Cryptonomicon[1]

 

Key to table:

A

Time frame WWII

B

Time Frame 1990-99

BS

Bobby Shaftoe

LW

Lawrence Waterhouse

RH

Rudy von Hacklheber

RW

Randy Waterhouse

GD

Goto Dengo

Q

Qwghlm (a fictional island, bit like Sark)

 

 

1

Prologue

A

BS, haiku, in Shanghai,

5

Barrens

A

LW, badass reflection on evolution, pipe organ, Navy bandsman, maths, meets Turing & RH, Turing/RH affair, sails to Pearl Harbour

23

Novus Ordo Seclorum

B

RW, to Philippines, met by Avi, reads his emails encrypted by Ordo.  Birth of Epiphyte in California, earlier.

31

Seaweed

A

BS, haiku, Marines leave Shanghai, GD is there. Earlier, brawl with Nips. On ship, fight with Frick.  Dock in Manila, Dec41.  Reunited with Glory, sex.

48

Forays

B

RW, lands in Manila.  Tech crypto stuff.  His early life, Andrew Loeb, computer gaming, Charlene. Avi & Chester.  Legal stuff on game profits.

62

Indigo

A

LW, attack on Pearl Harbour.  Elementary crypto lecture, he shines, starts work for Navy on crypto.  Nip codes broken by Schoen, LW decrypting for Midway.  Reflections on need to hide the fact of decryption.  LW ordered to England.

75

The Spawn of Onan

B

RW, in hotel in Manila.  Reflection on Charlene, early computer career, puts down expert Kivistik.

85

Burn

A

BS, Marines ship out of Manila.

89

Pedestrian

B

RW, takes lat & longs in Manila for Epiphyte. Offices in Intramuros, lines of sight…

94

Guadalcanal

A

BS wounded, tended by Enoch Root, Societas Eruditorum, Ignoti et quasi occulti.

97

Galleon

B

RW, shaves off beard of 10 years. Avi had presented plan to PTA a week before.  Conference, Avi presents hi-tech video.  Meets Amy S, on boat named Glory.  24Jam and the ‘Pinoy-gram’.  Semper Marine is diving outfit.

108

Nightmare

A

BS, in hospital, interviewed by Reagan in US hospital.  He is a hero, goes home to Tennessee.  Reports to Washington DC.  Assigned to North Africa, with British SAS.

116

Londinium

A

LW, in London, pattern of kerb-stepping, joke about English cars.  British meetings & pronunciation.  Turing & his friendship.  2701 becomes 2702.

125

Corregidor

B

RW, with Amy S, Semper Marine diving off Glory IV.  Doug Shaftoe mentioned.  Magellan – his navigator gives name to The Dentist’s boat, Rui Faleiro.  The Dentist mentioned, RW warned by Avi.  Rw meets Doug S.

137

Tube

A

LW, in London, travels to Bletchley.  Bletchley details.  The Bell Curve & its blip for tall girls.

149

Meat

A

BS, in North Africa,  takes corpse of butcher from freezer-store.  Business of changing kit marking to 2702.  Enoch Root appears.  Pig put in coffin in place of butcher.

162

Cycles

A

LW.  Torch.  Jap armament, Yamamoto.  U-boat cipher Shark.  Works with Turing.  T’s bicycle & spoke/chain fault cycle.  Bletchley.

175

Aloft

A

BS, in Africa, plane flown by Brits carrying body (149 above).  Dreams of combat v Nips, woken by Enoch Root.  Plane shot up, Lt killed.  Need to be spotted by German convoy.  They drop the body in the sea and land, under fire, in Malta.

183

Non-Disclosure

B

Avi & RW in house in California.  Eberhard Foehr, John Cantrell, cryogenics.  Serious Epiphyte stuff, Beryl Hagen.  Kinakuta - its Sultan to own ‘data haven’ there.

192

Ultra

A

LW, Bletchley.  Sees early computer, using tape and valves.  Sees decryption going on, explanation of decryption by bombes of new codes starting at midnight, ready during the day often.  He is to look for patterns that might clue up RH.

201

Kinakuta

B

RW, flies into Kinakuta’s new airport.  Other passengers Japanese, going to memorial garden of 3,000 Nips buried there.

203

QWGHLM House

A

LW on Q, description thereof, and stuff on people.  Lord Woadmire, picture of KGVI.  LW & Col Chattan are to use his castle;  jokes about U-speech.

209

Electrical Till Corporation

A

Sydney, Major Comstock, MacArthur.

211

Crypt

B

RW, continued from 201 above, lands, business with urinal & neighbours therein.  Meets Goto of Goto Engineering.  Sultan is building hi-tech facility, using Goto Engineering.  Epiphyte is sub-contractor.  RW goes to site, into cave (used by Nips in WWII), meets Tom Howard.  Sees books left by Nips, like ones he has seen at his grandma’s.

 



[1] Stevenson, N. 1999, London, Heinemann, paperback, ISBN 0 434 00883 4