Listen to Reason

I've been on a reading tear the last couple of months.  Mostly, because of before and after I was sick, I've finished three books.  Two of which I've written about already.  Now, I'm done and ready to talk about another.

Snow Crash, by Neal Stephenson, published in 1992 is eerily prophetic, even for a science fiction novel.  Seeing that the novel itself is set amongst a technology dominated corporate society in the far-flung future, there are some very wild ideas, but not all of them are that far out there.  Maybe that's why I found it to be so enthralling.  That and you never know what's going to happen from scene to scene.

Mr. Stephenson wastes no time in setting his scene.  From the beginning, we meet Hiro Protagonist who lives modestly as a pizza delivery man and largely as an elite samurai hacker.  When not dishing out pie after pie from his mafia-supplied vehicle, Hiro spends his time plugged in to the Metaverse that he and his friends helped create.  The Metaverse in question is an idealized internet playground, which innocently enough, is soon to be set upon by a malicious corporate induced virus.  Finding the key to its origins and cure is only half of the story of Hiro and company, the journey is infinitely more interesting than any paragraph can convey.

So where is this prophesy?  Is it the Second Life-ish nature of the Metaverse that Mr. Stephenson describes?  Is it in the corporate lifestyle center type burbclaves that society functions in?  Is it in the disaffected general populace looking for a new sense of purpose and belief?  Is it in the self-replicating nature of faith and software?  Frankly, it appears to be in all of these and this is what I liked mostly about the book: its diverse and knowledgeable juggling of multiple technosociological themes.  There are actions, but most often, these actions have cultural consequences.  Secondly, Mr. Stephenson's language isn't superfluous or grandiose, it's descriptive for the contemporary eye. With all that goes on in this book, you'd think it would be repetitive or boring, but I found it deadly fascinating.

There's really a lot more to this book than I can ever feel fit to describe in one simple post, but feel free to hit me up for a discussion if you must.  Maybe you'll feel inspired to read it too.