Snow Crash 1

SNOW CRASH 11994 1988 Zodiac 1988-91 1992 third novel. Second generation Simply one long book broken down into 71 chapters. 468 pp long. Chap. 1 High tech pizza delivery from by Mafia - Uncle Enzo - in Southern California. Delivery boy like a ninja. delivery in 30. The Mafia ethnic has been turned into a corporate code. You work for honor. HIro used to be in law enforcement - security - but screwed uip – cyberpunk hero. Ex-cop. Martial arts. Financially insecure. Future. Private multinational corps run most of society. Fed. gov is one small and rather weak entity. Kind of a garrison mentality - or even a gang mentality. People go from safe haven to safe haven - based on their coprorate affiliations. Gated suburbs. p. 11 end of section. General description of SoCal landscape. Chap. 2: 11 Stephenson has a more relaxed and ironic view of his characters as opposed to Gibson. Hiro is almost like a parody. Asian sensibility. The purpose of all this pizza delivbery drama is to all S to describe life in the future - the protected urbclaves, the freeways – He gets harpooned by a courier on a skate board – from RadiKS– just like Chevette from Gibson's Virtual Light. They latch on and slow you down. Police seem be non-existent. CHP would maken this impossible these days. S has a very funny style. He dukes it out with the courier. (*Uses street talk - not excessive but moire than Tepper and Gibson). None of the decadence of Gibson. THERE DOESN'T SEEM TO BE ANY REAL EVIL IN THE CYBERPUNK WORLD AS OPPOSED TO TEPPER. IN G AND S, PEOPLE DO BAD THINGS BUT IT IS NOT WANTON CRUELTY AS IN, SAY, WOMAN'S C. OR SIDESHOW. HOWEVER, EVEN TEPPER'S EVIL IS RESOLVED IN THE END. RATIONALIZED. IN THE X-FILES, EVIL TAKES MANY SHAPES AND FORMS - NOT ALL OF WHICH ARE LOGICALLY COMPATIBLE. THIS IS THE REASON IT IS SO INTERESTING. IN TEPPER, THERE IS DIVERSITY BUT THERE ARE NO MYSTERIES. IN THE X-FILES, YOU GET THE SENSE THAT THE WRITERS SAY - THIS IS HAPPENING, YOU DECIDE WHY. WE DON'T KNOW. THIS WHY THERE IS NO RESOLUTION TO MANY OF THE CASE AND WHY MOULDER AND SCULLY HAVE FAMILIES BUT EVEN THESE FAMILIES DO NOT PROVIDE SECURITY AND COMFORT. WHY DON'T WE SEE WHERE SCULLY LIVES? WE SEE MOULDER'S PLACE = WHAT WE MIGHT IMAGINE WITH AN BACHELOR FBI AGENT. WHAT ABOUT HER? WE REALLY DON'T HAVE ANY IDEA. AND WE ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO. He crashes trying to ditch her. He gets arrested. She delivers his pizza for him on time. He gives her his card. I owe you one. Hiro Protagonist. Stringer. Swordfigher. Central Intelligence Corporation. Lots of addresses including VR world. Freelance hacker. Her name is YT. Hiro is fired. Back to unemployed. Chap. 3, 19 Hiro and Vitality Chernobyl Russian rock star (cf. VL) Inglewood CA - (cf VL) He lives an old USTORIT units. They were used to store toxics - company left them - so they were claimed. They don't have anything to steal - he has swords and a laptop which he always takes with him. Cyberpunk universe. People are not connected - socially - but connected professionally - through information. People have value only in terms of what they can contribute information wise. Hiro has coffee colored skin and dreads – Ice T – he is half black, half Korean/Japanese - Army brat - wears goggles with ear plugs. VR, telecom. Vitality is a rock guitarist Russian. Chevette is half black, half white. Oregon. US Army was split into a number of competing organizations. General Bob's National Secuity. (Col Sanders, Ronald McDonalds) PACIFIC RIM ETHOS - RACIAL MIX - SO CAL - DIFFERENT FROM GIBSON'S WHITE BOY HERO - BLENDED LOOK. BLEN DED HEROS FORM BLENDED CULTURES. Laptop has a laptop with a fiberoptic cable that connects him to the rest of the world. He's a hacker. Back up job. Freelace stringer for the CIC. Privatized CIA. 21: Business is simple. Feeds unanalyzed data. Feeds it into the CIC Library. Used to be the Library of Congress. Federal gvbt. is almost nonexistent. LC became transformed into data bank as information became more sophisticated. Hence, there was little difference between the Library of Congress and the CIA so they just merged and kicked out a stock offering. Clients are corporations and independent sovereigns - governments. If they find something useful, they pay hum. HE IS LIKE JOHNNIE MNEMONIC. 90% of data in CIC never gets used. Data overload. THIS WORLD IS A PRIVATIZED VERSION OF PRESENT WORLD. NO HOLOCAUST. He compares the computer to the camera. The eye of the camera and the eye of the computer – which has a lens that allows him to SEE by means of his goggles. SEE AND DOWNLOAD. He also has an existence in a METAUNIVERSE. He has a place and an identity which he can see, an avatar. VIRTUAL REALITY. He spends a lot of time in MU. His physical surroundings are squalid but he has wealth and power in the MU. 24: the STREET on the MU. Millions of people interact there. Talks about the digital universe. 