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Snow Crash Revisited: Grokking a Satire of Mimesis

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Re: Snow Crash Revisited: Grokking a Satire of Mimesis

#11

Post by qwertyuiop924 »

coredog64 wrote: post #7
qwertyuiop924 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Heh, yeah. Tron 2 was disapointing to day the least. Stephenson's novels in general are like this, although Cryptonomicon for one certainly has better character development than Snow Crash: they're a disorderly jumble of whatever ideas Stephenson thought were interesting at the time, wrapped in a skin of plot, and enfleshed in the characters that surround, encounter, and explore them. Stephenson sometimes jumps the r…

I agree that there are times when a "Reader's Digest" condensed version would be an interesting read. Then again, I do feel like I get my money's worth out of every book. Tron 2 wasn't so bad when you consider that it gave a lot of screen time to Olivia Wilde.

I can't totally hate Tron 2: it gave both Emacs and a Real CLI screen time. But neither that nor Olivia Wilde makes up for weak writing, and a nonsensical paint-by-numbers excuse plot, to say nothing of choices which undermine the aestetic, in the sequel to a movie that lived on aestetic, and actually had a less paint-by-numbers plot (somehow).

I don't want to hate it, but I don't feel like I was given a choice.

Re: Snow Crash Revisited: Grokking a Satire of Mimesis

#12

Post by milcron »

qwertyuiop924 wrote: post #11
coredog64 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree that there are times when a "Reader's Digest" condensed version would be an interesting read. Then again, I do feel like I get my money's worth out of every book. Tron 2 wasn't so bad when you consider that it gave a lot of screen time to Olivia Wilde.

I can't totally hate Tron 2: it gave both Emacs and a Real CLI screen time. But neither that nor Olivia Wilde makes up for weak writing, and a nonsensical paint-by-numbers excuse plot, to say nothing of choices which undermine the aestetic, in the sequel to a movie that lived on aestetic, and actually had a less paint-by-numbers plot (somehow). I don't want to hate it, but I don't feel like I was given a choice.

Tron 2 was more of an extended Daft Punk music video than an actual movie.

Re: Snow Crash Revisited: Grokking a Satire of Mimesis

#13

Post by jacquesm »

qwertyuiop924 wrote: post #6
Animats wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The book, or the review? The book outlines a world where franchisers run everything, including jails. It's a cookie-cutter world; instances of each franchise are very standardized, and this is a plot point. The hero delivers pizza for the Mafia run pizza franchise, when he's not hacking code. The heroine is a 15-year old skateboarding courier girl with a really good skateboard. There's a big virtual world, run partly…

Heh, yeah. Tron 2 was disapointing to day the least. Stephenson's novels in general are like this, although Cryptonomicon for one certainly has better character development than Snow Crash: they're a disorderly jumble of whatever ideas Stephenson thought were interesting at the time, wrapped in a skin of plot, and enfleshed in the characters that surround, encounter, and explore them. Stephenson sometimes jumps the r…

But you should definitely listen to Reason.

Re: Snow Crash Revisited: Grokking a Satire of Mimesis

#14

Post by steverb »

qwertyuiop924 wrote: post #6
Animats wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The book, or the review? The book outlines a world where franchisers run everything, including jails. It's a cookie-cutter world; instances of each franchise are very standardized, and this is a plot point. The hero delivers pizza for the Mafia run pizza franchise, when he's not hacking code. The heroine is a 15-year old skateboarding courier girl with a really good skateboard. There's a big virtual world, run partly…

Heh, yeah. Tron 2 was disapointing to day the least. Stephenson's novels in general are like this, although Cryptonomicon for one certainly has better character development than Snow Crash: they're a disorderly jumble of whatever ideas Stephenson thought were interesting at the time, wrapped in a skin of plot, and enfleshed in the characters that surround, encounter, and explore them. Stephenson sometimes jumps the r…

I think that's a really good synopsis of Stephenson's style, which is in part why I like his writing. There's always these little gems of actual knowledge buried in there. I find them delightful.

I'm not super fond of the way he ends things, but the journey along the way always has fun side trails to explore.

If you're mad, then sign me up for your newsletter.

