Snow Crash - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.

org/wiki/Snow_Crash

Snow Crash
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Snow Crash is Neal Stephenson's third novel, published in 1992. Like many of Snow Crash
Stephenson's other novels it references history, linguistics, anthropology, archaeology,
religion, computer science, politics, cryptography, and philosophy.

Stephenson explained the title of the novel in his 1999 essay In the Beginning... was the
Command Line as his term for a particular software failure mode on the early Apple
Macintosh computer. Stephenson wrote about the Macintosh that "when the computer
crashed and wrote gibberish into the bitmap, the result was something that looked
vaguely like static on a broken television set — a 'snow crash'".

Snow Crash was nominated for both the British Science Fiction Award in 1993,[1] and
the Arthur C. Clarke Award in 1994.[2]

Contents
1 Background
2 Plot summary and major themes
2.1 Plot overview
2.2 Condensed narrative
U.S. version cover shot
3 Important characters
4 Notable technologies Author Neal Stephenson
4.1 Rat Things
4.2 Reason Cover artist Bruce Jensen
4.3 Metaverse
4.4 Dentata Country United States
5 Literary significance and criticism Language English
5.1 Influence on the World Wide Web
5.2 Film adaptation Genre(s) Science fiction, Cyberpunk,
5.3 In popular culture
Postcyberpunk
6 See also
7 References Publisher Bantam Books (USA)
8 External links
Publication date June 1992

Media type Print (Hardback & Paperback)

Background
Pages 480 pp
The story begins and ends in Los Angeles, which is no longer part of what is left of the ISBN ISBN 0-553-08853-X (first edition,
United States, during the early 21st century. In this hypothetical future reality the federal hardback)
government of the United States has ceded most of its power to private organizations
and entrepreneurs.[3] Franchising, individual sovereignty and private vehicles reign OCLC Number 25026617
(along with drug trafficking, violent crime, and traffic congestion). Mercenary armies (http://worldcat.org/oclc/25026617)
compete for national defense contracts while private security guards preserve the peace Dewey Decimal 813/.54 20
in gated, sovereign housing developments. Highway companies compete to attract
drivers to their roads rather than the competitors', and all mail delivery is by hired LC Classification PS3569.T3868 S65 1992
courier. The remnants of government maintain authority only in isolated compounds
where they transact tedious make-work that is, by and large, irrelevant to the dynamic society around them.

Much of the territory ceded by the government has been carved up into sovereign enclaves, each run by its own big business franchise (such as
"Mr. Lee's Greater Hong Kong") or the various residential burbclaves (suburban enclaves). This arrangement resembles anarcho-capitalism, a
theme Stephenson carries over to his next novel The Diamond Age. Hyperinflation has devalued the dollar to the extent that trillion dollar bills —
Ed Meeses — are nearly disregarded and the quadrillion dollar note — the Gipper — is the standard 'small' bill. For physical transactions people
resort to alternative, non-hyperinflated currencies such as yen or "Kongbucks" (the official currency of Mr. Lee's Greater Hong Kong).

The Metaverse, a phrase coined by Stephenson as a successor to the Internet, constitutes Stephenson's vision of how a virtual reality-based
Internet might evolve in the near future. Resembling an MMO, the Metaverse is populated by user controlled avatars as well as system daemons.
Although there are public-access Metaverse terminals in Reality, using them carries a social stigma among Metaverse denizens, in part because of
the poor visual representations of themselves as low-quality avatars. Status in the Metaverse is a function of two things: access to restricted
environments such as the Black Sun, an exclusive Metaverse club, and technical acumen, which is often demonstrated by the sophistication of
one's avatar.

Plot summary and major themes

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Plot overview
At the beginning of the novel the main character, Hiro Protagonist, discovers the name of a new
pseudo-narcotic, "Snow Crash", being offered at a posh Metaverse nightclub. Hiro's friends and fellow hackers
fall victim to Snow Crash's effects, which are apparently unique in that they are experienced in the Metaverse
and also in the physical world. Hiro uses his computer hacking, sharp cognitive skills, and sword-fighting skills
to uncover the mystery of "Snow Crash"; his pursuit takes the reader on a tour of the Sumerian culture, a
fully-instantiated laissez-faire society, and a virtual meta-society patronized by financial, social, and intellectual
elites. As the nature of Snow Crash is uncovered, Hiro finds that self-replicating strings of information can
affect objects in a uniform manner even though they may be broadcast via diverse media, a realization that
reinforces his chosen path in life.

