Snow Crash

I finally finished Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson this morning. I can remember seeing this in the discard bins for years, but never getting around to buying a copy for $2. I still haven't as it was a library copy.

The style of this book reminds me of Mick Farren in it's combination of high/low tech and streetwise anarchic savvy. Very neat depiction of a dystopia that hasn't quite happened yet. It also depicts the Metaverse (apparently the term is coined from this novel) with avatars. Although Stephenson may not have invented the term, he popularised its use.

I found the description of the Metaverse interesting after having played Second Life. In the book the entire VR world takes place on a black sphere where everything is black until something is created there. There are subsystems (called daemons) at work that do automated tasks, but these (and almost everything else in the world) have been created by hackers.

There are nightclubs, businesses and homes in the metaverse. There's no flying or teleportation however, and avatars have either catch a monorail or have their own transport to travel any faster than walking (and also have to climb into and out of the metaverse to login/logout). Avatars become semitransparent in the main street to avoid traffic congestion but are solid otherwise, and can be "killed" in world, forcing the user a delay in logging back in.

The novel certainly paints a vivid description of both the metaverse and of a future America, balkanised by franchises and the disintegration of government. Somehow though, it ends flat when the current crisis is resolved. While it's tempting to want another chapter (what happens to Raven?) I can understand why it ends there.

Also, check out The Web Site of Aleph for some interesting essays about the book.

Synchronicity

Funny things happened while I was reading Snow Crash - on several occasions I had really strong cases of Synchronicity.

The first odd thing occurred when I borrowed the the book. I'd just finished a Food for Fishes mystery by David Wishart, and was looking for another book to read. I've been reading fiction again since late 2006 when I started Tales of the Galli. Most of the books read were detective stories set in ancient Rome. But on this occasion I decided I needed a break. I turn a corner in the library just after deciding this and there was SNOW CRASH just sitting there in front of me!

Later in the week, after I'd started the book, I bought a copy of the Valentine's issue of Time Magazine. I put it in the toilet as something to read and the next time I had to go picked it up and opened to a page at random. There on the page was a pull-out that said that "China had experienced a Star Crash". We don't get much snow here in Australia  (and so far as I know that's not a term we use here), so the coincidence was a surprise.

The second coincidence was last week. I turned on the TV and there was a weather report that said the Hunter should expect heavy showers. No sooner had those words been spoken when it poured down with a thunderstorm!

Now this sort of synchronicity normally tells me that I need to pay attention around me. Sure enough, something did turn up and I've chosen to pay attention. Not an entirely random incident, but none the less.

When I was on the train from Central back to Erica's after the Mardi Gras parade, I happened to sit down next to the Women's Officer at Flinder's University who is also part of the Cross campus Network, and also knows Catherine Cummings (who edits Polare and has published copies of Queer Stuff in that mag). We had a bit to talk about, especially with experiences of being tokenised in Women's and Feminist space. I outlined my current idea for my Masters and she thought it was a good idea, and also suggested that I attend the NOWSA conference (which I'd done in 1998) for this year in Adelaide .

It's nice to have feedback on my proposal from someone with an academic background. And maybe NOWSA (and not Queer Collaborations) would be the right place to go this year (assuming I do get accepted and can afford it). Last time I was there, I was the "token trannie" and as such "represented my species", as I put it. Be nice to go back as just another student.

Blue men

TAKE II

Galactic Scales