Locus Online: Neal Stephenson interview

''In Cryptonomicon, some of the characters have been going along and they've discovered a little crack in the sidewalk, it splits wide open, they fall through it, and they're in this whole universe that they didn't imagine. It happens for them in different ways. The clearest case is Bobby Shaftoe, who is minding his own business having a career in the Marine Corps and suddenly everything becomes very, very strange for him. It takes him a long time to figure out what's going on, and he never totally gets the whole story