Condensed narrative

The protagonist is the aptly-named Hiro Protagonist (Hiro being a homophone of hero), whose business card
reads "Last of the freelance hackers and Greatest swordfighter in the world." When Hiro loses his job as a pizza
delivery driver for the Mafia, he meets a streetwise young girl nicknamed Y.T. (short for Yours Truly), who
Snow Crash, UK version cover
works as a skateboard "Kourier," and they decide to become partners in the intelligence business (selling data shot
to the CIC, the for-profit organization that evolved from the CIA after the U.S. government's loss of power).

The pair soon learn of a dangerous new drug called "Snow Crash" that is both a computer virus capable of infecting the brains of unwary hackers
in the Metaverse and a mind-altering virus in Reality. It is distributed by a network of Pentecostal churches via its infrastructure and belief
system. As Hiro and Y.T. dig deeper (or are drawn in) they discover more about Snow Crash and its connection to ancient Sumerian culture, the
fiber-optics monopolist L. Bob Rife, and his enormous Raft of refugee boat people who speak in tongues. Also, both in the Metaverse and in
Reality, they confront one of Rife's minions, an Aleut harpoon master named Raven whose motorcycle's sidecar packs a nuke wired to go off
should Raven ever be killed. Raven has never forgiven the U.S. for the way they handled the Japanese invasion of the Aleutian Islands (see
Aleutian Islands Campaign in World War II) or for the nuclear testing on Amchitka.

Hiro, with the prompting of his Catholic and linguist ex-girlfriend Juanita, begins to unravel the nature of this crisis. It relates back to the
mythology of ancient Sumer, which Stephenson describes as speaking a very powerful ur-language. Sumerian is to modern "acquired languages"
as binary is to programming languages: it affects the entity (be it human or computer) at a far lower and more basic level than does
acquired/programming language. Sumerian is rooted in the brain stem and related to glossolalia, or "speaking in tongues"—a trait displayed by
most of L. Bob Rife's convertees. Furthermore, Sumerian culture was ruled and controlled via "me," the human-readable equivalent of software
which contains the rules and procedures for various activity (harvests, the baking of bread, etc). The keepers of these important documents were
priests referred to as en; some of them, like the god/semi-historical-figure Enki, could write new me, making them the equivalent of
programmers or hackers.

As Stephenson describes it, one goddess/semi-historical figure, Asherah, took it upon herself to create a dangerous biolinguistic virus and infect
all peoples with it; this virus was stopped by Enki, who used his skills as a "neurolinguistic hacker" to create an inoculating "nam-shub" that
would protect humanity by destroying its ability to use and respond to the Sumerian tongue. This forced the creation of "acquired languages"
and gave rise to the Biblical story of the Tower of Babel. Unfortunately, Asherah's meta-virus did not disappear entirely, as the "Cult of Asherah"
continued to spread it by means of cult prostitutes and infected women breast feeding orphaned infants; this weakened form of the virus is
compared to herpes simplex. Furthermore, Rife has been sponsoring archaeological expeditions to the Sumerian city of Eridu, and has found
enough information on the Sumerian tongue to reconstruct it and use it to work his will on humanity. He has also found the nam-shub of Enki,
which he is protecting at all costs.

Hiro and Y.T. each eventually make their way to Rife's Raft, a massive refugee flotilla centered around Rife's personal yacht, the USS Enterprise
aircraft carrier. Juanita has already infiltrated this floating caravan for the express purpose of helping overthrow Rife. Y.T. becomes romantically
associated with Raven for a short time and is eventually captured by Rife's outfit, but not before getting the nam-shub of Enki to Hiro, who
together with Juanita uses it to save the virus-afflicted. Hiro then goggles into the Metaverse and foils Raven's attempt to widely disseminate the
Snow Crash virus to a grouping of the hacker elite. Meanwhile, Y.T. is brought to the mainland by Rife, but she escapes the helicopter before
Rife and Raven proceed to an airport, where they are confronted by Uncle Enzo (the Mafia kingpin) and Mr. Lee (leader of a series of Hong
Kong-esque franchulates). A critically wounded Enzo disarms Raven, while Rife is killed and his virus destroyed when Fido, a cyborg "rat-thing"
who used to be Y.T.'s dog, propels himself through the engine of L. Bob Rife's plane at beyond Mach 1, incinerating Rife and his plane. The
novel ends with Y.T. driving home with her mother, and with hints of a future rekindled relationship between Hiro and Juanita.

