Music, Movies, Microcode & High Speed Pizza Delivery

These are the four things at which America still excels in the not too distant future of Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson.  I am on my fourth or fifth time through this book (reading and audiobook), and it continues to sweep me away.  Snow Crash is a representative example of the cyberpunk genre, that Wikipedia says:

Cyberpunk plots often center on a conflict among hackers, artificial intelligences, and megacorporations. They tend to be set in a near-future Earth, rather than . . . far-future settings or galactic vistas . . . The settings are usually post-industrial dystopias but tend to be marked by extraordinary cultural ferment and the use of technology in ways never anticipated by its creators

Other cyberpunk books include Neuromancer and Count Zero by William Gibson.  Notable cyberpunk films include Blade Runner and the Japanese anime film Akira. 

In Snow Crash, Hiro Protagonist (kid you not), a sword fighter and freelance hacker, and YT (stands for Yours Truly), a teenage skateboard courier, become entangled in a stuggle for world control among the future powers that be:  the Mafia (in the form of Cosa Nostra Pizza, Inc.), Mr. Lee’s Greater Hong Kong, a bandwidth baron, and a religious franchise operation (Reverend Wayne’s Pearly Gates).  In an ironic twist, an ancient clay tablet from Sumeria holds a linguistic virus that enables hacking/controlling the very brains of the techno-elite computer hackers.  The struggle spans both reality and the virtual world, the metaverse.

Neal Stephenson coins some vividly descriptive terms to describe his world, such as burbclaves — the sovereign fortified suburban developments of the future that have their own security forces, treaties, corporate branding, etc.  The mini-vans that occupy the future streets are bimbo boxes.  And most everything else is corporatised and franchised, such as the future jails of differing levels of service, the Hoosegow and the Clink where you may be put after a trial at Judge Bob’s Judicial System.  

Snow Crash is original in content and presentation.  Over a decade and a half after publication, it holds up well.  Do yourself a favor and check this one out.  Bonus recommendation:  Cryptonomicon also by Neal Stephenson.