Literacy in The Diamond Age

The Diamond Age, a postcyberpunk novel by Neal Stephenson, doesn’t quite stick to the high-tech/low-life cliche of classic cyberpunk novels. In “Notes Towards A Postcyberpunk Manifesto,” Lawrence Person says that cyberpunk characters try to topple social orders, while postcyberpunk characters try to live inside the rules of them or build better ones. In The Diamond Age, while there are many different classes (social status, and legal status as well are determined by what religion, or “phyle” you belong to), there is one distinct middle class, the Victorians, and one distinct upper class, the Equity Lords. They are able to stay on top by being the only classes that are able to read - the lower class, the inhabitants of the Leased Territories, are only able to understand “mediaglyphics,” animated picture writing. Being illiterate hurts the lower-class characters of The Diamond Age by removing their opportunities and alienating them from society.

Towards the beginning of The Diamond Age, Nell, one of the protagonists, is trying to figure out how to use a matter compiler - basically a 3D printer that will make anything. Its interface is completely in mediaglyphics. Her brother, Harv calls it the M.C, and Nell asks him why. Harv says that“[Letters are] Kinda like mediaglyphics except they're all black, and they're tiny, they don't move, they're old and boring and really hard to read.” (Stephenson, 101)

Harv is saying that he doesn’t know - letters are boring, mysterious symbols that are only useful for making long words shorter. The fact that Nell, Harv, and the rest of the lower class don’t know how to read or write puts them at a disadvantage because they are unable to question things that are told to them. If they were to be arrested for a crime, they would not be able to read the laws to defend themselves. The part where Harv mentions letters being old is interesting because letters certainly are still relevant in The Diamond Age - all the decisions being made for Nell and Harv, all the laws being made, and even the designs for all the technology that is created to display mediaglyphics - are all in letters.

At one point in the book, Dr. X, who lives in the Leased Territories and manipulates Harv and his friends into committing petty crimes to serve his ulterior motives, sends a beautifully calligraphed scroll to a judge, inviting him to dinner on his yacht. This sets a massive chain of events in progress, including the judge resigning, the inventor of The Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer being coerced into redesigning it so 500,000 copies can be made for orphaned girls, and the same inventor being coerced into being a double agent for the Equity Lords with the compensation that he, too, can be knighted and become an Equity Lord. Not knowing how to read English, Nell, Harv, and the rest of the people from the Leased Territories could never be a part of something like this. Instead, they are reduced to pawns used for setting these events in motion.

Later in The Diamond Age, Harv mugs a Victorian with his buddies and finds a book. He brings it home for Nell, thinking it is probably junk. It turns out that it is the state of the art Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer, designed and manufactured especially for an Equity Lord’s daughter. It is designed to raise a young girl with the right mix of practical lessons and subversive stories, so that she has the right mindset to do great things in life. Over a period of two years, the Primer teaches Nell how to read while telling her stories to help her deal with her mother’s abusive boyfriends. Eventually, she is told by the book to run away. Nell and Harv are hiding when Harv tells her that they need to talk about the Primer. “Why must we talk about it?” Nell asks. This being a sentence straight from the Primer, Harv doesn’t know how to interpret it.

“‘Huh?’ Harv said in the dopey voice he affected whenever Nell talked fancy.” (Stephenson, 464)

Even though Nell is being taught how to read and her vocabulary is expanding - which is certainly good - she is being alienated from her brother by this. Throughout the years of her mother’s boyfriends abusing her, the Primer and her brother have been her only friends, and she is becoming less close to her brother, simply because of her language.

Guided by the Primer and Nell’s wits, Nell and Harv eventually make it to Dovetail, a small middle-class town which exists to make handmade goods for the the New Atlantans, a Victorian clave. Harv does not know what to do in this environment and runs away, which is reflected in the Primer by Peter Rabbit, one of Nell’s four guardians and friends leaving. Nell is taken by Rita, a woman who lives in Dovetail, to New Atlantis to study in a Victorian school. Rita leaves Nell waiting on the sidewalk for a while, and apologizes saying that she had to socialize due to protocol. Nell flatly tells her to “explain protocol,” as if she was talking to the Primer. Rita tells her to watch her manners, so Nell responds by saying “Would it impose on your time unduly to provide me with a concise explanation of the term protocol?” (Stephenson, 560)

Rita is scared, and responds with a nervous laugh. Despite the Primer being an good influence on Nell’s development and teaching her very much about language, Nell is not just being alienated from the people in her community. They see her as too good for them. Nell doesn’t belong with the people of Dovetail or the Victorians either - they see her as a threat. In a society where everyone has the same literacy, this would not have happened. However, if different classes have different levels of literacy - or even different languages - it becomes even harder to break free of your class and social status.

Works Cited:

Person, Lawrence. "Notes Towards a Postcyberpunk Manifesto." Slashdot. N.p., 09 Oct 1999. Web. 28 Oct 2013. <http://slashdot.org/story/99/10/08/2123255/notes-toward-a-postcyberpunk-manifesto>.

Stephenson, Neal. The Diamond Age. New York: Ballantine, 1995. eBook.