Important characters
Hiroaki "Hiro" Protagonist
A half-black, half-Korean[4] hacker, swordsman, pizza delivery man, and CIC intelligence agent. Hiro has extensive access to the
Metaverse, as he was one of its original developers. He is the undisputed champion of in-Metaverse sword fighting, having written the
code which makes sword-fighting possible. However, he is completely broke in Reality, having sold his stock in Black Sun before the
Metaverse got really popular.
Y.T. ("Yours Truly")
A 15-year-old skateboard "Kourier" who helps Hiro investigate the mysterious meta-virus. She is Hiro's "partner" in information-gathering
for the Central Intelligence Corporation. Her real name is never stated, though she is alluded to in a later book by Stephenson, The
Diamond Age. Like all Kouriers, she uses an electromagnetic harpoon to hitch a ride from (often-unwilling) motor vehicles, such as Hiro's.
Though she does not carry any lethal weapons, all Kouriers are outfitted with a wide variety of defensive countermeasures, which Y.T.
uses throughout the book to escape sticky situations. Her mother is a worn-down programmer for the irrelevant Federal Government;
Stephenson satirizes American bureaucracy (in particular, the real-life Code of Federal Regulations) via a multi-page memo on intra-office
toilet paper policies which good employees are expected to spend 15.62 minutes reading.
Juanita Marquez

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A computer hacker and techno-mystic, Marquez was once romantically involved with Hiro Protagonist. She then left Hiro for his friend
and rival, Da5id, the phenomenally-successful founder of Black Sun. After her marriage to the latter dissolved, she embarked on a quest to
study the upcoming infocalypse. She becomes a key player in the race to avoid the twin threats of the meta-virus of Asherah and the
nam-shub counter-virus of Enki. She was also involved in the programming of the Metaverse, specifically the faces of Metaverse avatars
which are (later) realized to be one of the main keys to its success.
Da5id Meier
Co-creator (with friend Hiro) of the elite Metaverse club The Black Sun. First victim of the Snow Crash virus shown in the book.
Dr. Emanuel Lagos
A researcher who discovered the Snow Crash meta-virus and told Rife about it; he then told Juanita about telling Rife, thus allowing her to
mobilize Hiro. Developer of the Librarian, a research/index AI described below. Introduced as a "gargoyle": someone constantly wired
into the Metaverse. Killed by Raven shortly after his first appearance.
Uncle Enzo
The highly charismatic head of the American Mafia, which in this hypothetical future operates publicly and freely, and now runs
legitimate enterprises such as the Nova Sicilia Inn, CosaNostra Pizza, and the Our Thing Foundation. The Mafia considers itself to have a
"personal relationship" with each of its customers and employees. This gets Hiro in trouble at the beginning of the book, as, while
employed as a pizza "Deliverator," he accidentally crashes his cutting-edge Mafia-owned pizza-delivery vehicle, forcing Y.T. to complete
the delivery so that the Mafia does not have to default on its 30-minute-delivery guarantee. However, this means Y.T. now has a "personal
relationship" with the Mafia in general and Uncle Enzo specifically, which comes in handy later on. Enzo served in the Vietnam War.
The Librarian
A complex but non-sentient software application that runs in the Metaverse designed by Lagos. The Librarian's conversations serve as
simple exposition, giving Hiro background information about Sumerian religion, Snow Crash, and the previous research efforts of other
characters.
L. Bob Rife
All-around magnate, though his main claim to fame is having installed the massive Fiber-optic communication network that makes the
Metaverse possible. He plies the seas in an aircraft carrier with a city's worth of people living in boats lashed to it — the Raft, which moves
in a five-year circle around the Pacific Rim. His name and depiction evokes L. Ron Hubbard, who also founded his own religion and spent
much of his time on a boat out at sea with his followers. Some have also noted similarities to Ted Turner and John C. Malone[citation needed].
Dmitri "Raven" Ravinoff
An Aleut native who works as a mercenary. His preferred weapons are harpoons, spears, and glass knives — undetectable by
metal-searching security systems, reputed to be molecule-thin at the edges and able to penetrate the bulletproof windbreakers which most
characters in Snow Crash rely on for protection. He travels on a motorcycle whose sidecar has been replaced with a hydrogen bomb that
will automatically detonate if his brain ceases to emit electrical impulses. Raven has the phrase "POOR IMPULSE CONTROL" tattooed on
his forehead, an indication that he has been arrested for committing a violent crime at least once in his life. His stated goal in life is to
"nuke America" in retaliation for the historical treatment by America of native Aleutians, such as using their lands for nuclear testing (e.g.,
at Amchitka). His combination of fighting ability, conscienceless killing, and personal nuclear umbrella prompt Stephenson to describe
Raven as "the baddest motherfucker in the world".

