Week 11: Snow crash (5 points)

 Going into this week's reading topic of cyberpunk had me excited as I have been exploring the cyberpunk visual style/aesthetic in some of my recent motion design work. More specifically the aesthetic of a very grid like and machine part filled textures and surfaces mixed with bright colorful neon lights such as the style you see in Tron. So going into reading Snow crash, I had high hopes for experiencing this genre in a new way than what I am accustomed to. 

The concept of a dystopian universe where countries no longer make up the structure of the world but instead large corporations do is certainly a concept that I have personally thought about before and quite frankly can see some potential truth in such a prediction. The largest corporations today and the billionaires that run them have increased their wealth and their company's wealth/power drastically since the COVID lock downs began. Most people look to these large corporations on a daily basis either by choice or by having one of their ads pop up on their phones and tvs. I believe these corporations understand the power and influence they wield today, they are no dumbies. So given all of that, it was very easy for me to put myself in the world of Snow crash where corporations reign supreme. 

The story was well paced and I really enjoyed the immense detail that went into explaining the Sumerian language and how all of the computer hacking worked. It certainly seemed like how those types of things would work and be explained in the real world. It was a perfect balance of enough detail that educated the reader beyond the story whilst also toeing the line of going into so much excess information that it bored the reader. I greatly enjoyed Snow crash as my first real cyberpunk novel I have come across. 

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