page turner and a philosophical argument, an adventure novel and an extended existential meditation, a physics lesson, sermon and ripping good yarn.

Michael Dirda of the Washington Post disagreed, remarking that "Anathem will certainly be admired for its intelligence, ambition, control and ingenuity", but describing it as "fundamentally unoriginal", "grandiose, overwrought and pretty damn dull.

The novel entered the The New York Times Best Seller list for Hardcover Fiction at number one.