Re: Snow Crash Revisited: Grokking a Satire of Mimesis

#15

Post by gbhn »

qwertyuiop924 wrote: post #6
Animats wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The book, or the review? The book outlines a world where franchisers run everything, including jails. It's a cookie-cutter world; instances of each franchise are very standardized, and this is a plot point. The hero delivers pizza for the Mafia run pizza franchise, when he's not hacking code. The heroine is a 15-year old skateboarding courier girl with a really good skateboard. There's a big virtual world, run partly…

Heh, yeah. Tron 2 was disapointing to day the least. Stephenson's novels in general are like this, although Cryptonomicon for one certainly has better character development than Snow Crash: they're a disorderly jumble of whatever ideas Stephenson thought were interesting at the time, wrapped in a skin of plot, and enfleshed in the characters that surround, encounter, and explore them. Stephenson sometimes jumps the r…

I think you are right, and I've at times struggled to explain why I enjoy his books as much as I do. I think ultimately he leans regularly on a facet of SF that in that genre, ideas and abstractions can be the equal subjects of character development. Cleverly developing an idea (e.g. mind virii) and circling back on those ideas, exploring how different facets connect in different ways, is the kind of thing one does with a human character, but can also do with an "idea character" in SF.

Obviously the craft and virtue of that kind of thing is in the relationships of the concept to other elements of the tale, both human and non-human. This I think Stephenson does very well, but I can appreciate that for someone who doesn't extend subjectivity largesse to abstractions, it can be tedious to read wikipedia-like explositions, no matter how well done. :-)

Re: Snow Crash Revisited: Grokking a Satire of Mimesis

#16

Post by BatFastard »

n00b101 wrote: post #3

I read Snow Crash when I was 13. Then I lost countless hours trying to "live the dream" with Active Worlds [1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Worlds

Interesting how "new" build your own reality worlds have just started reappearing after an 8 year drought. VR has brought them back, but VR is just a new interface to the same way of creating things.

Re: Snow Crash Revisited: Grokking a Satire of Mimesis

#17

Post by qwertyuiop924 »

gbhn wrote: post #15
qwertyuiop924 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Heh, yeah. Tron 2 was disapointing to day the least. Stephenson's novels in general are like this, although Cryptonomicon for one certainly has better character development than Snow Crash: they're a disorderly jumble of whatever ideas Stephenson thought were interesting at the time, wrapped in a skin of plot, and enfleshed in the characters that surround, encounter, and explore them. Stephenson sometimes jumps the r…

I think you are right, and I've at times struggled to explain why I enjoy his books as much as I do. I think ultimately he leans regularly on a facet of SF that in that genre, ideas and abstractions can be the equal subjects of character development. Cleverly developing an idea (e.g. mind virii) and circling back on those ideas, exploring how different facets connect in different ways, is the kind of thing one does w…

Just so you know, I love Stephenson.

I've heard his critics complain about this, amd I'm not sure they realize it's what makes him popular.

Re: Snow Crash Revisited: Grokking a Satire of Mimesis

#18

Post by throwanem »

gbhn wrote: post #15
qwertyuiop924 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Heh, yeah. Tron 2 was disapointing to day the least. Stephenson's novels in general are like this, although Cryptonomicon for one certainly has better character development than Snow Crash: they're a disorderly jumble of whatever ideas Stephenson thought were interesting at the time, wrapped in a skin of plot, and enfleshed in the characters that surround, encounter, and explore them. Stephenson sometimes jumps the r…

I think you are right, and I've at times struggled to explain why I enjoy his books as much as I do. I think ultimately he leans regularly on a facet of SF that in that genre, ideas and abstractions can be the equal subjects of character development. Cleverly developing an idea (e.g. mind virii) and circling back on those ideas, exploring how different facets connect in different ways, is the kind of thing one does w…

Just a heads up - if you're looking for a concise way to convey this idea in future, the phrase 'high concept' captures it neatly.

Re: Snow Crash Revisited: Grokking a Satire of Mimesis

#19

Post by L_226 »

n00b101 wrote: post #3

I read Snow Crash when I was 13. Then I lost countless hours trying to "live the dream" with Active Worlds [1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Worlds

I once toyed around with the idea of making a browser based virtual world for 4chan when I still used it regularly (~2008ish). Heavily inspired by Gibson and Stephenson. Each board would be it's own green wireframe building off a main avenue with shape and size corresponding to the volume of content - and thus would change over time. You would be able to fly around the 'city' and enter buildings to view the threads. I wrote a lot of notes, but no code... Of course, being a teenager I named the browser 4skin :)

Re: Snow Crash Revisited: Grokking a Satire of Mimesis

#20

Post by edraferi »

milcron wrote: post #12
qwertyuiop924 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't totally hate Tron 2: it gave both Emacs and a Real CLI screen time. But neither that nor Olivia Wilde makes up for weak writing, and a nonsensical paint-by-numbers excuse plot, to say nothing of choices which undermine the aestetic, in the sequel to a movie that lived on aestetic, and actually had a less paint-by-numbers plot (somehow). I don't want to hate it, but I don't feel like I was given a choice.

Tron 2 was more of an extended Daft Punk music video than an actual movie.

And I love it dearly for that!
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