Near-future science fiction writers have a difficult task. They have to make their worlds different enough to be interesting but similar enough to be believable. It’s fine for Star Trek to talk about dilithium crystals and tricorders in the 23rd century, but something a little more credible is needed for 2020. At the same time, a world where cell phones are slightly smaller and TVs are slightly bigger would scarcely make for compelling reading.
Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash succeeds at this difficult task better than any comparable book I can remember reading. The plot is hard to describe without ruining it, and I won’t even try. Suffice it to say it’s intelligent, engrossing, and preoccupied with the role information plays in civilization. The real joy is the way Stephenson creates bizarre things that still have an unmistakable feel of “rightness” to them.
The Mafia are still in their original business, but they’ve also developed an especially ruthless pizza delivery arm. The idea is preposterous at first, but on further reflection it starts to seem like a conceivable extension of the early-nineties obsession with the thirty-minute delivery. Likewise, the federal government has evolved into a bureaucratic, paranoid software development company that controls its employees with mountains of regulation and monitors them with regular polygraph tests. The freshness and feel of Snow Crash are even more remarkable considering the book was first published in 1992. The book’s Internet-based “Metaverse,” for example, is a perfect anticipation of a modern multiplayer online role-playing game.
Science fiction revolves around possibilities. Stories must be logically coherent and technically plausible. Snow Crash takes it a step further and makes its world culturally possible, even (especially?) when it’s at its most far-fetched. The result is both thought-provoking and delightful.
