History Literature / Anathem

%% * AmbiguousDisorder: Barb

* {{Feelies}}: The advanced review copy came with a CD of mathematical chants that the characters sing throughout the book.

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

%% * FishOutOfWater: The avout in the sæcular world.
%% * FiveManBand: Raz's group in the early part of the novel forms a perfect FiveManBand.
%% ** TheHero: Fraa Erasmas
%% ** TheLancer: Fraa Jesry
%% ** TheSmartGuy: Fraa Arsibalt
%% ** TheBigGuy: Fraa Lio
%% ** TheChick: Suur Tulia
%% ** SixthRanger: Sammann, who is with the group from almost the beginning [[spoiler: and in fact is Fraa Orolo's means of communicating to Erasmas after being declared Anathem]] but whose cultural separation from the avout keeps him from fully integrating with the core group for most of the story.

%% * HanlonsRazor, and its corollary, continually apply to Sæcular society over thousands of years.
%% * HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler: Fraa Orolo]], and also [[spoiler: Fraa Jad (sort of).]]
%% * InfoDump: Like all Neal Stephenson novels, ''Anathem'' contains many of them.

%% * TheMultiverse, thoroughly [[{{Deconstruction}} deconstructed]].
%% * MorphWeapon
%% * MountainMan: Yul, as a near-future-tech incarnation of this trope.

* {{Doorstopper}}: It used to be the picture on that page for a reason.

* EngagingConversation: More like an Engaging Email. [[spoiler:Fraa Erasmus]] proposes to spend the rest of his life with [[spoiler:Suur Ala]], though their romantic relationship up to that point had been to make out once.

* KangarooCourt: Erasmus is forced to partake in a public interview much like a trial to explain and defend his actions. His interlocutor is heavily against him and poses all of his questions to in an effort to make Erasmus look foolish. Erasmus immediately realizes that he'll have to draw on all his powers of argumentation to get out of the interview unscathed.

* MagicFromTechnology: Many legends developed around the Incanters, who were supposedly able to alter reality by chanting. However, [[spoiler: many clues imply that their power is actually a praxis the Millenarians developed. Fraa Erasmus saw (sort of...) Fraa Jad using what was probably the actual device, which looked like a fancy jeejah. It does appear that chanting is how Fraa Jad controlled it, which explains how the legend of the Incanters arose]].

* ObliviousToLove: Fraa Erasmus has no idea that [[spoiler: Suur Ala]] is into him until she grows visibly despondent at his obliviousness. [[spoiler: However, knowing Ala, she might very well have manipulated that whole situation just to sidestep his BelligerentSexualTension.]]

* RelationshipUpgrade: Justified and Averted. Avouts are required to publicly register their liasons, so as to avoid gossip in the maths. However, before [[spoiler:Fraa Erasmus and Suur Ala]] could register their liason, [[spoiler:Ala]] was evoked.

* YouKilledMyFather: [[spoiler: Early in the book, fraa Orolo is anathemitized and kicked out of The Concent. Erasmus takes this as would a son whose father has been murdered before his very eyes, and vows to avenge Orolo's memory (even though he is still alive) by solving the mystery of the alien ship]]. Later, [[spoiler:Erasmus is reunited with Orolo, only to have him killed off for real by massive rod of dense metal dropped from orbit by the alien ship.]]

''Anathem'' is a novel by Creator/NealStephenson about a world where monastic orders called "maths" isolate themselves from the rest of the world to study science, mathematics, and philosophy. When members of one of these maths make a surprising discovery, it's up to them to re-enter the "sæcular world" and use their skills to investigate and deal with the potentially global ramifications.

* CharacterNarrator: ''Anathem'' is [RecursiveCanon written down]] by its main character and narrator, Fraa Erasmas.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: Early on, after he gets jumped, Cord stops Arsibalt's nosebleed with what are clearly tampons. She calls them "blood soaker-uppers"

* RecursiveCanon: In addition to the LiteraryAgentHypothesis being in use, earlier chapters of the book are discovered by concent officials at one point in the story, and they directly quote parts of the story as evidence in a hearing, which, of course, is written down in the book...

* TranslationConvention: The book is [[LiteraryAgentHypothesis written by its protagonist/narrator]] in Orth; it's just presented to us in English for our benefit. Nearly all dialogue is actually in Orth, with some small parts in Fluccish, though both languages are presented to us in English. The only actual Orth we get to see consists of character/place names. [[spoiler:Also, when one character who speaks French shows up, his French is written in a FunetikAksent, as the narrator has no idea how French is supposed to be spelled]].

* {{Feelies}}: the advanced review copy came with a CD of mathematical chants that the characters sing throughout the book.

* LiteraryAgentHypothesis: In-universe, ''Anathem'' is written down by its main character and narrator, Fraa Erasmas. Overlaps with RecursiveCanon, as described below.

* CallARabbitASmeerp: Many ''technologies'' and ''cultural references'' have been renamed - for instance, cell phones are "jeejahs", Arbre's version of the net is called the "ret" (starting from "reticule" instead of "network"), scientists are called "theors" and martial arts are called "vale-lore" or "vlor". [[spoiler:Quite thoroughly justified, seeing as Arbre is within a chain of [[AlternateDimension Hylaean Theoric Worlds]]. These are similar to one another by definition, and one of them contains Earth, with rabbits and Socrates and Occam's Razor, as opposed to smeerps and Thelenes and Gardan's Steelyard.]]

