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Snow Crash movie to be written and directed by Joe Cornish

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Re: Snow Crash movie to be written and directed by Joe Cornish

#31

Post by Cushman »

jff wrote: post #27
Cushman wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The coolest moment in the entire book involves somebody saying "I'm sure they'll listen to reason" and then pulling out an enormous gun labelled "REASON" It's actually quite a small gun, labeled "Ultima Ratio Regum", and the original owner (who delivers that line) dies when its software crashes. And if you think that was the coolest moment, I'm not sure what book you were reading... Did you miss the downhill skateb…

> Did you miss the downhill skateboarding in an office building? The nuclear-powered cyborg security drone? Hiro deflects a spear with a katana. There's a man with his own nuclear deterrence strategy. Seriously, all these things are like you asked a 90's teenage what would be "kickin' rad". I loved the book, but in many ways it was just Stephenson saying, "Check out all this cool shit I thought up".

Of course. One of the themes in the book is the adolescent fantasies of male badassitude which follow them well into adulthood, with a diminishing but ever-present sense of possibility.

Not to sound too pretentious, because it definitely presents those fantasies in a sincere way, but the book also satirizes the idea; Hiro, a consummate badass who literally carries samurai swords with him everywhere he goes, is constantly placed out of his element, relying on other people to save his bacon. He frequently reflects that what he sees as his own badassness is probably down to just dumb luck, as the frequent deaths of his companions who are objectively more badass than him demonstrate. He behaves like an action movie character, but it's a sham; somewhere at the back of his mind, he knows he doesn't actually have what it takes to play at this level (a realization literally embodied by Raven). In the end, he wins only because he was actually a pretty good hacker.

Again, I'll agree the book is not conceptually perfect nor brilliantly executed, but it does got a lot more going on than it seems.

Re: Snow Crash movie to be written and directed by Joe Cornish

#32

Post by waterlesscloud »

Relating this back to a recent blog post from Michael Abrash on how and why he got to where he is, the post starts thusly:

"It all started with Snow Crash.

If I hadn’t read it and fallen in love with the idea of the Metaverse, if it hadn’t made me realize how close networked 3D was to being a reality, if I hadn’t thought I can do that, and more importantly I want to do that, I’d never have embarked on the path that eventually wound up at Valve."

http://blogs.valvesoftware.com/abrash/valve-how-i-got-here-w...

Re: Snow Crash movie to be written and directed by Joe Cornish

#33

Post by voidfiles »

Neal Stephenson is a master of the diatribe. In almost all of his books he takes the time to go into detail on some arcane subject. While I may not be a master after he is done I feel like one.

When it comes to a mainstream adaptation I wonder if they will retain the diatribes. It would be really interesting to see how an audience takes to his level of engagement in a specific subject.

Re: Snow Crash movie to be written and directed by Joe Cornish

#34

Post by waterlesscloud »

liamondrop wrote: post #22
adriand wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Stephenson's later books are much better (though after Diamond Age they become too long to film anyway). I disagree - his most recent novel, REAMDE, is twice as long as it needs to be (and badly in need of a ruthless editor), takes itself far too seriously, is full of absurdly unlikely plot scenarios, and is in general almost totally unreadable.

What you are portraying as negatives (meandering detours into entirely unnecessary, but hilarious, trivia; absurdly unlikely plot scenarios [since when is anything about Snowcrash a likely scenario?]; etc.) are probably what loom as the largest selling points for fans of Stephenson's work from Cryptonomicon onward. I don't think we buy the books for the "plausability" factor. Also, the books hardly take themselves se…

The Baroque Trilogy literally changed how I see the way the world works. Those endless detours are worth quite a lot.

Re: Snow Crash movie to be written and directed by Joe Cornish

#35

Post by nemo1618 »

bitwize wrote: post #7
pault wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

...and now when you tell people you like Neal Stephenson, they'll say "Oh, I saw Snow Crash!", and you'll say "The book is better than the movie", and everyone will think you're a jerk.

On the other hand the book will sell like hotcakes in a new shiny-covered reprint with a "Now a Major Motion Picture" banner across the cover.

can we stop now, I'm getting really upset

Re: Snow Crash movie to be written and directed by Joe Cornish

#36

Post by mikeash »

adriand wrote: post #19
planetguy wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Snow Crash is an interesting book, but a deeply flawed one. Stephenson's later books are much better (though after Diamond Age they become too long to film anyway). It is a bit of a dumb action movie, in many ways. A guy with a sword takes on an entire flotilla, if I recall correctly. The coolest moment in the entire book involves somebody saying "I'm sure they'll listen to reason" and then pulling out an enormous gu…

> Stephenson's later books are much better (though after Diamond Age they become too long to film anyway). I disagree - his most recent novel, REAMDE, is twice as long as it needs to be (and badly in need of a ruthless editor), takes itself far too seriously, is full of absurdly unlikely plot scenarios, and is in general almost totally unreadable.

I thought it was pretty readable, but painfully predictable and fairly unoriginal. It was pretty much Stephenson's writing style grafted onto a grocery store checkout line novel's plot.

Re: Snow Crash movie to be written and directed by Joe Cornish

#37

Post by aidenn0 »

knieveltech wrote: post #20
rabidsnail wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would they want to avoid legions of pissed off fundies protesting? You couldn't buy advertising that good for any amount of money.

There's good and bad publicity, and while the line might be blurred for software startups, it's fairly clear for film studios. Pissing off the conservative crowd in North America comes with some consequences for an entertainment/media company. Case in point: The Golden Compass. The studio was shooting for a $30 million dollar opening weekend. They grossed something like $8.8 mil. You might recall that leading up to t…

Those were movies targeted at least partially at the children/young adult audience. The Snow Crash movie is unlikely to be targeted at the same demographic.

Re: Snow Crash movie to be written and directed by Joe Cornish

#38

Post by planetguy »

Cushman wrote: post #31
jff wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Did you miss the downhill skateboarding in an office building? The nuclear-powered cyborg security drone? Hiro deflects a spear with a katana. There's a man with his own nuclear deterrence strategy. Seriously, all these things are like you asked a 90's teenage what would be "kickin' rad". I loved the book, but in many ways it was just Stephenson saying, "Check out all this cool shit I thought up".

Of course. One of the themes in the book is the adolescent fantasies of male badassitude which follow them well into adulthood, with a diminishing but ever-present sense of possibility. Not to sound too pretentious, because it definitely presents those fantasies in a sincere way, but the book also satirizes the idea; Hiro, a consummate badass who literally carries samurai swords with him everywhere he goes, is consta…

One of the themes in the book is the adolescent fantasies of male badassitude which follow them well into adulthood, with a diminishing but ever-present sense of possibility.

Actually I'm not sure that is a theme. There's a brief meditation on the theme of adolescent badass fantasies, but it's only used as a way of introducing a new character who is an even more ridiculous adolescent badass fantasy than the ridiculous adolescent badass fantasies that we've met up to this point.

Re: Snow Crash movie to be written and directed by Joe Cornish

#40

Post by planetguy »

adriand wrote: post #19
planetguy wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Snow Crash is an interesting book, but a deeply flawed one. Stephenson's later books are much better (though after Diamond Age they become too long to film anyway). It is a bit of a dumb action movie, in many ways. A guy with a sword takes on an entire flotilla, if I recall correctly. The coolest moment in the entire book involves somebody saying "I'm sure they'll listen to reason" and then pulling out an enormous gu…

> Stephenson's later books are much better (though after Diamond Age they become too long to film anyway). I disagree - his most recent novel, REAMDE, is twice as long as it needs to be (and badly in need of a ruthless editor), takes itself far too seriously, is full of absurdly unlikely plot scenarios, and is in general almost totally unreadable.

I stand corrected on the latest one, which I haven't read. I've picked it up in the bookstore a few times but the combination of a thousand pages of thickness and a less-than--compelling blurb on the back (wasn't this a Michael Douglas movie?) have failed to convince me. Thanks for the anti-recommendation... a thousand-page book is a serious time commitment and there's a lot of other things I want to read.

To be honest Cryptonomicon is the only NS book which I really and wholeheartedly recommend. Diamond Age and Anathem are definitely interesting and I'm glad I read them but they have their flaws, Snow Crash comes across as juvenile, and the Baroque Cycle is approximately five hundred pages of a fantastic book bound at random with twelve hundred pages of boring.

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