Snow Crash

By Neal Stephenson
London: Penguin (Re–issue edition (2 Jun 2011)
448 pages (pb)
ISBN 13: 9780241953181

RRP: £8.99

Reviewed by Richard Brown

The name Neal Stephenson is well known within the science fiction community. Synonymous with his award winning novel, The Diamond Age which explores a fascinating world dominated by nanotechnology, Stephenson is recognised as an author who challenges the conventional. Hailing from a family which includes more than its fair share of biochemistry, physics and electrical engineering professors, he has pursed his own interests in physics and geography and therefore brings to his writing a keen eye for and insight in the advances of science and technology. Science ‘lite’ his books are clearly not.

Stephenson’s book Snow Crash was the book that propelled him to cult star status in the sci–fi community. Originally published in 1992, the book was met with critical acclaim – readers either seemed to love it or hate it. As a summer read I decided to pick up Snow Crash and with the benefit of time and hindsight, take a look and see what I made of it.

What I found was an informative, witty, fun yet challenging journey of epic science fiction writing and scientific overload. It is not a book for the faint hearted and for some having read only a couple of chapters they may well decide to give up. This is a shame as the author clearly understands science and his passion for it comes through. However what is lacking is the literacy grace to weave this knowledge together with effective story telling to produce a compelling work of fiction. In this regard I look to other authors, such as UK based Ken McLeod, who seem to be able to do this with great flair in comparison. If you determine to stick with the book then you do begin to adapt to Stephenson’s style and slowly but surely you are drawn into the story which he is telling.

Plot

The novel is based around the concept of the Metaverse – the cyberspace home to avatars and software daemons, where anything and just about everything goes. Newly available on the Street and in some respects the antithesis of the Metaverse is Snow Crash, a mysterious new computer virus which is rapidly gaining in popularity. The end of the world appears to be the only next logical step but this is no logical novel. Cue the entrance of an unemployed hacker, a skateboarding delivery girl, even the Mafia, and the race is on to try and stop the spread and impact of Snow Crash.

Style

Where the novel seems to fall down is the lack of conventional literacy style. To have someone as knowledgeable as Stephenson write a novel presents a prime opportunity to help communicate some of that scientific knowledge in an accessible and creative way. In many respects Stephenson does do this but what is missing is the contextualisation of that information and knowledge in a story. Key concepts and scientific knowledge are given to the reader in blocks (some have referred to them as ‘info dumps’) making for a clumsy and awkward read. If only this fascinating information could have been incorporated more into the characters’ experience and life and the flow of the story would have been easier to read and assimilate. Instead the ideas and concepts become the ‘people’ and drive the story while the characters appear to simply hold the basic notion of a story together. While it has been argued by some this kind of approach is what defines science fiction literature, I am not convinced and can think of examples where ideas and effective characterisation do combine and produce a compelling story.

Predicting the future

At the heart of the story is the idea of memetics –– the theory that cultural information comes in discreet self–replicating lumps or chunks, and that the passing on of these adopts a pattern which is similar to viruses or genetic code, clearly drawing upon the influence of Richard Dawkins’ seminal book The Selfish Gene. The appeal of Snow Crash can probably be found in the fact that it acts as a manifesto or sacred text to the technorati of Generation X appearing to predict the emergence of x and y. To this end, therefore, we find Snow Crash’s key and unique strength: predicting the future. While other science fiction authors may air on the side of merely creating scenarios that spark the imagination as to what the future could be, Snow Crash goes for the jugular, preferring to create bold and more concrete assertions of what the future will be like. For instance, having dabbled a little in Linden Lab’s synthetic world, Second Life, and then reading Snow Crash and the fictional Metaverse, the similarities between the two are amazing and profound. In this one example, you are left pondering the evolution of these synthetic ‘worlds’. Were the creators of Second Life and other synthetic worlds influenced by Stephenson’s Snow Crash or did the ideas being bounced around by visionaries at the time help shape Stephenson’s ideas on how the metaverse work? This point exemplifies the need for creative thinking and out–of–the–box ideas in helping to track and map the future. The contribution of the sci–fi author should not be overlooked when it comes to discussions concerning the future and effective scenario planning. In light of their ability to imagine the future, they should be one voice among many others around the table contributing to the conversation.

It is fair to say that Snow Crash appeals to a certain reader. Some readers will relish this approach and lap it up feverishly, enjoying the experience. While others will wonder just what is going on and what that the author is trying to achieve. To use a web related analogy, commentators have spoken of the mosaic model of learning and how the internet has caused many of us to learn in chunks, beginning in one place, reading and then clicking a hyperlink at an appropriate point to be taken somewhere else to learn more. From here we click on another link which takes us further on in our learning. And so the mosaic begins to build. Having read Snow Crash, this is precisely the mode the novel embodies. Stephenson hits you with big bursts of information and theory before moving on with some narrative causing the characters to act as simple pegs on which to hold the information together, before hitting you with yet another surge of information. To some this will stimulate and thrill, to others it will represent doing away with the norm so much that it becomes just plain incomprehensible.

Conclusion

Snow Crash is definitely a sci–fi novel for the die hard enthusiast and geek and is not the best book for someone to ‘cut their teeth’ on science fiction. As with many things in life, the book’s greatest strength is its greatest weakness, the book is loved by geeks because it was written by one. As others have noted, in this regard is could be regarded as a Marmite book – you either love it or loathe. Personally, I am inclined to come away loathing it, the lack of a conventional literary thread really does make it a difficult read. Nevertheless, the ideas Stephenson’s presents, his geek–like tendencies and style should not be ignored as they help to provoke us to think differently and stimulate fresh ideas. Snow Crash stands as an excellent example of how to use this medium to do just that; be it in a very unique and different way.

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