Anathem by Neal Stephenson

[lakse123]

For all you confused people, the music you are hearing is inspired by Tibetan Throat Singing (google it). It's all about overtones and resonance and is very appropriate for a Monastic setting.

[BradyHallBook]

@lakse123 The music is actually from a CD that was included with the Advanced Reading Copy of the book. The songs were composed specifically for the book and tried to achieve the singing style described in the story. You can Google more info by using the words "iolet" along with anathem".

[alanvalentinus]

where did you get this music? it sounds way off key.

[lebarosky]

This is a brilliant film of the book considering it was made on a shoestring, and a thin shoestring at that.

[LaneTheSlain]

Im a writer dad not a bibliophile! The difference being ones an occupation and the others an interest!

[DantonTheWerewolf]

I wish my voice could go that low.

[pollyserial]

I actually think the music is ok in this clip but the film-making really doesn't do the book justice.

[dbuggridbug]

I have chills. I didn't hate the music, I thought it was fantastic. It is exactly right for the book. Changing it would be wrong.

Please tell me there is a movie being made. This is one of my favorite books of all time.

[dmgoddard]

Dear God,

Please let there be a movie based on this book.

Please let Neal Stephenson get a bazillion dollars for it (he deserves it!)

Please let the epic motion picture not use this music.

Thanks.

[edwebo]

this music sucks balls. someone below said that it suited it because of what's in the book, but who cares. I've read the book and I would be gutted if someone actually tried to make this movie true to the book in that sense.

It would be terrible movie material if you used the chanting as the theme music! WTF you crazy?!

Not to mention the way this trailer was done does kind of make it seem like a parody. Sorry, but it does. I mean guys in NFL tops to represent all the Saecular?! WTF?!

[likeineeded]

if you love the book, then the music should make perfect sense. perhaps you need to re-read it? shrug This book needs to be made into a series of movies. They'll ruin it, of course, but it still needs to happen.

[spacewanderer1]

The music would be better suited for the trailer for Anathem: The Parody.

[FractalBolt]

Good trailer. What's the music? It sounds like one of those Buddhist chants.

[bottlezone]

oooo-errrrr-eeee-errrr lol

Love the book book. Strange music, though.

[yolfer]

6 slines clicked the "dislike" button

[yserbius123]

1:28 Bearded face on the screen is Neal Stephenson

[inqueling]

That was rather embarrassing. The book is rich and layered enough to sell itself. Strange that it got made considering the book's disdain for synergistic bullshytt like this. Oh well; considering the negligible profit margin this represents maybe it was made mostly for fun.

[eponodyne]

I think I'm experiencing causal domain shear from knowing a movie COULD be made from this. I want to find a Narrative where I can go watch it.

[dschoneberg]

On a re-read, I see it mentioned that people from Earth could be mistaken for Arbrans from 50 feet away, but up close the color and texture of their skin and hair is clearly alien. Makes me wonder what the Arbrans should look like.

[LockePhilote]

I love this book. The view of the world presented here is especially of interest, going straignt to the heart of a question for which there is no answer. Does any of this really matter? Does anything really matter? Our empires will fade away, fragments of a memory, lost to the sands of time. Eventually, everything must pass. So...does what we do here and now with what time we have of importance, or are we deluding ourselves into thinking so? Does life have meaning? ... I think the answer is love

[UniversalMonad]

@LockePhilote The answer is to engage in long-term projects of lasting significance. The avout work their entire lives to find the truth and preserve their knowledge and traditions.

[pm2424]

Just finished reading Anathem and watched this video for the first time just now. To me, It was quite interesting as I recognized all the scenes. The needle mapping of the plasma bursts was really amazing to see on screen. A lot of it is as I imagined but the most distinctively different thing that my imagination could never factor into my own narrative of the story was the different races of characters that this video shows.

I can't imagine listening to the story, the concepts needs to be read

[TheDSil]

Well edited and clearly born of passion, but I'm afraid the slines wearing jeans and sports jerseys ruined the illusion for me. A little too familiar.

[dschoneberg]

@TheDSil The sports jerseys are pretty close to as described in the book, though not quite long enough (they are described as reaching down to the knees and the sleeves starting at the elbow), but the jeans aren't right. The pants the slines wore were only a hands-breadth below the hem of the jersey, and there are supposed to be big puffy shoes under those.

[stormrage2007]

Fraa Lodoghir was black?!!

[Tiddlefish]

i thought the book was gonna be like a fantasy worldby the blurb and cover. but it turned out to be earth as a spilling out from his own mind and criticizing beliefs etc...for no obvious reason. And do we really need to understand how the universe works?

[xanderthegreatt]

hahahah this made me laugh so hard...

I'm really glad I read teh book before seeing this, it really would have turned me off of it...

soooo cheesy lol

[EbClectic]

Neal Stephenson is one crazy sommomabitch.

But i love him.

[KingMP21]

I'm about halfway through the book. Took me like 200 pages to really start getting into it a lot, but it's turning out to be my favorite book of all time. Neal Stephenson is such an intelligent writer.

