 US paperback cover | |
| Author | Neal Stephenson |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Jean-François Podevin |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Science fiction,cyberpunk,Postcyberpunk[1] |
| Publisher | Bantam Books (US) |
Publication date | June 1992 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
| Pages | 480 |
| ISBN | 0-553-08853-X (first edition, hardback) |
| OCLC | 25026617 |
| 813/.54 20 | |
| LC Class | PS3569.T3868 S65 1992 |
Snow Crash is ascience fiction novel by the American writerNeal Stephenson, published in 1992. Like many of Stephenson's novels, its themes include history,linguistics,anthropology,archaeology, religion, computer science, politics,cryptography,memetics, and philosophy.[2]
In his 1999 essay "In the Beginning... Was the Command Line", Stephenson explained the title of the novel as his term for a particular softwarefailure mode on the earlyMacintosh computer. Stephenson wrote, "When the computer crashed and wrote gibberish into thebitmap, the result was something that looked vaguely likestatic on a broken television set—a 'snow crash'".[3] Stephenson has also mentioned thatJulian Jaynes' bookThe Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind was one of the main influences onSnow Crash.[4]
Snow Crash was nominated for both theBritish Science Fiction Award in 1993 and theArthur C. Clarke Award in 1994.[5][6]
In the 21st century, an unspecified number of years after a worldwide economic collapse,Los Angeles is no longer part of the United States since thefederal government has ceded most of its power and territory to private organizations andentrepreneurs.[7]Franchising, individualsovereignty, and private vehicles reign supreme.Mercenary armies compete for national defense contracts, while privatesecurity guards preserve the peace in sovereigngated housing developments.[8]: 45 Highway companies compete to attract drivers to their roads,[8]: 7 and all mail delivery is by hired courier.[8]: 306 The remnants of government maintain authority only in isolated compounds, where they do tediousmake-work that is, by and large, irrelevant to the society around them.[8]: 176 Much of the world's territory has been carved up into sovereign enclaves known as Franchise-Organized Quasi-National Entities (FOQNEs),[8]: 14 each run by its ownbig business franchise (such as "Mr. Lee's Greater Hong Kong", or the corporatizedAmerican Mafia), or various residentialburbclaves (quasi-sovereign gated communities). In this future, American institutions are far different from those in the actual United States at the time the book was published; for example, a for-profit organization, the CIC, has evolved from theCIA's merger with theLibrary of Congress.[8]: 22
Hiro Protagonist is a freelance hacker, and pizza delivery driver for the Mafia. He meets Y.T. (short for Yours Truly), a young skateboard Kourier (courier), whorefers to herself in the third person, during a failed attempt to make a delivery on time. Y.T. completes the delivery on his behalf, and they strike up a partnership, gathering intel and selling it to the CIC.
Within theMetaverse, Hiro is offered a datafile named Snow Crash by a man named Raven, who hints that it is a form of narcotic. Hiro's friend and fellow hacker Da5id views a bitmap image contained in the file, which causes his computer to crash and Da5id to suffer brain damage in the real world. Hiro meets his ex-girlfriend Juanita Marquez, who gives him a database containing a large amount of research compiled by her associate, Lagos. This research posits connections between the virus, ancientSumerian culture, and the legend of theTower of Babel. Juanita advises him to be careful and disappears.
The Mafia boss Uncle Enzo begins to take a paternal interest in Y.T. Impressed by her attitude and initiative, he arranges to meet her and offers her freelance jobs. Hiro's investigations and Y.T.'s intelligence gathering begin to coincide, with links between the neuro-linguistic viruses, a religious organization known as Reverend Wayne's Pearly Gates and a media magnate named L. Bob Rife beginning to emerge. Lagos's research showed that the ancient Sumerianur-language allowed brain function to be "programmed" using audio stimuli in conjunction with a DNA-altering virus. Sumerian culture was organized around these programs (known asme), which priests administered to the populace.Enki, a figure of legend, developed a counter-virus (known asthe nam-shub of Enki), which, when delivered, stopped the Sumerian language from being processed by the brain and led to the development of other, less literal languages, giving birth to the Babel myth. L. Bob Rife had been collecting Sumerian artifacts and developed the drug Snow Crash to make the public vulnerable to new forms ofme, which he would control. The physical form of the virus is distributed in the form of an addictive drug and within Reverend Wayne's church via infected blood. There is also a digital version, to which hackers are especially vulnerable, as they are accustomed to processing information in binary form.
