3 ms·

Always thought it was weird for the omniscient narrator to refer to her as “YT’s mom”

by semiquaver 5mo ago

Dependance 5mo ago
Weirder than having a character just named Y.T. ?
- ethbr1 5mo ago
  'Yours Truly' seems banal when the main character is Hiro Protagonist. Self-debasing levity is one of the many reasons Snow Crash (1992) is a great reaction to Neuromancer (1984).
  - dozerly 5mo ago
    I think quite a few folks missed or have forgotten that Snow Crash is a satire on the cyberpunk genre AND society at the same time
    - kridsdale1 5mo ago
      And those folks are trying very hard with the whole Torment Nexus thing.
    - foolfoolz 5mo ago
      nueromancer tried to be edgy and serious, snow crash is weird and fun
      - ethbr1 5mo ago
        Neuromancer was edgy and serious... in 1984. And as Gibson later said ~00s, cyberpunk's moment is past and now it's boring. (At least according to him, but that counts for something)
OJFord 5mo ago
I haven't read it, but if it's written in the first person with the narrator referring to themself as 'YT', then it's at least consistent? If yours truly suddenly referred to my mother, or indeed if I referred to yours truly's mother, that would be more jarring I think?
- kridsdale1 5mo ago
  That’s not what’s happening. Snow Crash has an omniscient 3rd person narrator. A protagonist (but not THAT Protagonist!) is named Y.T. (street nickname for Yours Truly) and her mom doesn’t matter. She’s environmental set dressing.
  - OJFord 5mo ago
    Called YT by someone other than herself?
    - dredmorbius 5mo ago
      I'm not sure she's actually addressed as such by others in the story, but it's how the narrator addresses her. And IIRC how she introduces herself to the hero protagonist (Hiro Protagonist) on first meeting. In a later work she's referenced as Miss Matheson.
- semiquaver 5mo ago
  WTF, why chime in without any additional research if you haven’t read it in the first place? No, it’s an omniscient third person narrator. Yeah, YT is probably the “true” viewpoint, esp if you take diamond age into account. “Chiseled spam” and all that.
  - OJFord 5mo ago
    There seemed to be enough information to comment from a language perspective. Third-person narration that refers to the narrator themself as 'yours truly' seems contradictory to me.
jordanb 5mo ago
I found Snowcrash to be surprisingly poorly written. Especially given that I had read Cryptonomicon and Diamond Age before it. The quality of writing is so different. I thought perhaps Snowcrash was his first novel, but it wasn't!
- stuxnet79 5mo ago
  Have to agree with you on this. Neal Stephenson is not a writer's writer by any means. But even by his standards I found the prose in Snowcrash to be plodding and amateur. I still love the book for its campy nature and for all the amazing ideas it birthed but it would have definitely benefited from a round of aggressive editing. Also the ending quite frankly was horrible, but I hear this is a general issue with Stephenson's works. In general if you are new to Stephenson I would recommend reading Snow Crash first otherwise the transition from his other better written books will be jarring.
  - jordanb 5mo ago
    Stevenson's endings are "pregnant endings" as in the Aeneid: https://old.reddit.com/r/mythology/comments/196r7mn/i_just_finished_aeneid_and_why_ending_is_so_abrupt/ https://old.reddit.com/r/mythology/comments/196r7mn/i_just_f... It's not a bad way to end a book in principle. I can't actually recall how snowcrash ends, I think I was losing interest by the end.
    - cwillu 5mo ago
      Swordfight (which is very stephenson to have in the ending) and nuclear-powered robot dogs showing extreme loyalty to the person who saved one of them from overheating.
  - apercu 5mo ago
    I found the second part of Seven Eves to be a surreal experience. I think I might have stopped reading Stephenson after that.
    - 5mo ago
michaelt 5mo ago
Isn't that Stephenson driving home the faceless drone, cog-in-the-machine characterisation of YT's mom? I mean, literally not giving the character a name fits right in with the alienating working conditions of the quote above, and the fact YT's mom is working on a software cog with no understanding of the machine it fits into.
- semiquaver 5mo ago
  But she did have a name in the story.

