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Only once in a great while does a writer come along who defies comparison -- a writer so original he redefines the way we look at the world. Neal Stephenson is such a writer and Snow Crash is such a novel, weaving virtual reality, Sumerian myth, and just about everything ...
Only once in a great while does a writer come along who defies comparison -- a writer so original he redefines the way we look at the world. Neal Stephenson is such a writer and Snow Crash is such a novel, weaving virtual reality, Sumerian myth, and just about everything in between with a cool, hip cyber-sensibility to bring us the gigantic thriller of the information age. In reality, Hiro Protagonist delivers pizza for Uncle Enzo's Cosa Nostra Inc., but it the Metaverse he's a warrior prince. Plunging headlong into the enigma of a new computer virus that's striking down hackers everywhere, he races along the neon-lit streets on a search-and-destroy mission for the shadowy virtual villain threatening to bring about infocalypse. Snow Crash is a mind-altering romp through a future America so bizarre, so outrageous... you'll recognize it immediately.
From the opening line of his breakthrough cyberpunk novel Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson plunges the reader into a not-too-distant future. It is a world where the Mafia controls pizza delivery, the United States exists as a patchwork of corporate-franchise city-states, and the Internet--incarnate as the Metaverse--looks something like last year's hype would lead you to believe it should. Enter Hiro Protagonist--hacker, samurai swordsman, and pizza-delivery driver. When his best friend fries his brain on a new designer drug called Snow Crash and his beautiful, brainy ex-girlfriend asks for his help, what's a guy with a name like that to do? He rushes to the rescue. A breakneck-paced 21st-century novel, Snow Crash interweaves everything from Sumerian myth to visions of a postmodern civilization on the brink of collapse. Faster than the speed of television and a whole lot more fun, Snow Crash is the portrayal of a future that is bizarre enough to be plausible.
how realistic do you think the idea of the Metaverse is? Could it become a reality in our lifetime?
How can Snow Crash be a drug, a virus, and a religion?
What does it mean to have the power to hack the brain stem (like Juanita)? How is the brain related to a computer system in this sense? What would one do with this kind of power?
Written by Marian A.
What is everyone's opinion on the book so far? Has it drawn you in yet? Specifically, how did you like the opening with all the information about the "deliverator"? Was it a good introduction to this world and how the US has evolved to what it is with franchlets and burbclaves? Did you think the description of a deliverator went on too long before being introduced to Hiro?
Also, how realistic do you think the idea of the Metaverse is? Could it become a reality in our lifetime? We have Second Life, the technology for virtual reality, Google Maps... it could all be somehow combined to be a total virtual Earth, maybe. Here is a group that believes it's possible and even takes their name from Neal Stephenson: http://www.metaverseroadmap.org/
How has the United States been transformed? Why? What is it now?
What does it mean to have jobs micromanaged to such a degree as they are in the novel? How does it affect creativity and innovation? Why is this important in the novel?
What are the Rat-Things? What does it mean to think of them as Rat-Things, robots, technologically assisted organisms, or dogs? Do each of these designations change the reality of your perception?
How can Snow Crash be a drug, a virus, and a religion?
Why might Babel be “the best thing that ever happened to us?”
What does it mean to have the power to hack the brain stem (like Juanita)? How is the brain related to a computer system in this sense? What would one do with this kind of power?
Totally not my usual type of book, but was bought for me by A friend and so glad I read it. Fascinating and creative, an ironic and humorous look at where we may be headed (as predicted back in 1992!)
This novel was an interesting technology based sci-fi. This alternative reality story sometimes seemed to strike close to home. Our discussion group enjoyed pointing out parallel ideas from this novel... (read more)