1 0 = 2. Only numbers that are important. Multiples of 2. STREET can be developed. Hiro was one of those who developed the Street. Old rich. 60 million people can be on the Street at any one time - international - Chap. 4 p. 27 Back to YT. Skate board. High tech. RadKS. B ACK IN TIME OF ORGINAL ACTION. S SKIPS BACK AND FORTH FROM PAST TO PRESENT LIKE TEPPER. DIFFICULT TO KEEP TRACK OF AT TIMES. Converse Hi tops, RqdKS Nightvision goggles. Explains pooning cars. Poons Bimbo Box (Voyager) to deliver the pizza for Hiro. She is smart. BB driven by a teenage male. She tricks him. Burbclave. Whites only. Total security. RACE AN ELEMENT HERE. YT has a visa that will allow her to go anywhere as a delivery person. The world is full of power and one can go far if one learns how to skim off a part of it. Chap. 5: 35 Hiro has power because he has a mind and he knows how to use it. He has little social status and no money. Physical prowess has a finite place. But his strength is in his mind - how he handles information. YT is smart but her spontaneity is important. Can't predict what she will do. White. Child of the burbs. Mother is a federal worker. Programmer. Cyberpunk heroes. 35: He describes the STREET. Describes how avantars work in VR. People from difference classes, etc. can meet on the Street. Can be anything one wants to be - limited only by hardware constraints. Hiro avatars look like him. More sophisticated. 36-37: Avatar wears a black leather kimono. Wears two swords. S lays out the rules of the MU. On the Street, there are still parameters or limits. Like a parallel universe. Can buy avatar construction sets at Wal-Mart. Talks about Brandy and Clint like Ken and Barbie. Money can't buy everything on MU. 38: Interanational. So time zones are important. Animercials – animated commercials. Hiro used to work as a programmer for a Japanese software company but he could not stand the corporate mentality. That's why he came a freelancer. He needs to get serious about his intel gathering. He owes the Mafia for the car he crashed, He goes to a club, Black Sun, which he started with Da5vid many years before. Used to be partners. Here he is not a stravingv stringer for the CIC who lives in a U-Stor-it. Here he is known. 42: BW avatar wants to sell Hiro to see him some SNOW CRASH. Hiro doesn't undertand how you can have a virtual drug. He is confused. SNOW CRASH IS COMPUTER LINGO. IT MEANS A SYSTEM CRASH, A BUG. MALFUNCTION THAT SPRAYS ELECTRONS WILDLY ACROSS THE SCREEN RESULTING IN SNOW. GYRATING BLIZZARD OF PIXELS. Hiro didn't understand what this was - how could it be a drug. ASSHOLE. The drug was on a hypercard. It was data. DOES IT FUCK UP YOUR BRAIN OR YOUIR COMPUTER? BOTH. Chap. 6 p. 44 BACK IN THE REAL WORLD. Mr. Lee's Greater Hong Kong. It was an indepdent company/country – like a sovereign state. Branches were like embassies – they were protected by law. If you were a member, you could find security wherever you found a club/shop/business. 45: YT gets busted by Metacops for breaking into the burbs. She goes to a jail which in mack of a minimart – Buy N Fly. (EVERYTHING HAS BEEN PRIVATIZED. LAW IS ONLY THERE TO PROTECT BUSINESS AND COMMERCIAL INTERESTS OR POWER BROKERS ANYWAY. THISM SOCIETY IS LESS HYPOCRITICAL. YOU CAN PAY OR YOU CAN STAY. THERE IS NO MORALITY INVOLVED HERE. EVERTYHTHING SEEMS CLEAR. We find out her name is Yolanda Truman. She pays way from the Clink to the Hoosegow. But they take her to the Clink anyway. She gets busted for delivering the pizza. Wasn't what she was supposed to be doing. So visa was invalid. Jailer is Tajikastan. Chap. 7 p. 54 BACK TO BLACK SUN. Description of how the Black Sun is constructed. Daemons - Unix – software that helps maintain BS – HIRO IS A HACKER. IF HE WANTS SOME INFORMATION, HE STEALS IT RIGHT OUT OF THE GUTS OF THE SYSTEM. 56: Sees Juanita Marquez. They were both students at UC Berkeley. She helped start Black Sun with Hiro and Da5vid. She was a hacker too - worked with her at Black Sun Systems. When he first met her, he only understood two things. Samurai movies and the Macintosh. His father was the Army, fought in the Pacific. Army brats – skins were different colors but they all belonged to the same group – military. They were there own culture. A comfortable but closed and limited culture. She was a woman with a lot more class than he could handle. No make up, trailored clothes, straight cut, took no shit from any one, inlcuding professors. SIMPLICITY = CLASS = POWER. 