The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer

The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer is a 1995 science-fiction coming-of-age novel by Neal Stephenson. Stephenson’s body of work has proven influential in contemporary discussions about technology and power. The novel is an important example of cyberpunk (work that imagines a dystopian future created by technology), while Stephenson’s allusions to Victorian literature and culture also make it an example of steampunk, despite the future setting. This guide is based on the 1995 Bantam Spectra print edition.

Content Warning: The source novel includes sexual abuse and violence, misogynistic slurs as characterization, and physical violence.

Plot Summary

The Diamond Age takes place in Shanghai and off the Eastern coast of China. Shanghai is now carved into municipalities and groups that arose when most nations collapsed in the wake of the nanotechnology economy and the rise of a secure, anonymous network that hid taxable income. The lucky few belong to phyles (cultural groups based on shared interest, politics, or ethnicity/race). New Atlantis’s neo-Victorians are one of the most powerful phyles due to their control of nanotechnology delivered by the Feed, a centralized system that delivers subsistence-level food and goods to the have-nots (thetes) and a high standard of living to elites. Rebel groups are working underground to create the Seed, a native, alternate form of nanotechnology.

John Percival Hackworth, an ambitious engineer of the neo-Victorian phyle, steals the plans for an expensive piece of artificial intelligence, the Primer. Commissioned by the powerful neo-Victorian Alexander Finkle-McGraw, the Primer is supposed to teach young neo-Victorians to be subversive enough to innovate and keep their phyle dominant.

With the help of Dr. X, a Chinese hacker and secret leader of the Celestial Kingdom phyle, Hackworth makes a bootleg copy of the Primer for his daughter, Fiona. Harv, a thete, steals the bootleg Primer and gives it to Nell, his little sister, instead. Harv and Nell live with a neglectful mother and her abusive boyfriends. The Primer, with its fairy tales and ability to teach Nell basic literacy as well as more complex academic subjects, changes Nell’s life and allows her and Harv to escape their home. Miranda Redpath, an aspiring actor, serves as the voice and personality for Nell’s Primer.

Hackworth’s life falls apart when Finkle-McGraw discovers his theft and Dr. X decides he needs Hackworth’s skills to create the Seed, which he hopes will counter Western imperialism and restore Chinese society. Dr. X forces Hackworth to create a noninteractive form of the Primer to educate the girls. Lacking the presence of a real person, the Han girls develop loyalty to each other (including Nell, another user of the Primer) rather than adopting the Confucian ethics that dominate in the Celestial Kingdom.

Dr. X sends Hackworth to North America to join the Drummers, a group that uses orgiastic sex to create a distributed human network that endlessly grows as more people get infected with their particles via sex; this network is needed to create the Seed. Hackworth is submerged with them for 10 years, during which time his programming skills accelerate their work. Meanwhile, his wife divorces him, but he maintains contact with his daughter through storytelling in her Primer. Hackworth emerges and goes on a quest with his daughter to discover the engineer behind the work on the Seed, only to learn that he is that engineer, the Alchemist.

Over the years, Nell interacts with the Primer. It tells her stories about Princess Nell, who relies on relationships, wit, and connections to others in attempting to save her brother, Prince Harv, imprisoned in the Dark Castle by their wicked stepmother. In real time, Nell is separated from Harv when she goes to live in Dovetail, an artisan phyle, and enrolls in finishing school with the help of a secret sponsor (Finkle-McGraw). Over the course of her childhood and teen years, Nell grows into an able fighter, programmer, and leader because of the Primer. Miranda grows attached to Nell, so she tries to find Nell in real space. She joins the Drummers, whose work on the Seed may allow her to unmask Nell’s identity and location. The process will kill Miranda, however.

Nell’s adventures in the Primer wind down once Miranda leaves. After Nell graduates, she goes to Pudong, Shanghai, to work as a writer. Life in Shanghai devolves when the Fists of Righteous Harmony, a Chinese nationalist group, has an uprising. They destroy the Feed in formerly Chinese territory and capture Nell. Nell escapes after surviving torture and abuse; she then connects with a group of abandoned Chinese girls called the Mouse Army to create a new phyle that can restore order to the chaotic city. Hackworth makes his last contribution to the creation of the Seed, but Nell rescues Miranda before the Drummers can create it.