"The cult of Asherah lifes. The Reverend Wayne's Pearly Gates is the cult of Asherah."
Science fiction is a difficult genre to define, but I'll give it a shot. Science fiction is the exploration of what would happen if a specific technology or concept were developed. If anti-gravity existed, the world would look like this. If interstellar space travel were possible, the universe would look like this. The real root technology of this novel, however, is rooted in the past.
Much of Snow Crash is dominated by conversations between Hiro and Librarian about Babel, the Sumerians, and the propagation of religion as a virus. This is characteristic of Stephenson's work - his most recent book, Anathem, which I read shortly after finishing Snow Crash for the book club, is dominated by old school dialogs like you'll find in classic philosophical texts. The main plot - that L. Bob Rife is using a metavirus and a Pentecostal religion to promote glossolalia so he can control them with a master tongue - encompasses a lot of big topics that require a lot of background knowledge, but Stephenson's dialogs attempt to get that data across to the reader without getting too dry by using his characters' conversational style.
Use this post to discuss the topics of the Tower of Babel, linguistics, viruses, and religion. What did you think of Snow Crash's central science in this work of science fiction?
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What interested me most about this book was when it hit on issues that were more rooted in anthropology than science fiction. His musing on religion (loved the obvious slam on L. Ron Hubbard), linguistics, and constant allusions to The Epic of Gilgamesh were particularly fun for me. In fact, these were the things that kept me reading, even if I didn't fully understand what Stephenson's explanation of the "me," "en," etc, etc. (In fact, if someone could better explain the "me" and "en" to me, then I might be better equipped to respond to Paul's actual question. Any volunteers?)
ReplyDeleteI got lost during all that, too. (Particularly when the Librarian delved into the myth of Enki with the river of sperm and the impregnation of generations of his own female family members WHAT THE FUCK ARE WE READING, PAUL?? Anyway...) But what I think is, that "me" is/are set rules or directions for doing things. "Me" don't vary once they're set. "En" is creativity (or possibly critical thinking), and people who had "en" are able to make up new rules.
ReplyDeleteI liked the slam on people who watch pro wrestling on TV or read the "National Enquirer." I spent a few moments entertaining myself with modern-day expansions of that thought...people who watch MTV...fans of Lindsay Lohan...people who have lolcatz bookmarked...All subject to the metavirus!
The whole notion of Sumerian as an ur-language brushes up against eugenics. That there's one "correct" language/"code" out there that affects us at a basic, instinctual level implies one culture, ancient or no, is more "right" or "fundamental" than all the others. (It's also completely possible I'm way, way the fuck off. But I'm trying!)
ReplyDeleteWhat if all the people who earned POOR IMPULSE CONTROL tattoos had to rock them in our society? And I wonder how many I'd have by now?
There's also something fun about the word "Deliverator." Wish that one caught on like "avatar."
A lot of the middle of the book did read more like lecture than fiction to me, and I guess that may be a bit of a reason I was put off here mainly because it wasn't exactly what I was expecting. I can't help but to think that there had to be a way for Stephenson to present some of the mythos/philosophy in a way that seemed a bit more organic to the story. I almost found myself wanting to skip ahead to some "action." It's obvious (at least to me) that Stephenson viewed Snow Crash as much as a manifesto as a story and that got in the way for me. Talking to Steve OtB (outside the blog) we made a lot of comparisons between Snow Crash and Johhny Got His Gun and maybe even Confederacy of Dunces. They seem like works than seem to, for whatever reason, hold more of a historical or canonical importance rather than one that is rooted in the craft of the storytelling--the way I view Gilead and Rev Road and even Mother Night (even though there are obviously a lot of *ideas* there as well).
ReplyDeleteBut even as I type this, it's strange I come to that conclusion because so much of the reason I was originally so smitten by this novel is the pacing and craft of the language. It had this kind of Burgess meets Kerouac thing going on that really propelled me through the beginning of the book, but, unfortunately, didn't really sustain through til the end. This probably isn't the right thread for this though...