59: All the other hackers had pictures on the computers of the Enterprise. Her grandmother was her role model. WHEN I WAS 15, I THOUGHT I WAS PREGNANT. Grandmother had wisdom. Grandmother helped her. TO CONDENSE FACT FROM THE VAPOR OF NUANCE. Juanita Marqiez Hiro remembered those words. (HE IS VULERNABLE CLASS WISE. NEW FOR A CYBERPUNK HERO. HARD BOILED DICK IS NOT LIKE THAT EITHER. CF. Someone to Watch Over Me. He never forgot the sound of her speaking when he realized for the first time how smart Juanita was. 60: Refused to take DOD grants. Wanted to do her own research. HIRO SUCH ABILITY TO REFLECT ON HIS OWN PAST. WAS I AN ASSHOLE IN HIGH SCHOOL? 61: Do you think I'm an asshole? he had asked her. This question was the corner stone of their relationship. She had said No, but he had always thought the answer was Yes. They drifted apart after great arguments and great sex. His doubt about her feelings for him made her doubt. She backed off. HE WOULD HAVE CHALKED IT OFF TO CLASS DIFFERENCES BUT HER PARENTS LIVED IN MEXICALI WITH A DIRT FLOOR AND HIS FATHER MADE MORE THAN MANY COLLEGE PROFESSORS. (WHAT DID HIS FATHER DO AFTER THE MILITARY?) CLASS IS SOMETHING MORE THAN INCOME - S talks about class, race, gender and age. HIS FATHER WAS A SARGEAT-MAJOR, HIS MOTHER'S FAMILY USED TO BE SLAVES IN JAPAN. HE DIDN'T KNOW WHETHER HE WAS BLACK OR ASIAN, RICH OR POOR, EDUCATED OR NOT. IT WAS HIS DISORIENTATION THAT DID HIM IN - AND HIS RELATIONSHIP WITH HER. He started going out with bimbos. Juanita went celebate and then she started going out with Da5vid. They got married. His folks were Russian-Jews from Brooklyn. Torah. Computer science at Stanford, started his own company, started Black Sun Systems – he was also certain of everything even when he was wrong. THIS IS WHY HIRO QUIT DAVE AND WHY SHE LEFT HIM FIVE YEARS LATER. He sold his stock to him his mother. She kept hers and now Juanita is rich. But he has no regrets because his mother is happy. p. 63TEXT WAS WIPED OUT ON TAPE. p. 67. Juanita tells him not to mess with Snow Crash. She wants him to meet Lagos. Halogram. She used her money to start her own branch of the Catholic Church. RELIGION IS IMPORTANT FOR HER. HE WENT TO CHURCH TO. SHE WANTS TO DIVORCE RELIGION FROM SPIRITUAL BELIEF. 69: She pulls out a data card that says BABEL. INFOCAPOLCYSE. Still in Black Sun. 70: VERY IMPORTANT. LANGUAGE. BABEL. REV. L. BOB RIFE. Juanita tells him to stay away from RAVEN and STAY AWAY FROM SNOW CRASH. Hiro’s ethics. Doesn’t like selling private information. 72: Da5vid tears the SNOW CRASH hypercard in half and gets zapped. When he recovers, D said he saw nothing but black and white pixels. The daemon he talked to spoken to him in giberish. This is the first introduction to speaking in tongues. Some language he didn’t know recognize. They talk about this Japanese rapper, Sushi K, who is coming to LA. Something happens to D. He gets thrown out of his own bar by his how deamons. CHAP. 10 Back to YT. She’s still in jail. Her mom calls. She doesn’t tell her the truth. Hiro comes and busts her out. He’s surrounded by Arabs who don’t like him. She steals a taxi and they escape to Mr. Lee’s Greater Hong Kong. 83: There’s a stalemate in front of Hong K. Arabs want Hiro but he’s protected. CHAP. 11 84: Dav’s computer has crashed. Hiro leaves looking for Sushi K. A Japanese businessman accuses him of stealing his katana. He fights the Japanese and he wins. 89: Mentions zanshin. He wins. Hiroaki Protagnist is the number one swrod fighter in the metauniverse. CHAP. 12 89: Talking about RAT THINGS – roboticly enhanced animals. Gets into dog’s mind. These are Mr. Lee’s security weapons. These rat things go and disarm everyone. Guns are illegal in Hong Kong. SHE’S FIFTEEN. She called her boy friend but he flaked out on her. She’s attracted to him so she asks him if he wants to go into a partnership with him. Then she gets scared so she wants to leave. Then she hears a handgrenade. A rat-thing gets hit by a grenade. It is wounded. She wants to help it so she gets it back into the kennel where it can repair itself. It is hurt and is bleeding. GREATER HONG KONG: THREE PRINCIPLES: INFORMATION, FAIR MARKETING AND STRICT ECOLOGY. Private and quasi-soverign territory. Rat thing is grateful. 100: YT goes into a McDonalds and changes into a dress and goes home to the suburbs. Her mom works for the Feds as a programer. She has to take weekly polygraph tests. Hiro goes to Long Beach to rock concert with Vitaly Chernobyl. Goes into his office and sees a globe. He takes out his Babel hypertext card and plugs in. He’s in a quasi partnership with Juanita. He starts talking to the holographic Librarian who explains to him what all this data is doing.