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Snow Crash

  • Connections to other stuff we’ve encountered
    • Ready Player One
      • Online virtual worlds
      • Male protagonist w/ female counterpart
    • Lucky Wander Boy
      • Fixation on certain kinds of information (hacker numeration, video games)
    • Second Life
      • Player-generated content
  • Connection between avatar and “real” self
    • How close is the connection? What are the rules and how can they be enforced?
      • Your avatar can be bizarre, non-human shapes, but it can't be taller than you?
      • Usually you can pass through people, but not in some spaces
      • Your avatar can only be in one place at a time
      • Bandwidth regulates quality of appearance 
    • How does the interface work?
      • How are Hiro's movement's tracked? How is he sword-fighting?
      • How can you talk to people and have them hear you and see your face?
  • Time/location/tone shifts
    • Some chapters are current live action, some are in the metaverse, some seem to be flashbacks
    • Episodes move from action to seeming humor (although some of it’s odd)
  • Names clearly have some kind of meaning
    • Hiro Protagonist
    • Y.T. (whitey)
    • names may be a form of identity presentation in the metaverse
  • Who is the main character?
    • Hiro ironically shifts to the background
      • He's static
    • Y.T. develops into the main character
      • She is dynamic and has more backstory
  • Hyper-commericalism
    • privatized police and incarceration
    • The nation state has dissipated in favor of other affiliations
      • national/commercial
        • Nipponese
        • Narcolumbia
        • The Mafia (pizza delivery)
        • Central Intelligence Corporation
        • General Bob's National Security
      • occupational guilds
        • Black Sun (hackers, celebrity dilettantes)
        • Deliverators
        • Stringers, Gargoyles 
        • Kouriers
      • products
        • movies, music, microcode, pizza delivery
  • Religion
    • the spread of religion/ideas operates like a virus
    • speaking in tongues
      • Babel
    • Juanita's faith seems admirable
      • It's examined but can accept ambiguity and contradiction
  • Meme
    • all things can be turned into data
    • data has its own desire to spread
  • Bodies
    • Everyone's on steroids
    • Bodies can be changed to a degree in the metaverse
    • Female bodies are objectified
  • What is snow crash?
    • a drug or virus inside of the metaverse that seems to have an effect outside of it