Snow Crash

Snow Crash

U.S. version cover shot, illustrated by Bruce Jensen.
Author	Neal Stephenson
Cover artist	Bruce Jensen
Language	English
Genre	Science fiction novel
Publisher	Bantam Books (USA)
Publication date	June 1992
Publication place	United States
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages	480 pp
ISBN	ISBN 0-553-08853-X (first edition, hardback)

Snow Crash is Neal Stephenson's third novel, published in 1992. It follows in the footsteps of cyberpunk novels by authors like William Gibson and Rudy Rucker, but differs from its predecessors in that it includes a heavy dose of satire and black humor.

Like many postmodernist novels, Snow Crash has a chaotic structure that might confuse readers unfamiliar with the genre. It contains many references to history, linguistics, anthropology, archaeology, religion, computer science, politics, geography and philosophy. Set in a world with a political-economic system that has been radically transformed, the novel examines religion along with its social importance, perception of reality versus virtual reality, and the violent and physical nature of humanity.

Stephenson explained the title of the novel in his 1999 essay In the Beginning...was the Command Line as the term for a particular software failure mode on the early Apple Macintosh computer. About the Macintosh, Stephenson wrote that "when the computer crashed and wrote gibberish into the bitmap, the result was something that looked vaguely like static on a broken television set — a 'snow crash.'"

Background

The story takes place in Los Angeles, in the area formerly known as the United States, during the early 21st century. In this hypothetical future reality, the United States Federal Government has ceded most of its power to private organizations and entrepreneurs. Franchising, individual sovereignty and automobiles reign supreme (along with drug trafficking, violent crime, and traffic congestion). Mercenary armies compete for national defense contracts, and private security guards preserve the peace in gated, sovereign housing developments. Highway companies compete to attract drivers to their roads rather than the competitors', and all mail deliveries are done by hired couriers. The remnants of the government maintain authority only in isolated compounds, where it transacts business that is by and large irrelevant to the booming, dynamic society around it.

Much of the territory ceded by the government has been carved up into a huge number of sovereign enclaves, each run by its own big business franchise (such as "Mr. Lee's Greater Hong Kong") or the various residential burbclaves (suburb enclaves). This arrangement bears a similarity to anarcho-capitalism, a theme Stephenson carries over to his next novel The Diamond Age. Hyperinflation has devalued the dollar to the extent that trillion dollar bills, Ed Meeses, are little regarded and the quadrillion dollar note, a Gipper, is the standard 'small' bill. For physical transactions, people resort to alternative, non-hyperinflated currencies like yen or "Kongbucks" (the official currency of Mr. Lee's Greater Hong Kong).

The Metaverse, a phrase coined by Stephenson as a successor to the Internet, constitutes Stephenson's vision of how a virtual reality-based Internet might evolve in the near future. Although there are public-access Metaverse terminals in Reality, using them carries a social stigma among Metaverse denizens, in part because of the poor visual representations of themselves via low-quality avatars. In the Metaverse, status is a function of two things: access to restricted environments such as the Black Sun, an exclusive Metaverse club, and technical acumen, which is often demonstrated by the sophistication of one's avatar.

Plot summary and major themes

File:Snowcrash-book-cover-uk.jpg

Snow Crash, UK version cover shot

The hero and protagonist whose story the book follows is the aptly-named Hiro Protagonist, whose business card reads "Last of the freelance hackers and Greatest swordfighter in the world". When Hiro loses his job as a pizza delivery driver for the Mafia, he meets a streetwise young girl nicknamed Y.T. (short for Yours Truly), who works as a skateboard "Kourier", and they decide to become partners in the intelligence business.

The pair soon learn of a dangerous new drug called "Snow Crash", which is both a computer virus capable of infecting the brains of unwary hackers in the Metaverse, and a mind-altering virus in Reality, being distributed by a network of Pentecostal churches via its infrastructure and belief system. As Hiro and Y.T. dig deeper (or are drawn in), they discover more about Snow Crash and its connection to ancient Sumerian culture, the fiber-optics monopolist L. Bob Rife and his enormous Raft of refugee boat people who speak in tongues, and an Aleut harpooner named Raven, whose motorcycle packs a nuke triggered by a type of dead man's switch called a "fail deadly". The Snow Crash meta-virus may be characterized as an extremely aggressive meme.

