So many of our favorite themes are showing up again in this book! The first major one that I noticed was paranoia, our good buddy from pretty much every novel we've read this semester. Of course, since the novel is about codes and encryption and war, paranoia is huge. I really liked Stephenson's recognition of the paranoia, though; on page 53, he writes, "The question is: how much paranoia is really appropriate?" I guess I liked the implication here that sometimes paranoia goes over the top (see Gravity's Rainbow), and that there's a fine line to be drawn between too much and not enough paranoia.

Our second old friend is shit (seen mostly in Gravity's Rainbow but also in Underworld and Infinite Jest in the form of waste). I'm not sure if this is a theme I'm really glad to see again, but oh well. It shows up when Randy is in Manila and he comes across "a large , crisp rectangular hole in the sidewalk, and stared down into a running flume of raw sewage" (90). Stephenson goes on to describe the public latrines that are created by squatters. I'm not entirely sure what it means in the novel (or in Gravity's Rainbow, where it featured most promiently), but I guess we'll find out.

I think it's pretty cool that these novels all have similar themes (although I suppose that's probably one reason that they were chosen for the course). Any other common threads throughout them that anyone can think of?