Always thought it was weird for the omniscient narrator to refer to her as “YT’s mom”

Dependance 5mo ago

Weirder than having a character just named Y.T. ?

ethbr1 5mo ago
'Yours Truly' seems banal when the main character is Hiro Protagonist. Self-debasing levity is one of the many reasons Snow Crash (1992) is a great reaction to Neuromancer (1984).
- dozerly 5mo ago
  I think quite a few folks missed or have forgotten that Snow Crash is a satire on the cyberpunk genre AND society at the same time
  - kridsdale1 5mo ago
    And those folks are trying very hard with the whole Torment Nexus thing.
  - foolfoolz 5mo ago
    nueromancer tried to be edgy and serious, snow crash is weird and fun
    - ethbr1 5mo ago
      Neuromancer was edgy and serious... in 1984. And as Gibson later said ~00s, cyberpunk's moment is past and now it's boring. (At least according to him, but that counts for something)

OJFord 5mo ago

I haven't read it, but if it's written in the first person with the narrator referring to themself as 'YT', then it's at least consistent? If yours truly suddenly referred to my mother, or indeed if I referred to yours truly's mother, that would be more jarring I think?

kridsdale1 5mo ago
That’s not what’s happening. Snow Crash has an omniscient 3rd person narrator. A protagonist (but not THAT Protagonist!) is named Y.T. (street nickname for Yours Truly) and her mom doesn’t matter. She’s environmental set dressing.
- OJFord 5mo ago
  Called YT by someone other than herself?
  - dredmorbius 5mo ago
    I'm not sure she's actually addressed as such by others in the story, but it's how the narrator addresses her. And IIRC how she introduces herself to the hero protagonist (Hiro Protagonist) on first meeting. In a later work she's referenced as Miss Matheson.
semiquaver 5mo ago
WTF, why chime in without any additional research if you haven’t read it in the first place? No, it’s an omniscient third person narrator. Yeah, YT is probably the “true” viewpoint, esp if you take diamond age into account. “Chiseled spam” and all that.
- OJFord 5mo ago
  There seemed to be enough information to comment from a language perspective. Third-person narration that refers to the narrator themself as 'yours truly' seems contradictory to me.

jordanb 5mo ago

I found Snowcrash to be surprisingly poorly written. Especially given that I had read Cryptonomicon and Diamond Age before it. The quality of writing is so different. I thought perhaps Snowcrash was his first novel, but it wasn't!

stuxnet79 5mo ago
Have to agree with you on this. Neal Stephenson is not a writer's writer by any means. But even by his standards I found the prose in Snowcrash to be plodding and amateur. I still love the book for its campy nature and for all the amazing ideas it birthed but it would have definitely benefited from a round of aggressive editing. Also the ending quite frankly was horrible, but I hear this is a general issue with Stephenson's works. In general if you are new to Stephenson I would recommend reading Snow Crash first otherwise the transition from his other better written books will be jarring.
- jordanb 5mo ago
  Stevenson's endings are "pregnant endings" as in the Aeneid: https://old.reddit.com/r/mythology/comments/196r7mn/i_just_finished_aeneid_and_why_ending_is_so_abrupt/ https://old.reddit.com/r/mythology/comments/196r7mn/i_just_f... It's not a bad way to end a book in principle. I can't actually recall how snowcrash ends, I think I was losing interest by the end.
  - cwillu 5mo ago
    Swordfight (which is very stephenson to have in the ending) and nuclear-powered robot dogs showing extreme loyalty to the person who saved one of them from overheating.
- apercu 5mo ago
  I found the second part of Seven Eves to be a surreal experience. I think I might have stopped reading Stephenson after that.
  - 5mo ago

michaelt 5mo ago

Isn't that Stephenson driving home the faceless drone, cog-in-the-machine characterisation of YT's mom? I mean, literally not giving the character a name fits right in with the alienating working conditions of the quote above, and the fact YT's mom is working on a software cog with no understanding of the machine it fits into.

semiquaver 5mo ago
But she did have a name in the story.