Stephenson takes the reader on a tour of the mythology of ancient Sumer, while his characters theorize upon the origin of languages and their relationship to the Biblical story of the Tower of Babel. Asherah is portrayed as a deadly biological and verbal virus that was stopped in Ancient Sumer by the God Enki. In order to do that, Enki deployed a countermeasure that was later described as the Tower of Babel.

The characters speculate that early Sumerian culture used a primordial language which could be interpreted by human beings through the deep structures of the brain, rendering the learning of what he refers to as "acquired languages" needless. This theoretical language is related to glossolalia — also known as the phenomenon of "speaking in tongues" — stating that the babbling of glossolalia is in truth a truncated form of the primordial language. A comparison is made to computers and their binary machine code, which exists on a much more basic level than, for example, the human-readable, high-level programming languages, and as such gives those with the ability to speak the language great power.

In the Snow Crash interpretation of Sumerian mythology, the masses were controlled by means of verbal rules called me. The characters of Hiro and Lagos compare me to small pieces of software that could be interpreted by humans, and that contained information for specific tasks such as baking bread. Me were stored in a temple and their distribution was handled by a high priest, referred to as the en. Within this context, Enki was an en who had the ability to write new me, and is described as the primordial hacker. Also, the deuteronomists are supposed to have had an en of their own, and that kabbalistic sorcerers known as the Baalei Shem (masters of the name) could control the primordial tongue.

Me were erased from people's minds by a meta-virus (see the definition of meta-), a fact theoretically explaining the Tower of Babel myth. Enki then wrote a me called "The nam-shub of Enki", which had the effect of blocking the meta-virus from acting by preventing direct access to the primordial language, making the use of "acquired languages" necessary. The meta-virus did not disappear entirely, though, as the "Cult of Asherah" continued to spread it by means of cult prostitutes and infected women breast-feeding infants. This form of infection is compared to that of the herpes simplex virus or to the way religion is acquired.

Important characters

Hiroaki "Hiro" Protagonist

As the name flippantly suggests, the hero of the novel: a hacker, swordsman, former Mafia-employed pizza delivery man. Hiro is broke in real life, but has extensive access to the Metaverse as one of its original developers.

Y.T. (Yours Truly)

A teenage skateboard-riding car-harpooning (or "pooning" as the book calls it) "Kourier" who helps Hiro investigate the mysterious meta-virus. She is Hiro's "partner" in information-gathering for the Central Intelligence Corporation.

Juanita Marquez

A computer hacker and a techno-mystic, Marquez was involved with Hiro Protagonist. She then left Hiro for his friend and rival, the phenomenally successful Da5id. After her marriage to the latter dissolved, she embarked on a quest to study the upcoming infocalypse. She becomes a key player in the race to avoid the twin threats of the meta-virus of Asherah and the nam-shub counter-virus of Enki.

Da5id Meier

Co-creator (with friend Hiro) of the elite Metaverse club The Black Sun. First victim of the Snow Crash virus shown in the book.

Dr. Emanuel Lagos

Researcher who discovered the Snow Crash meta-virus and told Rife about it. Developer of the Librarian, explained below. Introduced as a "gargoyle" - constantly wired into the Metaverse.

Uncle Enzo

Head of the American Mafia, which in this hypothetical future operates publicly and freely, and now runs legitimate enterprises such as the Nova Sicilia Inn, CosaNostra Pizza, and Our Thing Foundation.

The Librarian

A complex but non-sentient software application designed by Lagos. The Librarian's conversations serve as simple exposition, giving Hiro background information about Sumerian religion, Snow Crash, and previous research of other characters.

Mr. Lee

Head of Mr. Lee's Greater Hong Kong, a franchise that Hiro is a citizen of and that helps him out numerous times.

Mr. Ng

Head of Ng Security Industries, severely handicapped after a helicopter accident in Vietnam, maker of the security pitbull cyborgs commonly called Rat Things, and various other futuristic gadgets. Mr. Ng uses a heavily-armored vehicle modified from an airport fire engine as a "wheelchair."

Fido

One of the Rat Things, which are formerly-living dogs that have been turned into cyborgs. They are kept in "hutches" that provide them with nourishment and a virtual reality of "canine paradise." Though attack-programmed as guard dogs, they retain strong, warm memories of being real dogs. This is especially evident in the case of Fido, and it allows him to form a protective attachment to Y.T. The Rat Things are very similar to the mechanical hounds in Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451.