Hiro heads north to theOregon Coast, where the Raft, a huge collection of boats containing Eurasian refugees, is approaching theWest Coast of the United States. The center of the Raft is L. Bob Rife's yacht, formerly theUSS Enterprise nuclear-powered aircraft carrier. Rife has been using the Raft as a mechanism to indoctrinate and infect thousands with the virus and to import it to America. Y.T. is captured and brought to Rife on the Raft, who intends to use her as a hostage, knowing her connection to Uncle Enzo. With help from the Mafia, Hiro fights his way onto the Raft and recovers thenam-shub of Enki, which Rife had been concealing. With help from Juanita, who had previously infiltrated the Raft, thenam-shub is read out, and Rife's control over the Raft is broken. Rife flees the Raft, taking Y.T., and his mercenary, Raven, attempts to activate the digital form of Snow Crash at a virtual concert within the Metaverse. Hiro is able to neutralize the virus, and Y.T. escapes. AtLos Angeles International Airport, Raven ambushes the Mafia and fights Uncle Enzo to a stalemate (though both men are severely injured in the process), while Rife is killed as he attempts to flee the airport on his private jet. Y.T. is reunited with her mother, and Hiro and Juanita reconcile and agree to rekindle their relationship.
Stephenson originally plannedSnow Crash as a computer-generated graphic novel in collaboration with artist Tony Sheeder.[9] In the author's acknowledgments Stephenson recalls:
it became clear that the only way to make the Mac do the things we needed was to write a lot of custom image-processing software. I have probably spent more hours coding during the production of this work than I did actually writing it, even though it eventually turned away from the original graphic concept...[10]
The books themes includehistory,linguistics,anthropology,archaeology,religion,computer science,politics,cryptography,memetics, andphilosophy.[2]
Snow Crash takes place underanarcho-capitalism, a theme Stephenson carries over to his next novelThe Diamond Age. As described in both novels and the short story "The Great Simoleon Caper" (1995),hyperinflation has sapped the value of the US dollar to the extent thattrillion-dollar bills are nearly disregarded, and thequadrillion-dollar note is the standard "small" bill.[8]: 241 This hyperinflation was created by the government overprinting money due to loss of tax revenue, as people increasingly began to useelectronic currency, which they exchanged in untaxableencrypted online transactions. For physical transactions, most people resort to alternative currencies such as the yen or "Kongbucks" (the official currency of Mr. Lee's Greater Hong Kong). Hyperinflation has also negatively affected much of the world, resulting in waves of desperate refugees from Asia who cross the Pacific in rickety ships hoping to arrive in North America.
TheMetaverse, a phrase coined by Stephenson as a successor to the Internet, constitutes Stephenson's early 1990s vision of how avirtual reality–based Internet might evolve shortly. Resembling amassively multiplayer online game (MMO). The Metaverse is populated by user-controlledavatars, as well as systemdaemons. Although there are public-access Metaverseterminals inReality, using them carries a social stigma among Metaversedenizens, in part because of the poor visual representations of themselves as low-qualityavatars. Status in the Metaverse is a function of two things: access to restricted areas such as the Black Sun, an exclusive Metaverse club, and the sophistication of one's avatar.
Various fictional technologies are employed in this world and help define it, including skateboards and motorcycles with adaptive "Smartwheels",: 28 cybernetic guard dogs known as "Rat Things",: 248 and a prototype portablerailgun weapon named "Reason".: 361
Stephenson's "Metaverse" appears to its users as anurban environment, developed along a single hundred-meter-wide road, the Street, that runs around the entire 65,536 km (216 km) circumference of a featureless, black, perfectly sphericalplanet. The virtualreal estate is owned by the Global Multimedia Protocol Group, a fictional part of the real lifeAssociation for Computing Machinery, and is available to be bought and buildings developed thereupon.[8]: 24 Access to the metaverse is through L. Bob Rife's globalfiber-optic network, which grew from a collection of smallcable television franchises into a global telecommunications monopoly and superseded thetraditional telephone system.[8]: 115
Users of the Metaverse gain access to it through personal terminals that project a high-quality virtual reality display onto goggles worn by the user,[8]: 23 or from low-quality public terminals in booths (with the penalty of presenting a grainyblack-and-white appearance).[8]: 41 Stephenson also describes asubculture of people choosing to remain continuously connected to the Metaverse by wearing portable terminals, goggles and other equipment; they are nicknamed "gargoyles" due to their grotesque appearance.[8]: 123 The users of the Metaverse experience it from afirst-person perspective.
