Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson

This book has everything I like in it. Non-linear writing, info dumps, big ideas, and I should love this book. What happened? Am I too old?

In 2005, Time magazine listed Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson one of the best 100 English language novels written since 1923. (It ranked #84 right before Slaughterhouse Five.) Neal Stephenson's 1992 cyberpunk novel inspired tech giants like Sergey Brin, Mark Zuckerberg, inspired programs like Google Earth and Meta and popularized terms like Metaverse and avatar. 

 Set in a hyper-capitalist future where corporations rule tiny neighborhood block republics, the story follows Hiro Protagonist, a pizza delivery guy for the mafia and hacker, and Y.T. a female teenage skateboarder. Together they investigate a computer virus called Snow Crash, tied to an ancient Sumerian language that will not only crash out your avatar in the Metaverse but will also damage brains in real life. Their adventures take them in and out of the Metaverse, back into the real-world skateboarding around the Los Angeles area, out to the sea meeting a group of ship full of refugees trying to stop the spread of the virus before it is too late.

The story sounds like a simple action story, but it is told in a complex way using non-linear storytelling weaving in long lectures on Sumerian and Biblical mythology.  The story switches between the Metaverse and the real world blurring the lines between what is real and what is not real. The dialog is full of technical jargon though many of the terms are now part of our everyday language. 

I should love this book, but there were a lot of problems. I was aware that it might be a parody of over-the-top cyberpunk Hollywood movie tropes like the over-the-top action scenes of samurai sword fights and futuristic car chases. The exaggerated villains like the mafia bosses, the cult-like religious leader (Is he parodying L. Ron Hubbard?) or the angry Aleutian motorcycle riding assassin attached to a nuclear bomb. Many of the characters were uninteresting like Hiro's love interest. There were scenes that were humorous, like making fun of cyberpunk's obsession with anything Japanese, but it became tiring after a while, and I kept waiting for the book to take itself seriously. 

Maybe if I read it back in 1992, I would have loved it. This book influenced so many stories after it that the ideas, other than the ancient Sumerian stuff, seem overused and predictable. The 90's loved deconstructing and having fun with tropes and this fit right in with the times. Now, it seems immature to me. Or maybe I don't like Stephenson's humor? 

I love the idea of language being like a computer code that can change the programming of the brain like a computer and how it connects to religion. It is terrifying to think that someone could use language in a certain way to control the minds of the masses. We know that linguists have proven the theory that language can change the brain works wrong but we can focus on how influencers and grifters use language to manipulate and take advantage of the masses. In the early 90's, when Snow Crash was written, televangelists used television to reach out to vulnerable people amassing large groups of loyal followers. Stephenson predicted that grifters would one day use the internet to brainwash thousands. I think he was also making fun of L. Ron Howard and his followers in Hollywood. The idea of controlling people's brain using language can still work if not taken literally. 

It is a well written and influential book that deserves praise, but it wasn't for me personally. I am sad that I picked up this book too late. Back in the 90's when I was more adventurous like Y.T. but also into the new World Wide Web, studying linguistics and backpacking around Asia, I would have appreciated it. The humor would have been something new and fresh as by 1992 I was tired of 70's and 80's action movie tropes. It was the perfect time to mock the 80's and to look forward to the future.   I give it a score of A for excellent.