WEEK 11 - Cyberpunk: "Snow Crash" by Neal Stephenson

Snow Crash is a rather complex novel that deals with the nature of humanity, including the past and the future. It's view of the future is positive, for the most part-- with certain reservations, of course, thus making it a perfect fit for the Cyberpunk genre of literature.

Snow Crash begins with an extremely effective opening hook (especially considering the genre of this novel!) which involves a loving description of a high-tech, armored driver and car. He's a man on a mission with wonderful high-tech toys who works for the Mafia doing a job that we all know and can greatly appreciate on a late Friday night-- high-speed pizza delivery. It's a beautiful setup, even if the pizza delivery job doesn't last far beyond the opening pages. It introduces the reader to Hiro Protagonist-- yes, a seemingly stupid, yet unforgettable name. (Can you guess who the protagonist of the novel is yet? Hmmm, I wonder...) Hiro is a skilled hacker and a great swordsman, but he has enough dense moments to round out his character (which I personally prefer when it comes to balancing out characters in novels). 

Other characters include the skateboard courier Y.T., and some of the major players that form the political structure of Stephenson's "future Los Angeles." Overall, this setup effectively introduces Stephenson's off-beat world where concepts like Mafia-owned pizza organizations and private countries guarded by nuclear weapon-wielding dogs start to make a bizarre amount of sense-- and also provide the reader with much-needed humor as well. His characters approach an insane, satirical world with a sarcastic attitude, full of well-timed comments and the "skewering" of idiots. It doesn't stop at humorous ideas though-- Stephenson digs beneath the surface, filling every single page with bits of trivia and history, resulting in a highly unlikely world that feels, while reading, like a living, breathing place. The only difference is that it contains just a few exaggerations around the corner from our own world, thus setting it apart in various ways both big and small.

Another aspect of this novel that further develops its complexity is the Metaverse; an online cyberpunk world that just about everyone spends some time in. It has the standard mix of avatars, private offices, elaborate shared spaces, constant advertising, dangerous computer viruses, elite hackers, and guarded corporate havens. However, unlike the typical cyberpunk story, it also makes sense to someone who knows computers. Stephenson shows not just the effects but the causes, including digressions on old mapping hacks that have become dangerous for patching too deeply into core code, social discrimination against the "crappy avatars". It's a different, yet unique experience (for lack of better words) to read cyberpunk where the computer elements feel like actual computers instead of fantasy magic, and the hidden bits feel just like the type of thing that real hackers would embed in their code(s).

The overall plot of Snow Crash however, rests on an idea that isn't quite as believable. Someone has developed an information virus that affects people, not just computers.The detective work and running fight scenes that consequently follow involve religion, archeology, and ancient Sumerian myth. Stephenson even threw in bits of trivia about the writing of the Old Testament, and the history of monotheism (weird, right?) The rest of the book however, is an exciting action-packed adventure through a semi-dystopian future and the Metaverse. It almost feels as if Stephenson's mind is overflowing with more ideas to add to the world and can't wait to show the reader another one. 

There are multiple themes present throughout the novel; one delving into what it means to be human. For example, the Vietnamese security contractor is actually not quite human in the traditional sense. He is severely injured, thus spending his time ensconced in a sac of some sort of electrical gel, controlling the van he inhabits with voice commands. Also as a result of his injuries, a majority of his consulting is done online, therefore many people never realize Ng is actually basically a cyborg. The main villain, Raven, is actually also not quite human. He's an Aleutian mutant, with almost supernatural speed and strength, as well as being, "unkillable", in a sense of the word.

Driving even further from humanity, artificial intelligence plays a minor part in the novel, but is still important nonetheless, as well as advanced. The Librarian for example, is bundled with the coveted Asherah files-- and is quite sophisticated and capable of learning from past experience. But Stephenson dehumanizes the Librarian, who is essentially just a computer program, by taking care to avoid any intuition on his part. As the novel progresses, AI is then brought down from an idealistic technology, soon to be perfected and viewed as a tool of humanity. In hindsight, this view of AI is essential to futurist thoughts because it can go in either a positive direction, or a really negative one (one that predicts that humanity will be exterminated at the hands of our own robots sooner or later.)

Ultimately, Snow Crash is a large and complex novel that covers the nature of language, the rise of human sentience, the purpose of society, masculinity, loyalty, and what it means to be human. Each character gets their own distinct manner of speaking, and there are several offshoot languages, including Taxilinga. It skeptically views the purpose of society-- the government has collapsed, leaving only information-collection agencies while, strangely enough, everyday life remains completely unaffected. The writing overall is crystal clear and very descriptive-- Stephenson never gets lost in the details, which after a good thorough read or two, fit together into an interesting and complicated puzzle. I would highly recommend this novel to any fans of the cyberpunk genre.