Snow Crash
This week’s reading of Snow
Crash by Neal Stephenson we were plunged into the futuristic,
anarcho-capitalist society where government no longer regulates and humans “plug
in” to the Metaverse, an evolution of the internet where people exist through
avatars. There is new drug being pedaled at called “snow crash” that affects
the users in both the Metaverse and the physical, human world. The protagonist, Hiro, uses his skill and
delves into the drawing on ancient human history of Sumerian culture and
linguistics.
Personally, I did not enjoy this story. I thought it was it was exhausting and overly complicated textual information. I found it difficult to get through a few pages before getting overwhelmed by all the constant flow of new information being introduced. For example, as if appropriating all of Sumerian culture for the purposes of this story was not enough, Stephenson then wrote about the story from the Bible, the Tower of Babel in a different context pliable to his novel. The linguistic comparisons seemed adequate enough, but everything else soon felt ancillary. Do I even have to mention how ridiculous the Cult of Asherah is? (A cult of prostitutes spreading the virus “snow crash” to orphaned infants through breast milk.) It was even compared to the herpes virus. I found it useless to the overall context of the story.
Overall, I thought the original concept of the novel at a glance seemed interesting, but after reading it I was overwhelmed by its overcomplicated and plot. The novel reminded me of the film, The Matrix, but in this story, the humans in the physical world could plug in or out and were aware there were inside of the Metaverse. I thought it was noteworthy how the author decided to make a type of evil virus based on ancient Sumerian linguistic and pull content from human history.
Personally, I did not enjoy this story. I thought it was it was exhausting and overly complicated textual information. I found it difficult to get through a few pages before getting overwhelmed by all the constant flow of new information being introduced. For example, as if appropriating all of Sumerian culture for the purposes of this story was not enough, Stephenson then wrote about the story from the Bible, the Tower of Babel in a different context pliable to his novel. The linguistic comparisons seemed adequate enough, but everything else soon felt ancillary. Do I even have to mention how ridiculous the Cult of Asherah is? (A cult of prostitutes spreading the virus “snow crash” to orphaned infants through breast milk.) It was even compared to the herpes virus. I found it useless to the overall context of the story.
Overall, I thought the original concept of the novel at a glance seemed interesting, but after reading it I was overwhelmed by its overcomplicated and plot. The novel reminded me of the film, The Matrix, but in this story, the humans in the physical world could plug in or out and were aware there were inside of the Metaverse. I thought it was noteworthy how the author decided to make a type of evil virus based on ancient Sumerian linguistic and pull content from human history.
No comments:
Post a Comment