Notable technologies
Rat Things

Rat things are the guard force in Mr.Lee's Greater Hong Kong also known as Semi-Autonomous guard units. It is Rottweiler-sized, segmented
into overlapping hard plates and its tail is long and flexible.They move at 700 miles per hour and when not resting in their hutch (which is
cooled with freon)must always keep moving to prevent overheating. When in their hutch they live in a Metaverse where porter-house steaks
hang from low hanging branches and frisbees fly, waiting to be caught. Rat things also have the biological component of pit bullterriers. Rat
things remember their previous life as a dog. They can also communicate with other Rat things by "barking" in their Metaverse. They can also act
independently such as when Fido a.k.a Semi-Autonomous guard unit B-782, who was Y.T's rescued pit bull before he was converted by Ng
industries, leaves his hutch in Phoenix, Arizona to rescue Y.T. at LAX.

Reason
Reason is a needlegun-type Gatling rail gun that fires depleted uranium ammunition. It consists of a large, wheeled ammunition box, an
exaggerated Gatling gun configuration, a harness for user comfort, and a nuclear isotope power system, whose heatsink must be submerged in
water. A nameplate on the device is engraved with the phrase Ultima Ratio Regum, Latin for "The Last Argument of Kings" (this phrase was
engraved on all of Louis XIV's cannons).

The weapon, created by Ng, was still in beta testing, and suffers a software crash during a pitched battle. Hiro is later able to apply a firmware
update, and uses it until its ammunition supply is depleted.

Within the novel, Reason has a certain particular status as a personal superweapon, and as such has a profound psychological effect on
individuals using it or witnessing its use. Fisheye, the original user of the weapon, is posthumously chided by Ng because he overestimates the
effect of the gun, leading to a lapse in tactical judgement which results in Fisheye's death.

Metaverse
Main article: Metaverse

The Metaverse is a fully immersive 3D virtual space, an outgrowth of the Internet.

Dentata

The dentata is an anti-rape device employed by Y.T. It is worn in her vagina, and injects a general anesthetic into the assailant's penis upon
penetration, rendering him unconscious in moments. Though the dentata is mentioned frequently, particularly when Y.T. thinks she might soon
need it, Stephenson does not explain the device's specific effect until she forgets to remove it prior to sex with Raven, thus bringing their ardor to
a premature halt. Its name references the vagina dentata folk tale.

Literary significance and criticism

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Snow Crash rocketed to the top of the fiction best-seller charts upon its publication and established Stephenson as a major science fiction writer
of the 1990s.[citation needed] The book appeared on Time magazine's list of 100 all-time best English-language novels written since 1923.[5]

Some critics have considered it a parody of cyberpunk[6][7] and mentioned its satiric or absurdist humor.[8][9]

In his book The Shape of the Signifier: 1967 to the End of History, Walter Benn Michaels considers the deeper theoretical implications of
Stephenson's book. Comparing the book with a range of contemporary writers—the fiction of Bret Easton Ellis, Kathy Acker, Octavia Butler,
and even Paul de Man and the literary criticism of Richard Rorty—Michaels criticizes the deep claims of Stephenson's book: "And yet, in Snow
Crash, the bodies of humans are affected by "information" they can't read; the virus, like the icepick [in American Psycho], gets the words inside
you even if you haven't read them."[10]. Michaels especially targets Stephenson's view that "languages are codes" rather than a grouping of letters
and sounds to be interpreted. Michaels further contends that this basic idea of language as code ("...a good deal of Snow Crash's plot depends
upon eliding the distinction between hackers and their computers, as if – indeed, in the novel, just because – looking at code will do to the
hacker what receiving it will do to the computer"[10]) aligns Stephenson, along with other writers mentioned, with a racially-motivated view of
culture: that culture is something transmitted and stored by blood (or genetic codes), and not by beliefs and practices. This view entails little to no
need for interpretation by people:

