All the books we've read so far have had the theme of connection. In the books we read before Cryptonomicon, the book connects little stories into one cohesive connected network of people whose lives influence each other. Cyrptonomicon has this aspect too. However, Cyrptonomicon focuses a lot on information and Avi and Randy's entire venture in Southeast Asia is to connect civilizations together. The book is about connecting people together and enabling them to pass information to each other in a variety of ways. On page 327, Goto Dengo is being gunned down by American soldiers while in the ocean which is on fire due to an oil spill. He thinks to himself as he is underwater, as a bullet flies in and slows to a stop quickly in the water.
"He stares at the bullet for a moment, greenish-silver in the underwater light, fresh from some factory in American. How did this bullet come from America to my hand? We have lost. The war is over."
I loved the way this is described. How did this bullet get all the way here? And the bullet means something to Goto. The bullet serves as its own original type of communication.
I think the theme of connection is also represented through deja vu. A lot of the connections I would find in the previous novels, for example, would make me jump in my seat and start frantically flipping backwards because I felt I had read something similar or the same in a previous section. On 218, Randy experiences deja vu when he finds the books in the footlocker, which oddly enough, he has seen before in his grandmother's closet.
I thought that scene with Goto underwater was really interesting and poignant. It was odd that a bullet he catches underwater would symbolize the end of the war and that his side had lost.
This is slightly tangential, but it reminded me of the scene in Underworld when Nick Shay talks about why he wanted the ball from the pennant game. He said that it wasn't about the winning, but about the mystery of loss. Goto's desire to keep the bullet kind of reminded me of that--he wants to keep the bullet that he believes symbolizes his country's loss.