| 词条 | The Big U |
| 释义 |
| name = The Big U | image = Big-u-cover.png | caption = Reprint Cover | alt = A blue letterman jacket shown from the back with a large letter U emblazoned on it. | author = Neal Stephenson | country = United States | language = English | genre = Satire | publisher = Harper Perennial | pub_date = 1984 | media_type = Print (Hardback & Paperback) | pages = 320 | ISBN = 0-380-81603-2 | dewey = 813/.54 21 | congress = PS3569.T3868 B5 2001 | oclc = 45162137 }} The Big U (1984) is a novel by American writer Neal Stephenson. His first published novel, it is a satire of campus life. Plot {{anchor|Plot summary|Synopsis}}The story chronicles the disillusionment of a number of young intellectuals as they encounter the realities of the higher education establishment parodied in the story. Over time their lives and sanity disintegrate in different ways through a series of escalating events that culminates with a full-scale civil war raging on the campus of American Megaversity. Told in first person from the perspective of Bud, a lecturer in Remote Sensing who is new to the university, the book attacks and makes fun of just about every conceivable group at university, though its portraits of the nerds/computer scientists/role players tend to be more detailed than those of other factions. The events take place at a fictitious big university consisting of a single building (a central complex whose eight towers costudent housing), making the university an enclosed universe of its own. Stephenson uses this fact to take what starts as a mostly realistic satire and move it further and further into the realm of improbability, with giant radioactive rats, hordes of bats and a lab-made railgun. The book was written while Stephenson attended Boston University. The fictional campus' design is based on a BU dormitory, {{citation needed span|date=September 2017|text=Warren Towers.}} Located at 700 Commonwealth Avenue in Boston, Massachusetts, it is one of the largest dorms in the US. The character of President Septimius Severus Krupp shares a number of similarities with then–BU President John Silber, although his name -- like those of his predecessors as president of the big U -- is taken from one of the Roman Emperors from Commodus to Septimius Severus. The neon Big Wheel sign plays a part reminiscent of the Boston Citgo sign just east of the BU campus in Kenmore Square. Literary significance and criticismStephenson has said he is not proud of this book.[1] When Stephenson's Snow Crash was published in 1992, the book that became a best-seller and vaulted him to fame, The Big U was out of print and Stephenson was content to leave it that way. When original editions began selling on eBay for hundreds of dollars, he relented and allowed The Big U to be republished, saying that the only thing worse than people reading the book was paying that much to read it. Connections to Stephenson's later work
See also
References1. ^Neal Stephenson states that "The Big U is what it is: a first novel written in a hurry by a young man a long time ago." Author website {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110520092657/http://web.mac.com/nealstephenson/Neal_Stephensons_Site/Old_site.html |date=2011-05-20 }} Sources
5 : 1984 American novels|1984 science fiction novels|Novels by Neal Stephenson|Debut novels|Campus novels |
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