YMMV / The Diamond Age

• Angst? What Angst?: Though Nell has plenty to justifiably angst about. When she comes upon a headless body and other horrors in the mediatron the Colonel is looking at on the floor of his house, it throws her into screaming hysterics. As he brings her water, she says she can't stop crying. He tells her that, like him, she is a veteran (in her case, of a monstrously fucked-up life), and that she has to acknowledge this and not think she can just put it behind her and get on with an ordinary little girl's life.
• Genius Bonus: Since this is a Neal Stephenson book, the novel has it in spades.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: People in the book are becoming illiterate due to the increasing focus on "mediaglyphs" instead of written words. With the increasing acceptability of emojis and gifs to communicate thoughts online, the book is becoming surprisingly prophetic.