The body that is infected by a virus does not become infected because it understands the virus any more than the body that does not
become infected misunderstands the virus. So a world in which everything – from bitmaps to blood – can be understood as a "form
of speech" is also a world in which nothing actually is understood (emphasis in the original), a world in which what a speech act
does is disconnected from what it means.

– Walter Benn Michaels, The Shape of the Signifier: 1967 to the End of History[11]

Rorty's Achieving Our Country uses Snow Crash as an example of modern culture that "express the loss of what he [Rorty] calls "national
hope"...the problem with Snow Crash is not that it isn't true – after all, it's a story – but that it isn't inspirational."[12] This lack of inspiration is
offset by something else Snow Crash and other works like it offer: "These books produce in their readers the "state of soul" that Rorty calls
"knowingness," which he glosses as a "preference for knowledge over hope" (37)"[12]; this preference for knowledge "contribute[s] to a more
fundamental failure to appreciate the value of inspiration - and hence of literature - itself."[12] The Raft, a collection of ragtag vessels bringing
poor Asians to California, resembles the "Armada of Hope" described in Jean Raspail's novel The Camp of the Saints (1973), in which a vast
flotilla carries a million of India's poor to the southern coast of France[13]; in Rorty's reading, the Raft is emblematic of the final destruction of
any sense of community in the United States: "In Snow Crash, the relation of the United States to the rest of the world is symbolized by
Stephenson's most frightening creation – what he calls the "Raft"...Pride in being an American citizen has been replaced by relief at being safer
and better-fed than those on the Raft."[14]

Influence on the World Wide Web

While Stephenson was not the first to apply the Sanskrit term avatar to online virtual bodies (the video game Habitat did that),[citation needed] the
success of Snow Crash popularized the term to the extent that avatar is now the accepted term for this concept in computer games and on the
World Wide Web.[15]

Many virtual globe programs including NASA World Wind and Google Earth bear a resemblance to the "Earth" software developed by the
Central Intelligence Corporation in Snow Crash. One Google Earth co-founder claimed that Google Earth was modeled after Snow Crash, while
another co-founder said it was inspired by Powers of Ten.[16]

One of Google's projects "Knol", announced July 2008[17], will enable experts, connoisseurs and possessors of uncommon knowledge alike to
share and potentially monetize their information on a subject. Hiro made use of a similar system for part-time work, "collecting intel to upload
onto the CIC library", by researching various subjects he predicted would be sought after in the near future. An example of his efforts included
collecting intellegence on his roommate Vitaly Chernobyl's band and the rise of "Ukrainian nuclear fuzz-grunge collectives in L.A". Hiro is a
stringer, one among a million other intellegence collectors and library contributors in Snow Crash.

Microsoft vice-president J Allard uses "Hiro Protagonist" as his gamertag.[18]

Film adaptation

The novel was optioned shortly after its publication and subsequent success, although it has never progressed past pre-production.[citation needed]
In late 1996, it was announced writer-director Jeffrey Nachmanoff would adapt the novel for the Kennedy-Marshall Co. and Touchstone
Pictures. Marco Brambilla was attached to direct the film.[19]

In popular culture

The 2003 science fiction novel by Cory Doctorow, Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, is set in a future Disney World where one of the
attractions is the Snow Crash Spectacular street parade, featuring the JapRap sounds of Sushi-K, to which the crowd dances, "aping the
movements of the brave Hiro Protagonist."

The 2009 horror film Pontypool features a plotline that borrows from the Snow Crash idea of language-born viruses. Perhaps as a paean to Snow

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Crash, the book appears as a prop in the film.