Within the Metaverse, individual users appear as avatars of any form, with the sole restriction of height, "to prevent people from walking around a mile high".[8]: 41 Transport within the Metaverse is limited to analogs of reality by foot or vehicle, such as themonorail that runs the entire length of the Street, stopping at256Express Ports, located evenly at 256 km intervals, andLocal Ports, one kilometer apart.[8]: 37
Distributed republics are loosely connected state-like entities dispersed across the world. The concept was reused by Stephenson inThe Diamond Age.[11][12][13]
Snow Crash established Stephenson as a major science fiction writer of the 1990s. The book appeared onTime magazine's list of 100 all-time best English-language novels written since 1923.[14] Some critics have considered it a parody ofcyberpunk[15][16] and mentioned its satiric or absurdist humor.[17][18]
In his bookThe Shape of the Signifier: 1967 to the End of History,Walter Benn Michaels targets Stephenson's view that "languages are codes" rather than a grouping of letters and sounds to be interpreted. Michaels contends that this basic idea of language as code is central to the construct ofSnow Crash ("... a good deal ofSnow Crash's plot depends upon eliding the distinction between hackers and their computers, as if—indeed, in the novel, just because—looking at code will do to the hacker what receiving it will do to the computer"[19]: 68 ), but at the same time, trivializes the role of meaning in linguistic works.
The body that is infected by a virus does not become infected because it understands the virus any more than the body that does not become infected misunderstands the virus. So a world in which everything—from bitmaps to blood—can be understood as a "form of speech" is also a world in which nothing actually isunderstood, a world in which what a speech act does is disconnected from what it means.[19]: 69
Rorty'sAchieving Our Country summarizes the content ofSnow Crash,[20] using it as an example of modern culture that "express the loss of what he [Rorty] calls 'national hope'... the problem withSnow Crash is not that it isn't true—after all, it's a story—but that it isn't inspirational".[19]: 74 This lack of inspiration is offset by something elseSnow Crash and other works like it offer:
These books produce in their readers the 'state of soul' that Rorty calls 'knowingness', which he glosses as a 'preference for knowledge over hope' (37)";[19]: 74 this preference for knowledge "contribute[s] to a more fundamental failure to appreciate the value of inspiration—and hence of literature—itself".[19]: 74
Habitat, the 1986virtual environment, applied theSanskrit termavatar to online virtual bodies before Stephenson. However, the success ofSnow Crash popularized the term[21] to the extent thatavatar is now a term for this concept in computer games and on theWorld Wide Web.[22]
The novel's Central Intelligence Corporation—the result of a merger between theLibrary of Congress andCentral Intelligence Agency—operates a wiki-like private knowledge base known as the Library. However, unlikeWikimedia, contributors to the Library (stringers) are paid if their contributions are used, making the Library more of an information marketplace than a public knowledge repository.
Manyvirtual globe programs, includingNASA World Wind andGoogle Earth, bear a resemblance to the "Earth" software developed by the CIC inSnow Crash. One Google Earth co-founder claimed that Google Earth was modeled afterSnow Crash, while another co-founder said that it was inspired byPowers of Ten.[23] Stephenson later referenced this in another of his novels,Reamde.[24]
Stephenson's concept of the Metaverse has enjoyed continued popularity and influence in high-tech circles (especiallySilicon Valley) ever since the publication ofSnow Crash.[25][26] As a result, Stephenson has become "a sought-after futurist" and has worked as a futurist forBlue Origin andMagic Leap.[26]
Software developerMichael Abrash was inspired bySnow Crash's Metaverse and its networked 3D world. He leftMicrosoft forId Software to write something in that direction, the result beingQuake.[27] The story for the3DO gameImmercenary was also heavily influenced bySnow Crash.[28] A direct video-game adaptation ofSnow Crash was in development in 1996,[29] but it was never released.
