Skip to content

Stephenson:Neal:Cryptonomicon:Lawrence Waterhouse

From the Quicksilver Metaweb.

The Cryptonomicon page for Lawrence Pritchard Waterhouse

Stephensonia

There's something that links the Waterhouse family to Ea (the later incarnation of Enki). There could be an Unix joke about pipes but I'm not seeing it ...

Authored entries

Lawrence's Existence is Proof that God is Good in the Cryptonomicon Universe

Where Ben Franklin had beer — Lawrence gets Mary. He sees angels expressing infinity — and his later experience with the Hindenburg disaster indicates the angels may be real to him. Before he gets his personal guardian angel in Enoch Root, he survives the USS Nevada's sinking during the attack on Pearl Harbor's Battleship row.

Lawrence Pritchard Waterhouse (circa 1917-1965) Cryptographer during WWII, Contemporary of Alan Turing, Developer of a mercury-valve based Computer. Mercury is quicksilver. He is the ultimate gear-head. He may be autistic, or have Asperger's Syndrome. Lawrence is one of the WWII era protagonists in Cryptonomicon and a descendant of Daniel Waterhouse of Quicksilver. He is the grandfather to Randy Waterhouse.

WWII is called the 1937-1945 Titanomachia by Enoch.

There is an interesting contrast in the creative urges of Lawrence as opposed to his grandson, Randy. Lawrence finds that his creativity wanes when he has not gotten laid recently. Randy, while in Philipine jail, realizes that his creativity peaks when he is severely lacking in the release of tension, so to speak. Both, however, are nerd enough to have each graphed their respective phenomena on at least one occasion...