I don't know. I first read it in like '98/'99 ish? and by the time I was reading reviews for it people were calling it satire or at least definitely winking at

I don't know. I first read it in like '98/'99 ish? and by the time I was reading reviews for it people were calling it satire or at least definitely winking at the audience (as a sibling points out: hiro protagonist) I don't know what the conversation was contemporaneously with release.