Somewhere in Snow Crash, author Neal Stephenson writes (and I paraphrase here) that until the age of about 25, men still believe that they are capable of becoming a badass. Hit the gym more, sharpen their narcissistic focus - you get the idea. Corporeal limitations. But what happens when those physical limitations are lifted in the internet or the Metaverse as it is known in this novel? Where one's avatar can be as bad (or as whatever) as one designs it. Where an alternate world provides a means of remediating a less than satisfying reality as it coexists and not replaces that reality entirely.
In the future, the world has become a much different place with people living in separate, distinct enclaves - burbclaves. Governments as we know them have become impotent nuggets of influence. And business models like a mob-based CosaNostra Pizza, Inc. rule the day. The playfully named main player of the novel, Hiro Protagonist, moves back and forth from pizza delivery guy and hacker to sword-wielding warrior prince of the Metaverse until his talents are called upon to track down the mystery of a future exterminating virus known as "snow crash," a digital injection that robs both machine and biologicals of decipherable language.
I was initially very suspicious of this clearly testosterone laden book, but as some of you will remember, committed to reading it for love of the husband who more or less willingly reads everything I push before him. Then I was grabbed by the possibilities of its treatment of language, Sumerian myth, the connections I imagined to the Borges I was reading, the appeal of this pending infocalypse, it's primal qualities, its visual qualities and before you know it I am speeding along slowed only by sustained patches of testosterone fueled gratuitous aggression. As both tribute and satire of all things cyberpunk, it is both thrilling and hilarious. As vicarious ride for those still dreaming of badass status, it is also successful. It is occasionally overwrought, it could have been absolutely ridiculous and dreadful in other hands, but is ultimately very entertaining.
The only thing that gave me pause a few times was the feeling that our current technological advances age the book some. But then I thought that maybe it actually augments the read a bit as I thought of that Ray Bradbury interview in the spring edition of The Paris Review.
"Science fiction is any idea that occurs in the head and doesn't exist yet, but soon will, and will change everything for everybody, and nothing will ever be the same again. As soon as you have an idea that changes some small part of the world you are writing science fiction. It is always the art of the possible, never the impossible."
The possible clearly in view here. A fun and clever read. And quite a surprise as it is so far outside my usual reading comfort zone.
