4 ms·

It's weird that I so fundamentally disagree; it really drives home how subjective fiction is. I strongly prefer Cryptonomicon to Snow Crash. I'm a big Stephens

It's weird that I so fundamentally disagree; it really drives home how subjective fiction is. I strongly prefer Cryptonomicon to Snow Crash. I'm a big Stephenson fan, and I find his post-Cryptonomicon stuff more focused (or at least more cohesive? Structurally cogent?) on a conceptual level. I revisited Snow Crash a few years ago, and liked it much, much less than I remembered - I wouldn't describe it as a disciplined novel. It's a baggy mess with the same maximalist bent of his later work. it's a discursive, meandering story that synthesizes disparate concepts in a very fun way. But, it never gels too well; it sort of feels like he lashed a hyper-globalized-strip-mall-hellscape dystopia to a parody of the cyberpunk aesthetic, and superglued both of those things to Julian Jaynes. It just happens to indulge his maximalist tendencies in a smaller page budget, and fails to get the best of either a short novel or a big messy "idea-novel." Don't get me wrong, like you, I found the first reading of Snow Crash a formative experience as a SF fan. But I'd also never read anything like cyberpunk; I was solidly a Niven Kid in middle school, completely ignorant of post-New Wave SF. I think a lot of what I found special as a kid was actually done better elsewhere. In terms of that "90's Retrofuturistic So-Cal Strip Mall Apocalypse" brand of cyberpunk, I think William Gibson's Virtual Light was far more satisfying to revisit. It's a more assured, contained novel, and to my surprise, I think the relative restraint yields a much funnier novel than Snow Crash.

tpmx 4y ago
> I find his post-Cryptonomicon stuff more focused (or at least more cohesive? Structurally cogent?) on a conceptual level. Are you looking to be delighted by words rather than ideas? Perhaps I'm extrapolating a bit here, but you seem you like your complex language constructs, so to speak? English is a second language to me. I wonder if this isn't also a factor. The ideas in Snow Crash where really the most important things.. next to brilliant writing style (the deliverator...).
- MikeBVaughn 4y ago
  > Are you looking to be delighted by words rather than ideas? Perhaps I'm extrapolating a bit here, Possibly! Prose style is pretty important to me. On the other hand, that's not something I generally complain about with Stephenson. Even when he misfires, the result is usually entertaining. Being bland is a bigger sin, IMO, and not one he commits often. I think the two go hand-in-hand for me. Having both is best, but I'll take either. > but you seem you like your complex language constructs, so to speak? Hah, my writing style owes to more to me not taking the time to edit that I should. Also ADHD. Probably both. > English is a second language to me. I wonder if isn't also a factor. Hm. I don't know! I could see some of the sections being a real slog, though. > The ideas in Snow Crash where really the most important things.. next to brilliant writing style (the deliverator...). I love the collection of ideas, it was a fun bit of sci-fi! I just felt like it was missing something to really make it fit together better. I agree that the writing is a ton of fun in it too, I love the opening bit describing how the Uncle Enzo's Pizza company runs a whole battery of experiments to try and understand why people are so aggressive about late pizza. I think about this stretch and laugh very hard every once in a while: "... [Uncle Enzo's Pizza's researchers] studied their brain waves as they showed them choppy, inexplicable movies of porn queens and late-night car crashes and Sammy Davis, Jr., put them in sweet-smelling, mauve-walled rooms and asked them questions about Ethics so perplexing that even a Jesuit couldn’t respond without committing a venial sin."
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Apocryphon 4y ago
> It just happens to indulge his maximalist tendencies in a smaller page budget, and fails to get the best of either a short novel or a big messy "idea-novel." I mean, Snow Crash still works great as an adventure yarn, right up until the entire caper is resolved by Hiro running a program he was programming in the background between scenes. The Diamond Age was much more meandering and plotted in a confusing way, even if it had better world-building.
e12e 4y ago
> In terms of that "90's Retrofuturistic So-Cal Strip Mall Apocalypse" brand of cyberpunk, I think William Gibson's Virtual Light was far more satisfying to revisit. See also "Islands in the Net" by Bruce Sterling (IMNHO). Ed: BTW, for a newer book (2017) that plays with some interesting concepts - see "Gnomon" by Nick Harkaway. Just don't read a summary or too much about before you start - much of the pleasure I found in it was trying to "figure out" the book as I read it...
- MikeBVaughn 4y ago
  Thanks for the recommendation! I actually have a copy of Gnomon sitting on my shelf that I've been meaning to dig into. I'll have to bump it up the queue!

tpmx 4y ago

> I find his post-Cryptonomicon stuff more focused (or at least more cohesive? Structurally cogent?) on a conceptual level. Are you looking to be delighted by words rather than ideas? Perhaps I'm extrapolating a bit here, but you seem you like your complex language constructs, so to speak? English is a second language to me. I wonder if this isn't also a factor. The ideas in Snow Crash where really the most important things.. next to brilliant writing style (the deliverator...).

MikeBVaughn 4y ago
> Are you looking to be delighted by words rather than ideas? Perhaps I'm extrapolating a bit here, Possibly! Prose style is pretty important to me. On the other hand, that's not something I generally complain about with Stephenson. Even when he misfires, the result is usually entertaining. Being bland is a bigger sin, IMO, and not one he commits often. I think the two go hand-in-hand for me. Having both is best, but I'll take either. > but you seem you like your complex language constructs, so to speak? Hah, my writing style owes to more to me not taking the time to edit that I should. Also ADHD. Probably both. > English is a second language to me. I wonder if isn't also a factor. Hm. I don't know! I could see some of the sections being a real slog, though. > The ideas in Snow Crash where really the most important things.. next to brilliant writing style (the deliverator...). I love the collection of ideas, it was a fun bit of sci-fi! I just felt like it was missing something to really make it fit together better. I agree that the writing is a ton of fun in it too, I love the opening bit describing how the Uncle Enzo's Pizza company runs a whole battery of experiments to try and understand why people are so aggressive about late pizza. I think about this stretch and laugh very hard every once in a while: "... [Uncle Enzo's Pizza's researchers] studied their brain waves as they showed them choppy, inexplicable movies of porn queens and late-night car crashes and Sammy Davis, Jr., put them in sweet-smelling, mauve-walled rooms and asked them questions about Ethics so perplexing that even a Jesuit couldn’t respond without committing a venial sin."

deleted 4y ago

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Apocryphon 4y ago

> It just happens to indulge his maximalist tendencies in a smaller page budget, and fails to get the best of either a short novel or a big messy "idea-novel." I mean, Snow Crash still works great as an adventure yarn, right up until the entire caper is resolved by Hiro running a program he was programming in the background between scenes. The Diamond Age was much more meandering and plotted in a confusing way, even if it had better world-building.

e12e 4y ago

> In terms of that "90's Retrofuturistic So-Cal Strip Mall Apocalypse" brand of cyberpunk, I think William Gibson's Virtual Light was far more satisfying to revisit. See also "Islands in the Net" by Bruce Sterling (IMNHO). Ed: BTW, for a newer book (2017) that plays with some interesting concepts - see "Gnomon" by Nick Harkaway. Just don't read a summary or too much about before you start - much of the pleasure I found in it was trying to "figure out" the book as I read it...

MikeBVaughn 4y ago
Thanks for the recommendation! I actually have a copy of Gnomon sitting on my shelf that I've been meaning to dig into. I'll have to bump it up the queue!