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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

#71

Post by andyjohnson0 »

huhtenberg wrote: post #55
vertis wrote: post #45

The reason I love books from Neal Stephenson, William Gibson, Charles Stross, is that, for me at least, they're massive catalysts to my own thoughts and imaginations of what might be possible. If I had to pick one book above others from Neil Stephenson it would be Diamond Age. I just keep going back to it. It's got a lot to say, and I wouldn't mind seeing a similar analysis by the Author of this post.

Stross next to Gibson and Stephenson... hmm. I tried The Atrocity Archives but I couldn't get past the first half. It felt like a pile of nerd paraphernalia force-stuffed into a story line. I mean... Neuromancer is a true masterpiece from the story to the concepts to the succinct writing, just perfect. Snow Crash is less perfect, but exceptionally enthralling nonetheless. What would be a comparable read from Stross?

> What would be a comparable read from Stross?

Accelerando [1] isn't in the same league as Neuromancer in terms of style and succinctness, but the idea-density is pretty high and it moves along at a nice pace.

[1] http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/fiction/accelera...

Re: Snow Crash Revisited: Grokking a Satire of Mimesis

#72

Post by AndrewDucker »

huhtenberg wrote: post #55
vertis wrote: post #45

The reason I love books from Neal Stephenson, William Gibson, Charles Stross, is that, for me at least, they're massive catalysts to my own thoughts and imaginations of what might be possible. If I had to pick one book above others from Neil Stephenson it would be Diamond Age. I just keep going back to it. It's got a lot to say, and I wouldn't mind seeing a similar analysis by the Author of this post.

Stross next to Gibson and Stephenson... hmm. I tried The Atrocity Archives but I couldn't get past the first half. It felt like a pile of nerd paraphernalia force-stuffed into a story line. I mean... Neuromancer is a true masterpiece from the story to the concepts to the succinct writing, just perfect. Snow Crash is less perfect, but exceptionally enthralling nonetheless. What would be a comparable read from Stross?

Accelerando stands up there with Neuromancer, to me.

Re: Snow Crash Revisited: Grokking a Satire of Mimesis

#73

Post by qwertyuiop924 »

kordless wrote: post #47
qwertyuiop924 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The one disadvatage of textual communication is that the person on the other end is incapable of listening to Reason. It's why the internet is so devoid of Reason.

Reason can be had by measurement. Humans love to measure things. On the other hand, we also love to antagonize on how much to measure, how long to measure it, and what all the numbers mean once we've written them down. Sometimes writing things down is less likely when one is being reasonable.

...have you read Snow Crash? If not, go do that. Than you'll get it.

Re: Snow Crash Revisited: Grokking a Satire of Mimesis

#74

Post by lostboys67 »

jhbadger wrote: post #68
huhtenberg wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stross next to Gibson and Stephenson... hmm. I tried The Atrocity Archives but I couldn't get past the first half. It felt like a pile of nerd paraphernalia force-stuffed into a story line. I mean... Neuromancer is a true masterpiece from the story to the concepts to the succinct writing, just perfect. Snow Crash is less perfect, but exceptionally enthralling nonetheless. What would be a comparable read from Stross?

I liked his "Missile Gap" -- a novella that combines the Cold War and alternate history in a way that I really liked. I agree with you about the "Atrocity Archives" -- and I love Cthulhu and spy stuff, so you'd think I would have liked it, but I just didn't like the way it didn't take itself seriously -- all this winking at the reader takes away all drama imho.

That's possibly the difference between UK and US humour - self deprecating humour Is a very British thing.

Re: Snow Crash Revisited: Grokking a Satire of Mimesis

#75

Post by vertis »

huhtenberg wrote: post #55
vertis wrote: post #45

The reason I love books from Neal Stephenson, William Gibson, Charles Stross, is that, for me at least, they're massive catalysts to my own thoughts and imaginations of what might be possible. If I had to pick one book above others from Neil Stephenson it would be Diamond Age. I just keep going back to it. It's got a lot to say, and I wouldn't mind seeing a similar analysis by the Author of this post.

Stross next to Gibson and Stephenson... hmm. I tried The Atrocity Archives but I couldn't get past the first half. It felt like a pile of nerd paraphernalia force-stuffed into a story line. I mean... Neuromancer is a true masterpiece from the story to the concepts to the succinct writing, just perfect. Snow Crash is less perfect, but exceptionally enthralling nonetheless. What would be a comparable read from Stross?

Accelerando, Glass House, Halting State & Rule 34. His short story collection Wireless also has some great ones. Unwirer (with Cory Doctorow) being one of my favourites.

Re: Snow Crash Revisited: Grokking a Satire of Mimesis

#76

Post by vertis »

menssen wrote: post #52

Downvote me: Infinite Jest is Snow Crash for adults. (But seriously: similar vision of a corporate-controlled near-future; and IJ is great, read it.)

For those that have never heard of Infinite Jest, it's a 1996 novel by David Foster Wallace[1].

It's now on my to read list.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infinite_Jest

Re: Snow Crash Revisited: Grokking a Satire of Mimesis

#77

Post by pjc50 »

qwertyuiop924 wrote: post #27
edraferi wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And I love it dearly for that!

But the first Tron was a better music video. Maybe not for Daft Punk. Maybe TMBG? Or Radiohead? REM, perhaps?

It's definitely a synthwave video avant la lettre.

Re: Snow Crash Revisited: Grokking a Satire of Mimesis

#78

Post by qwertyuiop924 »

pjc50 wrote: post #69

"Taken literally, this backstory might remind one of an arcane thriller written by an over-enthusiastic autodidact." That's the rest of Stephenson's work. I'm not sure Snow Crash is really a satire on cyberpunk per se. It's classic SF over-extrapolation of current trends in a funhouse mirror to shed light on things. The first of which is over-privatisation: everything in Snow Crash is a "franchise", including core pa…

Although Stross's default stance in the Laundry Files seems to be that everything is a weapon, or could be one. Camera? Weapon. Smartphone? Weapon. Pidgeon's foot? Weapon. Your own brain? Weapon. Violin? At least one of them is a weapon.

Re: Snow Crash Revisited: Grokking a Satire of Mimesis

#79

Post by vertis »

jeeva wrote: post #66
carlesfe wrote: post #58

I just finished Snow Crash and found it too pretentious and convoluted, like the turn that Diamond Age does towards the ending. Besides that, it introduces a few interesting concepts, but I feel that similar ideas are developed much better in DA. For me, Stephenson's masterpiece is Diamond Age, hands down -- minus the ending, if that could be a thing. The last chapters are too obscure just for the sake of obscurity,…

Have you tried Daemon and Freedom, a small series by Daniel Suarez?

Amazing books. I was pleasantly surprised by Kill Decision as well, not quite in the same league, but more interesting than I expected.

That, and Ramez Naam's Nexus, Crux, Apex are recent additions to my collection of awesome books.

Re: Snow Crash Revisited: Grokking a Satire of Mimesis

#80

Post by krylon »

nnethercote wrote: post #65
rfergie wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been trying to decide whether to bother with Infinite Jest or not. I've heard very good things about it, but also that it is a pretty tough read. I think your comparison with Snow Crash has swung it for me; IJ is definitely on my reading list now

> I've heard very good things about it, but also that it is a pretty tough read. Give it 100 pages. If you don't like it by then -- or at least significant chunks of it -- then you probably won't like the whole thing.

Hehe, that is exactly what I did. By page 100 I was hopelessly hooked. It's not an easy book, but I thoroughly enjoyed how it was both intellectually stimulating and extremely funny.
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