Stephenson:Neal:Cryptonomicon:America Shaftoe

This is a page for Randy's sweetheart - America Amy Shaftoe

Stephensonia

[Amy] reminds Randy of level headed blue-collar lesbians he has known, drywall-hanging urban dykes with cats and cross-country ski racks. Randy is gripped by a crazy, unaccountable desire not to bore Amy. It's not that he is getting a crush on her, because he puts the odds at fifty-fifty that she's a lesbian, and he knows better. She is so frank, so guileless, that he feels he could confide anything in her, as an equal. Randy doesn't know it but he's about to upgrade his lovelife. Bigtime.

Authored entries

The Wanting of America

Initially one wants to consider America Amy Shaftoe as a geekboy's wet dream; exotic and comfortably American. She's technical, but not threatening.
Lexa Doig: She'll run you off the road to get your full attention
And she can sure cook a yummy bowl of oatmeal I really don't like casting
Imaginary films guessing at but as really unsuitable choices have been
suggested on the net this is my vote for the right America Shaftoe.

China Raider Bobby Shaftoe knows women (of all types and nationalities)- and what's true about Glory is pretty much good for the majority of Filipina women. Avi's OCW prostitute claim is likely based on the same data. Pinoys are beautiful and passionate. While I've met women who identified with hobbits (not Sherri Gottlieb - though I knew the woman); And, hunting dwarf women is for the rich idiots who presented cable TV The Man Show - and very pathetic behavior. Behavior that in actual grown-ups is way beyond infantile.

Amy and Randy's romance is all about patience and wisdom. Randy can no longer coast with the sort of behavior he did as in previous relationship. (Amy probably guessed right that Charlene was a tepid lover). Randy knows the Information Superhighway fight didn't put finish to his relationship with Charlene. It was that he wanted to start a family. So was this part of an Enoch Root masterplan? Root had knowledge of all the players - GEB is likely his son (though it can be more accurately said that GEB is his nihilistic mother's son. He was part of the conspiracy with Bobby. I think its meaningful that Amy has seen the ruin of Randy's California home; And, that Grandma Mary has bonded with her as well.

Instant Female Bonding

While some women fans see Amy as token she did connect with Novus Ordo Seclorum's factotum Kia in a believable way Kia does a great job (it is part of the unspoken social contract with these people that they always do an absolutely fantastic job) and she has sent e-mail to Randy notifying him that she has recently fielded four trans-Pacific telephone calls from America Shaftoe, who wants to know Randy's whereabouts, plans, state of mind, and purity of spirit. Kia has informed Amy that Randy's on his way to California and has somehow insinuated, or Amy has somehow figured out, that the purpose of the visit is NOT BUSINESS. Randy senses a small pane of glass shattering over a neurological alarm button somewhere. He is in trouble. This is divine retribution for his having dared to sit still and not do anything for ninety whole minutes. He uses his word processor to whip out a note explaining to Amy that he needs to straighten out some paperwork in order to sever the last clinging tendrils of his dead, dead, dead relationship with Charlene (which was such a lousy idea to begin with that it causes him to lie awake at night questioning his own judgment and fitness to live), and that he has to be in California in order to do it. working through some sort of woman-only neural network mere men have no hope of sussing out ever.

Avi stops and straightens, as if pulled up short. "Speaking of not understanding things," he says, "you need to communicate with that girl. Amy Shaftoe."

"Has she been communicating with you?"

"In the course of twenty minutes' phone conversation, she has deeply and eternally bonded with Kia," Avi says.

"I would believe that without hesitation."

"It wasn't even like they got to know each other. It was like they knew each other in a previous life and had just gotten back in touch."

"Yeah. So?"

"Kia now feels bound by duty and honor to present a united front with America Shaftoe."

"It all hangs together," Randy says.

"Acting sort of like Amy's emotional agent or lawyer, she has made it clear to me that we, Epiphyte Corporation, owe Amy our full attention and concern."

And she can communicate with Randy's grandmother better than he can.

"I don't even know when they got married," Randy says. "Isn't that horrible?"

"September of 1945," Amy says. "I dragged it out of her."

"Wow."

"Girl talk."

"I didn't know you were even rigged for girl talk."

"We can all do it."

"Did you learn anything else about the wedding? Like--"

"The china pattern?"

"Yeah."

"It was in fact Lavender Rose," Amy says.

Gutsy and Capable

She doesn't need a White Knight and is pained when Randy acts that way when confronting Andrew's arrow attack. I'm sure she could gut Gollum with ease. Randy instantly saw her as an equal. He'll eventually realize the heart can be as wise as the head.

It's All Her Fault, Really

Sonya Walger: She's got a big knife,
and knows how to use it.
She taught Noah Wiley's character in
"The Librarian" a thing or two about
jungle survival. After all, she flayed from him, with her kris knife, his attachment to his medallion of dwarven geekdom, his high-tech, many-featured, digital calculator watch, and tossed into the watery depths, perhaps as an offering to Enki for the me of dealing with Randy, or perhaps just to get his full and undivided attention. Having saved him from the Curse of the Nerd and made him (and his loins) capable of potentially becoming a full human being, she has incurred a Chinese Obligation, and is thus reponsible for him, unto death.

Even her father, Doug, can see it, when he notices that she no longer has competition with the watch for Randy's affections, his eyes are now only for her. The best Doug can do is try to deter (or some might say prepare) Randy by issuing the Challenge of the Ballroom Dancing, to see if Randy has the cojones to humiliate himself in front of Manila Society, to see if he is worthy of being a contender.

From an interview with Sonya Walger RE: The Librarian: Quest for the Spear:

"Q: What is your character's relationship to Noah's character?

A: I play Nicole Noone, who helps drag Flynn into real life, kicking and screaming. She's much more comfortable in the world of adventures, jungles and excitement. She has all of these great physical skills, from making fires and sharpening and using machetes to pulling tarantulas off of Flynn. She's the brawn and he's the brains."

External links

Signal to Noise - quotes!