Response to Snow Crash

This was an excellent novel with a fast paced plot and somewhat interesting characters. This structure interwoven with some fascinating cyberpunk themes provide for a decent piece of literature. The three major characters represent some of the fundamental themes of cyberpunk literature. Hiro Protagonist represents the classic cyberpunk hero who is well versed in the knowledge of computers and the cyber underworld and exceptionally skilled in the art of sword fighting. Initially this character represents the attitude driven computer geek, but as the novel develops one notices the strong character of Hiro. Y.T. is the second character who represents the reality in cyber fiction. She constantly tells Hiro to experience reality without the aid of the cyber world. There is an unusual amount of confidence in this 15 year old girl; however, she represents the underground cyberpunk hero who is better skilled to function in the real world. The third character, Raven, represents the darker side of the cyberpunk genre. His character is filled with hatred and contempt coupled with notions of revenge. Raven is used to illustrate the tremendous evil that manipulates technology for the wrong reasons. These characters help illustrate the fundamental differences between right and wrong, good and bad, in cyberpunk.

The themes of the novel are indicative of the common themes throughout the cyberpunk genre. It is interesting to note the parallels drawn between the development of the computer language and the development of linguistics. Stephenson's philosophies of an assembly language for the brain make for an interesting subplot. He is very thorough in presenting the development of linguistics; however, I felt that he did not emphasize that the naturalness of the development of the computer language. Clearly the fundamental ideals of evolution pertain to the development of the computer; however, Stephenson led me to believe that these tenets were more mysterious. The traditional cyberpunk themes of information overload and technology are extremely common throughout the novel.

The novel portrays many elements of the cyberpunk genre; furthermore, since it is essentially longer than the short story, the novel is able to expound on these elements into enough detail to make for an entertaining piece of work.