2024-11-13
47 分钟Conversations with Tyler is produced by the Mercatus center at George Mason University, bridging the gap between academic ideas and real world problems.
Learn more@mercatus.org for a full transcript of every conversation enhanced with helpful links, visit conversationswithtyler.com hello everyone, and welcome back to Conversations with Tyler.
This is my second conversation with Neal Stephenson, who needs no introduction, but do let me tell you about Neil's new book, Polistan, which I read an advance copy of.
It's a very different kind of book.
I wasn't sure what to expect, but I very much liked it.
And the real test of this is when the book ends.
Are you sad that it wasn't longer?
And I was sad that it wasn't longer and I will be Pre ordering parts 2, 3 and whatever else comes.
Neil, welcome.
Good to be back.
How is it that you think about why you sometimes switch from showing us the future to illustrating the past?
You know, for me, it's a continuum.
All of my science fictiony books have had callbacks to historical, historical themes, some more than others.
And so to me, I, you know, I've always enjoyed history.
When I've had the opportunity to write historical fiction, I've greatly enjoyed it.
It's been a while since I went there.
It was like going home almost, you know, being able to go back and work in a historical setting again.
Sometimes I think that when the present and future are changing most rapidly, that's when we need to write about the past, that it's easier to speculate about the future when nothing's happening.
Well, it's interesting.
I mean, we're in a weird situation now where I think that the formal education, people's formal education in history is probably at an all time.