For the past two or three weeks, I’ve been reading Neal Stephenson’s Cryptonomicon, a novel published in 1999. Much of the story in the novel concerns cryptography, and page 480 contains a Perl script that can be used to encrypt and decrypt messages using the Solitaire cryptosystem.
As published in the novel, the Perl script is gibberish, impossible to read and understand. Fortunately, the “verbose version” of the script is available on Bruce Schneier’s web site at www.schneier.com/code/sol.pl. Bruce Schneier provides an explanation of the Solitaire Encryption System at www.schneier.com/solitaire.html. And Neal Stephenson himself discusses the novel and the Perl script at web.mac.com/nealstephenson/Neal_Stephensons_Site/cypherFAQ.html.
Cryptonomicon is a brilliant novel, and it reminds me in many ways of Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon, one of my favorite books. It is a book I know I’ll have to read more than once, because I’m certain I’m missing important clues and subtexts in the story that will become apparent only on a rereading.