* OutgrownSuchSillySuperstitions: Discussed, deconstructed, and averted. The Arbran religions stem from the same legendary event that also inspired the avout. [[spoiler: Information from farther up the Wick connecting all of the Hylaean Theoric Worlds was interpreted in two seemingly incompatible ways--a religious experience and the inspiration behind mathematics]]. Most of the antipathy between the avout and the Deolators (conventionally religious people) derives from the lack of contact the two worlds have with one another, but some avout (such as Erasmas, Arsibalt, and [[spoiler: the mathic order Zh'vaern is pretending to represent at the convox]]) think the whole thing is overplayed even before the events of the story and Erasmas goes out of his way to treat the Deolators he deals with with courtesy and respect. [[spoiler: As the events of the story play out the two sides interact with each other more; Deolators from several different factions assist Erasmas and his party more than once and after dealing with the existential crisis threatening all of them the two sides appear to be on much better terms by the end of the story.]]

%% ZeroContextExample entries are not allowed on wiki pages. All such entries have been commented out. Add context to the entries before uncommenting them.

* AmbiguousDisorder: Barb
* AuthorFilibuster: And ''how.''

* BelligerentSexualTension: [[spoiler:Fraa Erasmas and Suur Ala.]]

* ChekhovsGun: More accurately, Chekhov's [[spoiler:sextant]], sphere, bolt, chord, [[spoiler:ForgottenSuperweapon, oxygen, and soup]].
* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Barb/Fraa Tavener.

* CutHimselfShaving

* FishOutOfWater: The avout in the sæcular world.
* FiveManBand: Raz's group in the early part of the novel forms a perfect FiveManBand.
** TheHero: Fraa Erasmas
** TheLancer: Fraa Jesry
** TheSmartGuy: Fraa Arsibalt
** TheBigGuy: Fraa Lio
** TheChick: Suur Tulia
** SixthRanger: Sammann, who is with the group from almost the beginning [[spoiler: and in fact is Fraa Orolo's means of communicating to Erasmas after being declared Anathem]] but whose cultural separation from the avout keeps him from fully integrating with the core group for most of the story.

* HanlonsRazor, and its corollary, continually apply to Sæcular society over thousands of years.
* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler: Fraa Orolo]], and also [[spoiler: Fraa Jad (sort of).]]
* InfoDump: Like all Neal Stephenson novels, ''Anathem'' contains many of them.

* TheMultiverse, thoroughly [[{{Deconstruction}} deconstructed]].
* MorphWeapon
* MountainMan: Yul, as a near-future-tech incarnation of this trope.

* NanoMachines, or rather, [[spoiler:the femtotechnology of Newmatter]].

* SchizoTech: Justified.

* ScrewPolitenessImASenior

* ShowWithinAShow

* SomedayThisWillComeInHandy
* [[SpaceMarine Space Marines]]: What [[spoiler: Erasmas and his companions in Cell 317]] become. Although their [[spoiler: boarding action of the alien ship is extremely improvised]], the sæcular authorities are very impressed that 'the guys with the bolts and chords' were the ones to come through where the actual military forces of Arbre could not. [[spoiler: As a result the mathic world is fully integrated into the political power structure of Arbre, losing its isolation but at the same time gaining greater acceptance.]]

* TakeMyHand
* TomatoSurprise: [[spoiler:Jules Verne Durand]].
* TooDumbToLive: The Warden of Heaven. [[spoiler: If he had only kept his spacesuit on...]]

* UncannyVillage: [[spoiler:Orithena appears to be a Concent but is subtly different]].

* BadassGrandpa: [[spoiler:Fraa Jad.]]

* OutgrownSuchSillySuperstitions: Discussed, deconstructed, and averted. The Arbran religions stem from the same legendary event that also inspired the avout [[spoiler: information from farther up the Wick connecting all of the Hylaean Theoric Worlds interpreted in two seemingly incompatible ways--a religious experience and the inspiration behind mathematics]]. Most of the antipathy between the avout and the Deolators (conventionally religious people) derives from the lack of contact the two worlds have with one another, but some avout (such as Erasmas and Arsibalt) think the whole thing is overplayed even before the events of the story. [[spoiler: As the events of the story play out the two sides interact with each other more; Deolators assist Erasmas and his party more than once and after dealing with the existential crisis threatening all of them both factions appear to be on much better terms by the end of the story.]]

** SixthRanger: Sammann, who is with the group from almost the beginning [[spoiler: and in fact is Fraa Orolo's means of communicating to Erasmas after being declared Anathem]] but whose cultural separation from the avout separates him from the core group.

* ComingOfAgeStory: For Erasmas, who transitions from Fraa Orolo's fid (student) to his successor, learning important lessons about the sæcular world and about the untouchable Ita caste along the way.

* [[SpaceMarine Space Marines]]: What [[spoiler: Erasmas and his companions in Cell 317]] become. Although their [[spoiler: boarding action of the alien ship is extremely improvised]], the secular authorities are very impressed that 'the guys with the bolts and chords' were the ones to come through where the actual military forces of Arbre could not. [[spoiler: As a result the mathic world is fully integrated into the political power structure of Arbre, losing its isolation but at the same time gaining greater acceptance.]]