4 ms·

What I find either funny or depressing (can't decide), are the number of younger people (as in too young to be using computers in 1992) who read "Snow Crash" be

What I find either funny or depressing (can't decide), are the number of younger people (as in too young to be using computers in 1992) who read "Snow Crash" before reading any other cyberpunk and 1) fail to get that it is actually is a satire of Neuromancer, etc. and 2) think that Stephenson was amazingly prophetic, not realizing that a lot of what he was writing about already existed, albeit in simpler forms. 3D avatar environments are really just an aesthetic improvement over MUDs (Multi User Dungeons/Domains), which were multi-user text-based games that were all the rage in 1992.

qwertyuiop924 10y ago
He was pretty prophetic, just not with that. However the reason he was prophetic is that he inspired reality. See Google Earth.
sevensor 10y ago
I don't read Snow Crash as a Neuromancer parody. Stephenson has too many of his own ideas for that. When it comes to ideas, Stephenson is unusually playful. (See also the Enlightenment philosophers in the Baroque cycle.) He's not great on plot or characterization, or structuring a novel in general, but Stephenson can write one hell of a sentence, and he often keeps it up for a paragraph at a time. Gibson, whose books I also adore, has basically nothing at all to do with Stephenson. The only thing connecting them is that some of their books are set in dystopian near-futures. Gibson at his best is bracingly bleak. Cyberpunk was a marketing term for publishers and critics who couldn't get their heads around him. Early Gibson is pure punk. Even more than Neuromancer, read the stories in Burning Chrome for their hard, angry edge.
usrusr 10y ago
It must be even worse when people are reading the Baroque Cycle after having watched Pirates of the Caribbean, as the Jacks are exactly the same person. Surprisingly, both had been in writing before the other was published.

qwertyuiop924 10y ago

He was pretty prophetic, just not with that. However the reason he was prophetic is that he inspired reality. See Google Earth.

sevensor 10y ago

I don't read Snow Crash as a Neuromancer parody. Stephenson has too many of his own ideas for that. When it comes to ideas, Stephenson is unusually playful. (See also the Enlightenment philosophers in the Baroque cycle.) He's not great on plot or characterization, or structuring a novel in general, but Stephenson can write one hell of a sentence, and he often keeps it up for a paragraph at a time. Gibson, whose books I also adore, has basically nothing at all to do with Stephenson. The only thing connecting them is that some of their books are set in dystopian near-futures. Gibson at his best is bracingly bleak. Cyberpunk was a marketing term for publishers and critics who couldn't get their heads around him. Early Gibson is pure punk. Even more than Neuromancer, read the stories in Burning Chrome for their hard, angry edge.

usrusr 10y ago

It must be even worse when people are reading the Baroque Cycle after having watched Pirates of the Caribbean, as the Jacks are exactly the same person. Surprisingly, both had been in writing before the other was published.