It was Stephenson’s portrayal of Newton in the Baroque Cycle, BTW, that prompted me to start a GQ thread:
Its always embarrassing when two people show up to the party in the same costume.
I think the books are very funny - one of the biggest villains inspires a monty python reference, for chrissakes! Not to mention Jack’s syphilis-induced hallucinations, or the way one of the supporting character is missing a new body part each time we meet him…
Ok, Jack has met the rat catcher and has been shown his quarters and has taken off over the rooftops.
I don’t doubt this series has given a lot of people a lot of pleasure–that’s obvious here. I think it might be me (or just not my thing, but historical stuff is kind of my thing, so I dunno). I’ll keep at it.
I have found some (if not most) of the dialogue between Eliza and Jack to be funny–not always snappy, but amusing.
Ah, then you’re very close to the party-crashing we’re referring to. I certainly get that the books aren’t for everyone; they certainly are fun for me - there’s probably no single thing that will massively change your opinion about the books if you’ve come to one conclusion or another; they’ll be a few things that will change the way certain characters relate to one another by the end of Quicksilver, and I think by the end of the book you’ll know whether you want to continue or not.
Which ordinarily would be followed shortly by death. It never was explained how Jack managed to recover from tertiary syphilis.
Yes it was, in the first few chapters of the Confusion (I’m not sure if the method described was medically possible or believable but hey, this is fiction).
I have not yet come to any party in Paris. Jack has had visions (with many tedious songs) and Eliza has ice skated with several key political figures and is now at the opera.
I will give it 100 more pages before I close the book and say toodles…
It comes at the end of Book 2, which should be two thirds of the way through Volume 1.
I think Eliza is at the party now, and Jack is buried in a pile of manure. But the 4th celebrations call.
I think I’m not in the mood for this. I want something and I don’t know what I want.
<sigh>
It is actually medically plausible.
EDIT:And the party we’re referring to is in the next chapter.
Party’s over and I gave this book almost 500 pages. I’m done. Sorry, move along, nothing to see here…
(I find the break between Jack and Eliza implausible in the extreme. I have a dislike for “Perverse Imps” setting plot lines). I also do not believe that Jack would be taken in by such a scheme, so now I have implausible plot coupled with inconsistent characterization= no more reading for me.
Thanks for playing along at home. Look at it this way: now you will be able to find the book on the library shelf! 
just my reading, but I thought the red-headed European was Enoch Root (maybe in disguise?)
I just started re-reading Cryptonomicon again - Shaftoe just had his meeting with Lt. Reagan.
As to how to classify the Baroque Cycle - perhaps ‘Historical Science Fiction’?
I think of it as History-of-Science Fiction.
I’m interested in this - I thought it strange, but then, I’m no expert. Can syphillis be cured in this way?
Jack is going off to DIE. He’s half dead from syphillis and doesn’t want Eliza watch over him on his deathbed. So he sets off on a grand venture that he thinks would be the kind of thing Eliza would approve of, except it turns out that it isn’t.
Would any of Stephenson’s novels make good movies?
You know how the Lord of the Rings movies as a single trilogy was a total of about 10 hours long? Baroque Cycle is, pagewise, about twice the size of LOTR…
Well, here’s David Wong’s brilliant article on The 10 Best Sci-Fi Films Never Made. Stephenson’s Snow Crash is #3.
per Wikipedia:
“It had been observed that some who develop high fevers could be cured of syphilis. Thus, for a brief time malaria was used as treatment for tertiary syphilis because it produced prolonged and high fevers. This was considered an acceptable risk because the malaria could later be treated with quinine which was available at that time. This discovery was championed by Julius Wagner-Jauregg, who won the 1927 Nobel Prize for Medicine for his work in this area.”
Eh. I still say he wouldn’t have chosen slavery–knowing how she feels about it. Then again, the syphilis had eaten away his brain, so who knows. I found I didn’t care.