Snow Crash Response

This book is really gripping. It floods the reader with information and words at a very high rate, with much density. Yet the book is easily understood and it is easy to keep pace with, which is very unusual in the cyberpunk genre, like in such books as Neuromancer and Hardwired. Hiro even gives a nice summary in Chapters 56-57 to inform all of the readers who have not managed to keep up with or infer the plot of just what is going on. The book has all the right elements to make it sell. A cool, intelligent sword-swinging protagonist, a cool, badass knife-wielding antagonist, virtual reality, the strong feminist-oriented characters of Y.T. and Juanita, the cute little puppy-dog Rat Thing, a cool car, a sleazy evangelist and millionaire team, helicopters, explosions, guns, chases, and a dystopian future. Stephenson weaves a classic action-adventure tale into a new tapestry of high-tech and adrenaline. Somewhere along the way, he sneaks in some really pointed comments about information control. The fact that information is such a valuable commodity is a recurring theme in the genre -- hell, I first heard it in that movie Sneakers -- but Stephenson takes it to an extreme, showing how one power-hungry man could conceivably rule the world from his fiber-optic empire,like a world wide web, like an evil sorcerer casting a global enchantment. Also important is the idea that mere words can influence the minds of humans, and turn them into brain-dead zombies -- something which cyberpunk, which espouses individuality and freedom from oppression, has always been against. I think this is yet another one of Stephenson's satirical jabs. A man does not need magical words to control the masses who do not posses strong enough willpower (the mind's immune system). Just a look at the many religions and political ideals of today will show that there are hundreds of ideological viruses in the world right now. Marxism is a perfect example. His words and beliefs infected the minds of others and was used as a tool to rule a large portion of the world. With the American flag snapping bravely behind me, I claim that L. Bob Rife was a Commie!

The Reverend Wayne's Pearly Gates franchises were nothing but hippy-commie-junkie communes. The Raft was nothing but a floating Third World country. Raven is the threat to the American way, having hooked up with Soviets in a Russian nuclear sub, and claiming that he "[r]ealized my lifelong ambition....I nuked America" (Stephenson 456). The American Way is embodied in Uncle Enzo, a war hero and a businessman with a personal, caring touch, who smiles on innovation. Y.T. and Hiro are the typical children of the American Dream; entrepeneurs in business for themselves, relying on their God-given talents to excel on their own merit. Juanita shows how self-sacrifice leads to power and achievement. As for the United States of America, it has become a stagnant bureacracy which has become corrupted by the communists. In fact, a bureacracy is very like a virus in the way it spreads and replicates and creepingly takes over. Hiro, Y.T., Juanita, and Uncle Enzo are the revolutionary minds that will help save the world from the evil commies and put our country back on the right track from which it has strayed. When Y.T. and her mom head for home at the end of the novel, it is really America that is once more their home.

God bless our dystopian future!