Cryptonomicon


Cryptonomicon is a 1999 novel by American author Neal Stephenson, set in two different time periods. One group of characters are World War II–era Allied codebreakers and tactical-deception operatives affiliated with the British Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley Park, and disillusioned Axis military and intelligence figures. The second narrative is set in the late 1990s, with characters that are descendants of those of the earlier time period, who employ cryptologic, telecom, and computer technology to build an underground data haven in the fictional Sultanate of Kinakuta. Their goal is to facilitate anonymous Internet banking using electronic money and digital gold currency, with a long-term objective to distribute Holocaust Education and Avoidance Pod media for instructing genocide-target populations on defensive warfare.

Genre and subject matter

Cryptonomicon is closer to the genres of historical fiction and contemporary techno-thriller than to the science fiction of Stephenson's two previous novels, Snow Crash and The Diamond Age. It features fictionalized characterizations of such historical figures as Alan Turing, Albert Einstein, Douglas MacArthur, Winston Churchill, Isoroku Yamamoto, Karl Dönitz, Hermann Göring, and Ronald Reagan, as well as some highly technical and detailed descriptions of modern cryptography and information security, with discussions of prime numbers, modular arithmetic, and Van Eck phreaking.

Title

According to Stephenson, the title is a play on Necronomicon, the title of a book mentioned in the stories of horror writer H. P. Lovecraft:
The novel's Cryptonomicon, described as a "cryptographer's bible", is a fictional book summarizing America's knowledge of cryptography and cryptanalysis. Begun by John Wilkins and amended over time by William Friedman, Lawrence Waterhouse, and others, the Cryptonomicon is described by Katherine Hayles as "a kind of Kabala created by a Brotherhood of Code that stretches across centuries. To know its contents is to qualify as a Morlock among the Eloi, and the elite among the elite are those gifted enough actually to contribute to it."

Plot

The action takes place in two periods—World War II and the late 1990s, during the Internet boom and the Asian financial crisis.
In 1942, Lawrence Pritchard Waterhouse, a young United States Navy code breaker and mathematical savant, is assigned to the newly formed joint British and American Detachment 2702. This ultra-secret unit's role is to hide the fact that Allied intelligence has cracked the German Enigma code. The detachment stages events, often behind enemy lines, that provide alternative explanations for the Allied intelligence successes. United States Marine sergeant Bobby Shaftoe, a veteran of China and Guadalcanal, serves in unit 2702, carrying out Waterhouse's plans. At the same time, Japanese soldiers, including mining engineer Goto Dengo, a "friendly enemy" of Shaftoe's, are assigned to build a mysterious bunker in the mountains in the Philippines as part of what turns out to be a literal suicide mission.
Circa 1997, Randy Waterhouse joins his old role-playing game companion Avi Halaby in a new startup, providing Pinoy-grams to migrant Filipinos via new fiber-optic cables. The Epiphyte Corporation uses this income stream to fund the creation of a data haven in the nearby fictional Sultanate of Kinakuta. Vietnam veteran Doug Shaftoe, the son of Bobby Shaftoe, and his daughter Amy do the undersea surveying for the cables and engineering work on the haven, which is overseen by Goto Furudenendu, heir-apparent to Goto Engineering. Complications arise as figures from the past reappear seeking gold or revenge.

Characters

World War II storyline

Fictional characters

  • Sgt. Robert "Bobby" Shaftoe, a gung-ho, haiku-writing United States Marine Raider.
  • Lawrence Pritchard Waterhouse, an American cryptographer/mathematician serving as an officer in the United States Navy, although he is known to wear an Army uniform if the situation calls for it.
  • Günter Bischoff, a Kapitänleutnant in the Kriegsmarine, who commands a U-boat for much of the story, and later takes command of a new, advanced submarine fueled with hydrogen peroxide.
  • Rudolf "Rudy" von Hacklheber, a non-Nazi German mathematician and cryptographer, who spent time attending Princeton University, where he had a romantic relationship with Alan Turing and befriended Waterhouse. He seems to know more about the mysterious Societas Eruditorum than any non-member.
  • Earl Comstock, a former Electrical Till Corp. executive and US Army officer, who eventually founds the NSA and becomes a key policy maker for US involvement in the Second Indochina War.
  • Julieta Kivistik, a Finnish woman who assists some of the World War II characters when they find themselves stranded in Sweden, and who later gives birth to a baby boy whose paternity is uncertain.
  • “Uncle” Otto Kivistik, Julieta's uncle, who runs a successful smuggling ring between neutral Sweden, Finland, and the USSR during World War II.
  • Mary cCmndhd, a member of a Qwghlmian immigrant community living in Australia, who catches the attention of Lawrence Waterhouse while he is stationed in Brisbane.
  • Glory Altamira, a nursing student and Bobby Shaftoe's Filipina lover. She becomes a member of the Philippine resistance movement during the Japanese occupation. Mother of Douglas MacArthur Shaftoe.
  • Karl Beck, Bischoff's executive officer. He temporarily relieves his captain of command for an alleged mental breakdown but later relinquishes command back to Bischoff after their entire crew is deemed expendable by their superiors.