L. Bob Rife

All-around magnate, plies the seas in an aircraft carrier with a city's worth of people living in boats lashed to it — the Raft. He shares many similarities to L. Ron Hubbard, who also founded his own religion and spent much of his time on a boat out at sea with his followers. Some have also noted similarities to Ted Turner or John C. Malone. At the time Snow Crash was written, Malone controlled TCI, then the largest cable company. Malone vigorously and successfully resisted government regulation of cable until consumer anger against rising cable rates forced Congress to pass the 1992 Cable Act.

Dmitri "Raven" Ravinoff

An Aleut native who works as a mercenary. His preferred weapons are glass knives — undetectable by security systems and reputed to be molecule-thin at the edges — and glass-tipped throwing spears. He travels on a motorcycle whose sidecar has been replaced with a hydrogen bomb that will automatically detonate if his brain ceases to emit electrical impulses. Raven has the phrase "POOR IMPULSE CONTROL" tattooed on his forehead, a sign of being arrested for some violent crime at least once in his life. His stated goal in life is to "nuke America" in retaliation for the historical treatment by America of native Aleutians such as using their lands for nuclear testing (eg. Amchitka). The combination of his fighting ability, conscienceless killing, and personal nuclear umbrella prompt Stephenson to refer to Raven in his introduction (and Hiro to observe later on) as "the baddest motherfucker in the world."

Reverend Wayne Bedford

Head of Reverend Wayne's Pearly Gates franchise, a Pentecostal sect. The franchise is controlled by L. Bob Rife via his majority share in Pearlgate Associates.

Notable technologies

Reason

Reason is a needlegun-style rail gun in the style of a Gatling gun that fires small heavy fragments of depleted uranium at super high speeds that will penetrate nearly anything.

The name plate reads:

REASON
Version 1.0B7
Gatling type 3 mm hypervelocity railgun system
Ng Security Industries, Inc.
PRERELEASE VERSION-NOT FOR FIELD USE
DO NOT TEST IN A POPULATED AREA
-ULTIMA RATIO REGUM-

Latin for "The Last Argument of Kings", the phrase Ultima Ratio Regum was engraved on all of Louis XIV's cannons (referred to in Stephenson's The Baroque Cycle). This simple label reflects the sentiment that ultimately, in the anarchical world of society between sovereigns, force is the final arbiter when parties cannot agree to adjudicate conflicts or contracts.

It shoots 3 mm depleted uranium fragments at very high velocities and a very rapid rate of fire. It is composed of several different pieces:

• A large, black, wheeled suitcase weighing somewhere over 300 pounds (140 kg). This contains the ammo for the weapon and becomes considerably lighter as it is used. It also has a control panel inside containing important information such as ammo left and the subsystem statuses.
• A set of around two dozen 3 mm barrels around three feet (1 m) in length, attached together in a Gatling gun configuration. This is connected to the suitcase via a wrist-thick set of flexible cables and ammo feeds. These barrels spin so quickly when fired that they become a blur. The barrel system can be mounted to the firer's body to absorb the recoil.
• A nuclear isotope power system that is cooled via a large chunk of heatsinks that glow white hot when in the open air. However, when submerged into a large body of water, it cools the system quite well. It is connected to the suitcase via a 3 in (75 mm) flexible cable.

The initial operating system needed a software patch, as it crashed in the field during Hiro and the Mafia's assault on the Raft. The weapon was new and had not yet been rigorously tested in the field.

The Metaverse

Main article: Metaverse

The Metaverse is a fully immersive 3D virtual space.

Literary significance and criticism

Snow Crash rocketed to the top of the fiction best-seller charts upon its publication and established Stephenson as a major science fiction writer of the 1990s. The book appeared on Time magazine's list of 100 all-time best English-language novels written since 1923.