[pm2424]

@KingMP21 Too True.

I too was peeved by all the philosophy and the new words that it was a struggle to comprehend initially. After I'd gotten used to the vocabulary I couldn't put it down and it blew my mind.

I plan to read it again.

[ravendmytryk]

While reading the book, I was apprehensive about Zh'Vaern's last name being... Shaftoe. It wasn't.

[Track19Films]

@ravendmytryk My thoughts exactly. Could also be Waterhouse.

[hlake911]

they made a movie of this ?

[yarndovitch2]

trailer is really low quality, but it may have been due to the budget, which is understandable.

book was fantastic.

[luarionte]

@yarndovitch2

Well...

How many books do you know which have their own trailers?

[robgonzo]

The character are not as I pictured them but all these scenes make so much more sense after reading the book. This is great!

[ITreehugger]

The book was literally one of the best I've ever read. But the trailer is kinda crappy. I do NOT see Fraa Erasmas as Asian...

[robinmaas]

That was quite a bad trailer... curious about the book though...

[luarionte]

Anathem is the only book that has an actuall video trailer (i think)!!!!

I mean how GREAT is that! :)

[UniversalMonad]

Neal Stephenson is on the screen in the city.

[dougim]

The actor playing Lio in the video really reminds me of Johnny Depp, for some reason.

What I keep wondering is, is this something Stephenson did on his own with local people, or is it something the publishing company did. In any event, it's pretty durn good.

[knowledgejockey]

I found this trailer after finishing the book. Read this book - one of the coolest yarns of all time

[clearmenser]

Damn, that was pretty good!

[TravisBick1e]

Breakdown of the characters depicted:

Ala 0:11

Erasmas 0:14

Lio 0:47

Ringing Valer 1:34

Lodoghir 1:42

Zh'Vaern 1:48

Jad 1:52

Orolo 2:00 (Anathem Wikia says this is Jad again, but the actor looks different...I could be mistaken)

[TravisBick1e]

Zh'vaern at 1:46, sorry.

[beowulfcicero]

@TravisBick1e One piece of evidence that the man at 2:00 is Jad rather than Orolo is that triangular thing he's handling. It looks as if it could be a tile from the Teglon. I don't know of any other very specific thing from the novel that it would be.

[astein03]

@TravisBick1e Pretty sure thats Jad. I'm pretty sure that Orolo is middle aged in the book and not older.

[dschoneberg]

@TravisBick1e Author cameo at 1:31 (on the screen between the skull and the creepy child).

[anjiaoshi]

@TravisBick1e I think 1:42 is Sark, the Kelx priest.

[UniversalMonad]

@anjiaoshi It's definitely Lodoghir at the Messal; that's why Erasmas is standing behind him.

[quantumechanix]

@anjiaoshi i agree because of the triangle that he is manipulating in the clip.

[googiek]

@TravisBick1e at 2:00, I think it might be Jad because he is holding a piece of the Teglon puzzle

[pgabrieli]

@TravisBick1e one more "character": neil stephenson 1:30 (upper left screen)! :-)

[alanvalentinus]

@TravisBick1e I think its Jad. Orolo seemed younger to me, and it looks very much the same actor to me.

[beowulfcicero]

Some aspects of this video seem really well done, and I wouldn't have expected such a thing except for a movie. The airplane scene is clumsy; the dramatic illusion just isn't there in that one.

Who's the black guy who's orating? The Kelx Magister? Orolo? Lodoghir?

[beowulfcicero]

(I replied to my own question earlier; for some reason it hasn't appeared on this page.)

In the Anathem Wiki, I find the orator identified as Lodoghir.

[UniversalMonad]

I think it's Lodoghir.

[EpicHiroDJ]

wtf, "in a world that is not earth" ?....... total spoiler if u chose to forgo the foreword : /

such an awesome book tho, and i agree, a trailer for a book is weird .......

[VegeBrain]

It's not a spoiler; in the Introduction to the book Neal Stephenson says his book is about another planet.

[joeldipops]

Holy crap. Y'know I didn't even know they made trailers for books.

[RobertKosten]

I first saw this trailer before reading the book and I didn't understand it, it seemed so incoherent. Reading the book for a second time just now made me go back to this and I have to say it almost gives away too much! Funny impression that :-P It's probably good as it is then ;-) Go, read the book, if you're a geek you'll probably fondly remember you own youth and discussions with friends on the nature of the universe. I loved it, for what it's worth :-)

[Celedam]

Ditto. It was gibberish when I first watched it last year, and now every bit of it makes perfect sense.

That's really not how I pictured Lio, though.

[RobotDevilsAdvocate]

@Celedam Agreed. He was called "Thistlehead" for a reason. When Raz meets him again at the Convox (if I remember correctly) he comments on his scratchy head. He is probably shaved like the Ringing Valers. Also, Raz and Lio should be bigger, both were described as "oxes."

[canislupusnova]

WANT!

well done, really well done :)