The online virtual worldsActive Worlds andSecond Life were both directly inspired by the Metaverse inSnow Crash.[30]
FormerMicrosoft Chief Technology OfficerJ Allard and formerXbox Live Development Manager Boyd Multerer claimed to have been heavily inspired bySnow Crash in the development of Xbox Live, and that it was a mandatory read for the Xbox development team.[31]
The novel wasoptioned shortly after its publication and subsequent success, although to date, it has never progressed past pre-production.[32][33][34][35][36] Canadian science fiction directorVincenzo Natali in particular has argued against a two-hour feature film adaptation because of a perceived lack of fit with the form; since the novel is "tonally all over the place", he feels that a mini-series would be a more suitable format for the material.[37]
In late 1996, it was announced that writer-directorJeffrey Nachmanoff would adapt the novel forThe Kennedy/Marshall Company andTouchstone Pictures.Marco Brambilla was attached to direct the film.[38] In June 2012, it was announced that English directorJoe Cornish, following his 2011 debut filmAttack the Block, had been signed as director of a future film adaptation forParamount Pictures.[39] In 2013, Stephenson described Cornish's script as "amazing", but also warned that there was no guarantee that a film would be made.[40] In July 2016, producerFrank Marshall said that filming could start in 2017.[41]
In August 2017,Amazon Studios announced that it was co-producing an hour-long science fiction drama television show based onSnow Crash with Paramount. The announcement stated that the television show would be executive produced by Cornish and the Kennedy/Marshall Company'sFrank Marshall.[42] In December 2019, it was announced thatHBO Max had acquired the series with Paramount continuing to produce and Cornish remaining executive producer.[43] HBO Max passed on the project in June 2021, and it reverted to Paramount and Kennedy/Marshall.[44]
Google co-founderSergey Brin calledSnow Crash one of his favorite novels. One of the developers ofGoogle Earth noted The Metaverse as an influence.[45] The concept of the Metaverse also inspired the rebrand ofFacebook to Meta Platforms Inc. in 2021, and spurred authorNeal Stephenson himself to found a company in 2022 called Lamina1 to support the creation ofvirtual worlds usingblockchain technology.[46]
I'd had a similar reaction to yours when I'd first read The Origin of Consciousness and the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind, and that, combined with the desire to use IT, were two elements from which Snow Crash grew.
In bothSnow Crash and his later book,Diamond Age, Stephenson describesdistributed republics—fluid governments that range across the world, occupying many various places at various times and following wherever their citizen-customers go.
In Neal Stephenson'sSnow Crash andThe Diamond Age, the concept of a "distributed republic" is introduced; it means a "nation" where citizens and physical assets are scattered around the globe, often changing, in many loosely connected anarchist communities.
A projection of this simulacral vision of "home" into an imagined Southern California future is offered by Neal Stephenson in his 1992 novelSnowcrash. In his Tomorrowland, as in the ideal futurology of today's globalizing market liberalism, there no longer exists any single overarching national state-structure of governance that orders, regulates, or frames the proliferation of suburban enclaves. Instead, there are loose associations—"parallel distributed republics"—of spatially dispersed, but otherwise utterly identical "Burbclaves". These are "FOQNEs" or "Franchise-Organized Quasi-National Entities", each one a "city-state with its own constitution, a border, laws, cops, everything".
It was first used in the context of virtual worlds in the pioneering Habitat system of the mid 1980s (Morningstar and Farmer, 1991) and popularized by Stephenson's (1992) science-fiction novel Snow Crash.
Computing andScience Fiction. A graphical representation of a person or character in a computer-generated environment,esp. one which represents a user in an interactive game or other setting, and which can move about in its surroundings and interact with other characters.
The opening screen of T'Rain was a frank rip-off of what you saw when you booted up Google Earth. Richard felt no guilt about this, since he had heard that Google Earth, in turn, was based on an idea from some old science-fiction novel.
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