[planetguy]

Some of them are. Some of them are truly pointless. Neal Stephenson apparently had a giant map of 18th century London on the wall of the room where he wrote it, and as such apparently feels compelled, on certain occasions when a character goes from one place to another, to name every street he passes on the way. That's not atmospheric or interesting, it's just filler.

[excuse-me]

The point of Baroque architecture and music is to have too much detail at every level to take in - presumably he was trying the same thing in writing.