    Historical figures

Fictionalized versions of several historical figures appear in the World War II storyline:
  • Alan Turing, the cryptographer and computer scientist, is a colleague and friend of Lawrence Waterhouse and sometime lover of Rudy von Hacklheber.
  • Douglas MacArthur, the famed U.S. Army general, who takes a central role toward the end of the World War II timeline.
  • Karl Dönitz, Großadmiral of the Kriegsmarine, is never actually seen as a character but issues orders to his U-boats, including the one captained by Bischoff. Bischoff threatens to reveal information about hidden war gold unless Dönitz rescinds an order to sink his submarine.
  • Hermann Göring, who appears extensively in the recollections of Rudy von Hacklheber as Rudy recounts how Göring tried recruiting him as a cryptographer for the Nazis: Rudy delivers an intentionally weakened system, reserving the full system for the use of the conspiracy among the characters to locate hidden gold.
  • Future United States President Ronald Reagan is depicted during his wartime service as an officer in the U.S. Army Air Corps Public Relations branch's 1st Motion Picture Unit. He attempts to film an interview with the recuperating and morphine-addled Bobby Shaftoe, who spoils the production with his account of a giant lizard attack and his harsh criticism of General MacArthur.
  • Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto's 1943 death at the hands of U.S. Army fighter aircraft during Operation Vengeance over Bougainville Island fills an entire chapter. During his fateful flight, the Commander-in-Chief of the Japanese Imperial Navy's Combined Fleet reflects upon the failures and hubris of his Imperial Army counterparts, who persistently underestimate the cunning and ferocity of their Allied opponents in the Pacific Theatre of Operations. As his damaged transport plane completes its terminal descent, Yamamoto realizes that all of the Japanese military codes have been broken, which explains why he is "on fire and hurtling through the jungle at a hundred miles per hour in a chair, closely pursued by tons of flaming junk."
  • Albert Einstein brushes off a young Lawrence Waterhouse's request for advice. During his year of undergraduate study at Princeton, Waterhouse periodically wanders the halls of the Institute for Advanced Study, randomly asking mathematicians for advice on how to make intricate calculations for his "sprocket question," which is how he eventually meets Turing.
  • Harvest, an early supercomputer built by IBM for the National Security Agency for cryptanalysis. The fictionalized Harvest became operational in the early 1950s, under the supervision of Earl Comstock, while the actual system was installed in 1962.

    1990s storyline

The precise date of this storyline is not established, but the ages of characters, the technologies described, and certain date-specific references suggest that it is set in the late 1990s, at the time of the internet boom and the Asian financial crisis.
  • Randall "Randy" Lawrence Waterhouse, eldest grandson of Lawrence and Mary Waterhouse and an expert systems and network administrator with the Epiphyte corporation. He is mentioned in Stephenson's 2019 novel Fall, in which he has amassed a fortune that led to the creation of a charitable Foundation bearing his name.
  • Avi "Avid" Halaby, Randy's business partner in Epiphyte, of which he is the CEO. He is descended on his mother's side from New Mexican Crypto-Jews, which detail, while seemingly included as a pun, is explored further in The Baroque Cycle. Avi is obsessed with using technology to prevent future genocides, namely by creating a handbook of basic technology and defense practices. His nickname Avid comes from his love of role playing games.
  • America "Amy" Shaftoe, Bobby Shaftoe's granddaughter who has moved from the U.S. to the Philippines to live with her father Doug. Amy is a boat captain, and accomplished diver.
  • Dr. Hubert Kepler, a.k.a. "The Dentist," predatory billionaire investment fund manager, Randy and Avi's business rival.
  • Eberhard Föhr, a member of Epiphyte and an expert in biometrics.
  • John Cantrell, a member of Epiphyte, a libertarian who is an expert in cryptography and who wrote the fictional cryptography program Ordo.
  • Tom Howard, a member of Epiphyte, a libertarian and firearms enthusiast who is an expert in large computer installations.
  • Beryl Hagen, chief financial officer of Epiphyte and veteran of a dozen startups.
  • Charlene, a liberal arts academic and Randy's girlfriend at the beginning of the novel, who later moves to New Haven, Connecticut, to live and work with Dr. G.E.B. Kivistik.
  • Andrew Loeb, a former friend and now Randy's enemy, a survivalist and neo-Luddite whose lawsuits destroyed Randy and Avi's first start-up, and who at the time of the novel works as a lawyer for Hubert Kepler. He is referred to by Randy as "Gollum," comparing him to that character in the novels of J. R. R. Tolkien.