In his book The Shape of the Signifier: 1967 to the End of History, Walter Benn Michaels considers the deeper theoretical implications of Stephenson's text. Comparing the book with a range of contemporary writers — the fiction of Bret Easton Ellis, Kathy Acker, Octavia Butler, and even Paul de Man and the literary criticism of Richard Rorty — Michaels criticizes the deep claims of Stephenson's text; "And yet, in Snow Crash, the bodies of humans are affected by "information" they can't read; the virus, like the icepick [a reference to an incident in American Psycho], gets the words inside you even if you haven't read them.". Michaels especially targets Stephenson's view that "languages are codes", rather than a grouping of letters and sounds to be interpreted. Michaels further contends that this basic idea of language as code ("...a good deal of Snow 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") aligns Stephenson, along with other writers mentioned, with a racially motivated view of culture: that culture is something transmitted and stored by blood (or genetic codes), and not by beliefs and practices. This view entails little to no need for interpretation by people:

"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 is understood, a world in which what a speech act does is disconnected from what it means."

Rorty's Achieving Our Country uses Snow Crash as an example of modern culture that "express the loss of what he [Rorty] calls "national hope"...the problem with Snow Crash is not that it isn't true - after all, it's a story - but that it isn't inspirational." This lack of inspiration is offset by something else Snow 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)"; this preference for knowledge "contribute[s] to a more fundamental failure to appreciate the value of inspiration - and hence of literature - itself." The Raft, a collection of ragtag vessels bringing poor Asians to California, resembles the "Armada of Hope" described in Jean Raspail's novel The Camp of the Saints (1973), in which a vast flotilla carries a million of India's poor to the southern coast of France; in Rorty's reading, the Raft is emblematic of the final destruction of any sense of community in the United States: "In Snow Crash, the relation of the United States to the rest of the world is symbolized by Stephenson's most frightening creation - what he calls the "Raft"...Pride in being an American citizen has been replaced by relief at being safer and better-fed than those on the Raft."

Snow Crash's influence can be seen in Cory Doctorow's Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom. The novel features a Disneyland parade based on Snow Crash.

Influence on the World Wide Web

While Stephenson was not the first to apply the Sanskrit term avatar to online virtual bodies (Habitat did that), the success of Snow Crash popularized the term to the extent that avatar is now the de facto term for this concept in computer games and on the World Wide Web.

Metaverse-like "worlds" in reality include There, Second Life, The Palace, Uru, Dotsoul, Active Worlds and Blaxxun (originally Black Sun prior to being sued by Sun Microsystems). Some massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) also resemble the Metaverse.

According to its creators, the computer game Uru: Ages Beyond Myst was inspired by Snow Crash. This does not refer to the story or content of the game (which is deeply rooted in the D'ni/Myst universe), but rather the format of the multiplayer environment, Uru Live.

Many virtual globe programs including NASA World Wind and Google Earth bear a resemblance to the "Earth" software developed by the Central Intelligence Corporation in Snow Crash. One Google Earth co-founder claimed that Google Earth was modeled after Snow Crash, while another co-founder said it was inspired by Powers of Ten.

Stephenson's vision of the Library of Congress or simply the 'Library' bears a striking resemblance to Wikipedia. In the story, millions of users are constantly uploading fragments of information to a searchable database. Stephenson's concept of the Library differs notably from Wikipedia however, in that users must pay to download most information. Indeed the novel refers to several people, including Hiro Protagonist, who pursue a career in uploading information in the hopes that it will one day be of value. Although it is unclear whether Stephenson may actually have influenced the development of Wikipedia he arguably predicted the concept.

Elements of Snow Crash are popular among computer professionals and enthusiasts alike. For example, Microsoft vice-president J Allard uses "Hiro Protagonist" as his gamertag.

Film Adaptation

The novel was optioned shortly after its publication and subsequent success, although it has never progressed past pre-production. John Raffo and Jeffery Nachmanoff both completed drafts under the supervision of director Marco Brambilla while the project was set up at Touchstone Pictures and Kathleen Kennedy's production company, but due to the large budget required, neither was given a greenlight.

See also

• The Riddle of the Universe and Its Solution — a short story by Christopher Cherniak on a computer science research project which induces Catatonia in readers
• The Funniest Joke in the World, a similar 'thought virus', though one much less advanced.
• Infinite Jest, in part about a film so fascinating, viewers lose all interest in anything other than watching it endlessly.
• Neurolinguistics
• Distributed republic
• The Great Simoleon Caper
• Simulated reality
• Metaverse

References

• The Shape of the Signifier: 1967 to the end of history, Walter Benn Michaels, 2004, Princeton University Press, 224 pages, ISBN 0-691-11872-8

External links

• Snow Crash title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• Neal Stephenson's web site
• Science Fiction Inventions From Snow Crash