Cryptonomicon
88 pages • 2-hour read
Neal StephensonCryptonomicon
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Themes
Content Warning: This section includes discussion of wartime violence.
Secrecy, Surveillance, and Power Across Eras
Cryptonomicon takes place across the 20th century, with the narrative switching between the 1940s and the 1990s to illustrates the way secrecy, surveillance, and power operate across these eras. Whether in the 1940s or the 1990s, the characters recognize the importance of being able to communicate in secret and the power dynamics at play.
The members of the Epiphyte board, for example, are finely tuned to the importance of encryption and cybersecurity, lest their business plans be leaked and they lose control of their company. Their stakes are financial, but they have been burned in the past by their legal problems, so they recognize the prevalence of surveillance deployed against them by powerful foes such as the Dentist. For those fighting in World War II, the stakes are even higher. Encrypted messages are the key to winning the war, Lawrence is told, so secrecy becomes an existential issue as the Allies fight to defeat fascism. Power derives from the ability to keep secrets, as every radio message is intercepted and surveilled.
As an extension of this idea, the novel investigates how power operates. As in Lawrence’s early understandings of the difference between applied engineering and abstracted math, the abstracted power of the state operates on a level beyond the comprehension of most people. When he is stationed with other American soldiers, Lawrence feels almost as though he is fighting an entirely different war. To him, the soldiers seem “ignorant” (443) because they are unable to recognize the truly abstracted nature of the power that surrounds them. In this sense, they share more in common with the Japanese soldiers who refuse to recognize that they are losing the war. Goto Dengo feels ashamed and empowered when he is able to recognize this fact, showing how power derives not necessarily from weapons or fighting strength, but from information.
Lawrence is offered an insight into power and secrecy in a postwar world. Comstock promises him a comfortable position at the NSA, which he likens to “mail-reading on an industrial scale” (894). The implicit suggestion is that, after the war, power and surveillance will be deeply entwined. Lawrence, already aware of the existence of a secret conspiracy and the paucity of Comstock’s knowledge, turns the offer down, yet he is unable to prevent the rise of the surveillance state. Following the end of the war, cryptography is turned inward. Secrecy and surveillance are turned on a captive population, leading to the rise of hackers such as Randy. Lawrence’s grandson Randy becomes a leading player in the development of a digital currency which—by emphasizing the importance of secrecy and privacy through cryptographic means—intends to restore power to the people.
Lawrence’s legacy—enacted through Randy—manifests in the form of a technology which restores a balance of power between people and the state. The novel ends on an optimistic note, in which Randy’s plans can redress problems which spread from the end of the war, offering an escape from surveillance by offering people secrecy once again.
Mathematics and Cryptography as Both Art and Weapon
The Cryptonomicon is both the title of the novel and, in the novel itself, a compendium of cryptographic knowledge that is shared (and written) by the characters. The book symbolizes the idea of cryptography as an intellectual pursuit, in which similar minds across generations come together to contribute to a shared understanding of a specific idea, revealing mathematics and cryptography as both art and weapon.
The love of pure mathematics brings together Lawrence, Rudy, and Alan at university. They treat math and cryptography almost as an artform, an intellectual and aesthetic pursuit of abstract knowledge that distinguishes them from the rest of the world. This bond is then corrupted by the war, as their respective nations employ their academic pursuits in the name of killing other humans. They are forced to turn their art into weapons. For Rudy, in particular, the notion of his work being used to help a fascist state (one which considered his sexuality to be a capital offense) is deplorable. He undermines his own cryptography work, extending a gesture of friendship to his friends by encoding his resistance in his cryptography. Alan and Lawrence try to crack Rudy’s codes and, in doing so, recognize their friend’s attempt at resistance. Lawrence also learns that the true art of cryptography is not necessarily just breaking codes. Rather, the Allies must construct elaborate scenarios to disguise just how much they know about the German codes, turning cryptography into a key weapon in the war.
The characters in the 1990s experience a similar change in understanding. Avi and Randy come together due to their love of role-playing games. They develop software, which is based on their gaming, a type of modern artform that they feel passionate about. Their use of encryption and secrecy in later ventures shows how they also use math to defend themselves against outside threats. Loeb represents the way in which math (and, by extension, computer programming) can be weaponized against art. In the closing stages of the novel, Loeb reappears armed with actual weapons in an attempt to prevent Avi and Randy from using cryptography to create a digital currency. Avi and Randy learn, like Lawrence, that there is little distinction between the artistic and weaponized use of math and cryptography. One leads to the other, inevitably, so they must be prepared to fight back. Their weapons protect their art, just as their art is weaponized.
Thus, Randy and Avi, like Lawrence, understand the significance of math and cryptography as both offensive and defensive tools, allowing them to protect their projects against external threats.
The Intergenerational Legacies of War and Trauma
The structure of Cryptonomicon emphasizes the intergenerational legacies of war and trauma. The conflict in the 1940s reverberates across the decades, leading to consequences in the 1990s.
Bobby and Doug Shaftoe are father and son, but they experience only a short time together during the American invasion of Manila. Bobby seems aware of his impending death, wishing to give his son an experience that “is going to stick” (774) with him for the rest of his life. He is vindicated when, at the end of the novel, Doug recounts this emotional experience with his father. Bobby and Doug’s experience of the war was very different, yet they are bonded together across the decades by more than just blood. Similarly, Bobby’s affection for his son echoes in Doug’s affection for Amy, with his fierce commitment to his daughter’s happiness mirroring his own traumatic relationship with a mother who contracted leprosy and a father who died shortly after they met.
The novel also frames gold and treasure as a model for this interpretation of trauma. During World War II, the German and Japanese armies invade many countries and pilfer vast quantities of loot. While these armies may claim to be operating for military advantage or patriotism, characters like Goto Dengo come to see their own compatriots as little more than greedy thieves, no different from any other violent men in history. The gold and treasure are stored away in facilities like Golgotha to provide postwar fortunes for the officers. The gold, stolen from other countries in a traumatic and violent manner, is buried but not forgotten.
In much the same way, the trauma of the war is buried deep but not forgotten. People are drawn back to it, searching for the gold as a means of processing their own trauma. The treasure hunters such as General Wing are the latest manifestation of the same greed and self-interest which motivated the original theft of the gold. Only when Avi and Randy approach Goto Dengo with a humanitarian plan for the gold does he give his approval to dig up Golgotha. To do so, however, is a figurative and literal minefield, with the characters navigating the traumatized landscape of a postwar world, knowing that the wrong step can result in their death. The dangers of the war remain deeply buried, just like the Japanese landmines.
Finally, Enoch Root appears to operate outside the typical parameters of time and mortality, but he helps to heal other characters’ trauma, both psychological and physical, by aiding both Bobby and Randy in different decades. Root, through his implausible existence, emphasizes the intergenerational nature of the novel. He is an intergenerational figure with experience of war and trauma, a character whose existence emphasizes the theme, yet whose inscrutability leaves many unanswered questions.
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