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Glen's avatar

It always flabbergasts me when someone looks at the violence and poverty and horror that exists in the worlds portrayed in books like Snow Crash and Ready Player One, and then says to themselves: "Yes that! I want that! Clearly the big corporations in those stories have created a paradise worth living in, and the goal of turning people into mind controlled puppets or indentured servants is a good one."

Also, I disagree with the statement that a book where the plot doesn't start until 350 pages in is good. I read Cryptonomicon, and from that point swore off ever reading anything big and heavy enough to use as a murder weapon. Stephenson, like the tech billionaires, has gotten to a point where he doesn't listen to constructive criticism from editors. His first four books, when an editor or agent could tell him to cut out all the fat, were his best work. Especially Zodiac (which would make for a much better movie than Snow Crash by the way) where corporations are portrayed as greedy, short sighted, stupid, and entirely responsible for environmental destruction.

I'll bet the tech optimists, and Stephenson himself these days, carefully ignore that part of his bibliography.

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Thibault ROHMER's avatar

This makes me think of Peter Isherwell character in "Don't Look Up"... Perfect tech optimism criticism.

And also the ending is gold in that movie.

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