Enoch Root: Difference between revisions
Content deleted Content added
Richard Thieme attribution removed as per Stephenson confirmation of it being false. |
fix redirect |
||
| (45 intermediate revisions by 30 users not shown) | |||
| Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
#REDIRECT[[The_Baroque_Cycle#Characters]] |
|||
'''Enoch Root''' ('''Enoch the Red''') is a [[fictional character]] from [[Neal Stephenson|Neal Stephenson's]] [[novel]]s ''[[The Baroque Cycle]]'' and ''[[Cryptonomicon]]''. He is a religious leader by profession, but can handle himself in a fight, and is also competent in medicine, chemistry, and cryptography. He has ties to a semi-secret society known as the [[Societas Eruditorum]]. [[Randy Waterhouse]] describes him, simply, as a wizard. |
|||
Root possesses an alchemical means of rejuvenation called by [[Leibniz]] the ''[[elixir vitae]]'', which allows him to be [[Resurrection|resurrected]] after he dies, and be present in novels set in the 17th, 18th, and 20th centuries. He also has an uncanny ability to be at the right place at just the right time to influence other characters, so that they do something of importance. For example, Root sees [[Eliza (Stephenson character)|Eliza]] in an observatory in [[The Hague]], and shouts out a cryptic message that gets her to turn the telescope to the horizon, where she spots the sails of a French ship sailing in to abduct [[William III of England|William of Orange]]. Once she figures this out, Eliza rushes to the beach to help rescue the Prince. |
|||
Root's ''elixir vitae'' resurrects both [[Daniel Waterhouse]] and [[Sir Isaac Newton]] in ''[[The Baroque Cycle (novel)|The Baroque Cycle]]'', as well as curing [[Bobby Shaftoe]] and [[America Shaftoe]] in ''[[Cryptonomicon]]''. |
|||
How Root has what he has and does what he does is a mystery to readers. His last name may be a play on the concept of [[Superuser|root user]], the superuser, who has godlike powers in [[Unix]] [[Finux|style]] computer operating systems (operating systems being a subject Stephenson has [[In the Beginning...was the Command Line|written about]] at length). It is, however, also [[Dutch language|Dutch]] for "red" (in modern spelling, ''rood''); Enoch's father was Dutch, and Enoch is sometimes known as "Enoch the Red" in keeping with the ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' naming convention for [[Wizard (Middle-earth)|wizards]]. |
|||
There is also a figure in the [[Book of Genesis]] called [[Enoch, ancestor of Noah|Enoch]], who, after living a faithful life, "walked with God" instead of dying. Genesis 5:23 also states "and all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years:", and Enoch was the father of Methuselah, so presumably his first name suggests his longevity. The nature of Enoch Root in Stephenson's books may have more to do with legends about that Enoch's place in [[Kabbalah|Jewish mysticism]] and the mythology of [[Freemasonry]] than strictly what is in the Bible. |
|||
A god associated with alchemy is [[Hermes Trismegistus]], who is often identified with Enoch (the religious figure). Hermes Trismegistus was a [[syncretism]] of the [[Greek mythology|Greek god]] [[Hermes]], and the [[Egyptian mythology|Egyptian]] god [[Thoth]]. Hermes is already related to Neal Stephenson's work, being mentioned in [[The Diamond Age]] as a [[trickster]]-technologist god, and talked about in [[Quicksilver (novel)|Quicksilver]] as [[Mercury (mythology)|Mercury]], specifically about his role as the god of profit and commerce. Thoth was the Egyption god of wisdom. |
|||
For a number of years in the early 1600s, Enoch lived under the assumed identity of Egon Von Hacklheber. |
|||
==See also== |
|||
*[[Philosopher's Stone]] |
|||
==External links== |
|||
*[http://web.archive.org/web/20060217181613/http://www.metaweb.com/wiki/wiki.phtml?title=Stephenson:Neal:Quicksilver:Enoch_Root Enoch Root] page at [[The Metaweb]], now at the [[Internet Archive#Wayback Machine|Wayback Machine]]. |
|||
*[http://www.cafeaulait.org/cryptonomicon.html What's up with Enoch Root?] |
|||
*[http://web.archive.org/web/20040817144142/http://www.envf.port.ac.uk/illustration/images/vlsh/selfhelp/nell/nell10.htm Hackworth presents the Primer to Lord Finkle-McGraw], from The Diamond Age, now at the Wayback Machine. |
|||
[[Category:Characters in written fiction|Root, Enoch]] |
|||
[[Category:Fictional mathematicians|Root, Enoch]] |
|||
[[Category:Baroque Cycle|Root, Enoch]] |
|||
Latest revision as of 22:42, 23 September 2010
Redirect to: