Snow Crash

Snow Crash was my first experience reading anything in the cyberpunk genre and it exemplified the style and definition of the genre itself. You have technology being for the elite. This is shown in the metaverse. You have the different styles of avatar for different types of people. You have to be wealthy or smart (good at hacking) to have a good avatar. The novel even mentions the bargain store types of avatars you are able to have.  The way you get to the metaverse is through your  private “home” or if you can't afford it or don't have the skill there are public domain type of entries into it. This again shows a class distinction. This class distinction though does not translate into the real world. Hiro Protagonist (love the name) is living in an old U-Store-It in the real world and has his own mansion in the metaverse. It is no wonder that people take more worth out of the metaverse and spend more time there in this type of future. I did enjoy the humoristic elements in the novel. Such as the idea that one of the things American still does best in the world is delivering pizza. Also I noticed hat often these genres we are studying take an idea to its extreme. This is shown with the freedom in America being taken to its height.  I really enjoyed the double narrative from Y.T and Hiro, I thought that allowed for a nice difference in view points and it kept the story fresh. It is definitely a high velocity plot. There are a lot of anime elements to the style of cyber punk and this is reiterated with out protagonist in not only his heritage but also his use of weapons and in the fight scenes of the novel. Over all I am really enjoying reading Neal Stephenson’s work.