See also
Distributed republic – A state of government used by Neal Stephenson in this and other works.
The Great Simoleon Caper – A short story by Neal Stephenson that appears to take place in the same universe at an earlier time.
Davis-Stirling Common Interest Development Act – in California, the real-life legal foundation for the ubiquitous quasi-sovereign gated
communities parodied by Snow Crash

References
1. ^ "1993 Award Winners & Nominees" (http://www.worldswithoutend.com/books_year_index.asp?year=1993) . Worlds Without End.
http://www.worldswithoutend.com/books_year_index.asp?year=1993. Retrieved 2009-10-24.
2. ^ "1994 Award Winners & Nominees" (http://www.worldswithoutend.com/books_year_index.asp?year=1994) . Worlds Without End.
http://www.worldswithoutend.com/books_year_index.asp?year=1994. Retrieved 2009-10-24.
3. ^ "Snow Crash tells of a twenty-first-century America in which the needs of the entrepreneurs have won out over hopes of a free and egalitarian society." pg 4 of
Rorty, Achieving our country
4. ^ "Beneath this image, it is possible to see Hiro's eyes, which look Asian. They are from his mother, who is Korean by way of Nippon. The rest of him looks
more like his father, who was African by way of Texas by way of the Army – back in the days before it got split up into a number of competing organizations
such as General Jim's Defense System and Admiral Bob's National Security." Snow Crash.
5. ^ TIME All-Time 100 Novels (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/the_complete_list.html)
6. ^ Nakamura, Lisa (2002). Cybertypes: Race, Ethnicity, and Identity on the Internet
(http://books.google.com/books?id=pw0PK97lbrkC&pg=PA69#v=onepage&q=&f=false) . Routledge. pp. 69–70. ISBN 0-415-93836-8.
http://books.google.com/books?id=pw0PK97lbrkC&pg=PA69#v=onepage&q=&f=false. Retrieved 2009-12-5.
7. ^ Brooker, M. Keith; Thomas, Anne-Marie (2009). The Science Fiction Handbook
(http://books.google.com/books?id=uW9xST9UsOIC&pg=PT286#v=onepage&q=&f=false) . John Wiley and Sons. pp. 278–286. ISBN 1-4051-6206-6.
http://books.google.com/books?id=uW9xST9UsOIC&pg=PT286#v=onepage&q=&f=false. Retrieved 2009-12-5.
8. ^ Wolfe, Gary K. (2005). Soundings: Reviews 1992–1996. Beccon. p. 130. ISBN 1-870824-50-4.
9. ^ Westfahl, Gary (2005). The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy: Themes, Works, and Wonders, Vol. 3
(http://books.google.com/books?id=M_3kNDKhxIcC&pg=PA1235#v=onepage&q=&f=false) . Greenwood Publishing. p. 1235. ISBN 0-313-32953-2.
http://books.google.com/books?id=M_3kNDKhxIcC&pg=PA1235#v=onepage&q=&f=false. Retrieved 2009-12-5.
10. ^ a b Michaels, Walter Benn (2004). The shape of the signifier: 1967 to the end of history. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. pp. 68. ISBN
0-691-11872-8.
11. ^ Michaels, Walter Benn (2004). The shape of the signifier: 1967 to the end of history. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. pp. 69. ISBN
0-691-11872-8.
12. ^ a b c Michaels, Walter Benn (2004). The shape of the signifier: 1967 to the end of history. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. pp. 74. ISBN
0-691-11872-8.
13. ^ Snow Crash and The Camp of the Saints (http://isteve.blogspot.com/2006/05/snow-crash-and-camp-of-saints.html)
14. ^ pg 5 of Rorty, Achieving Our Country.
15. ^ A Beginner's Web Glossary (http://www.cwru.edu/help/webglossary.html)
16. ^ Avi Bar-Ze’ev (from Keyhole, the precursor to Google Earth) on origin of Google Earth
(http://www.brownianemotion.org/2006/07/24/notes-on-the-origin-of-google-earth/)
17. ^ "Article on Wired.com" (http://www.wired.com/software/coolapps/news/2008/07/google_knol?currentPage=1) .
http://www.wired.com/software/coolapps/news/2008/07/google_knol?currentPage=1.
18. ^ Q&A With J (James) Allard for ComputerPowerUser.com
(http://www.computerpoweruser.com/editorial/article.asp?article=articles%2Farchive%2Fc0601%2F64c01%2F64c01web.asp)
19. ^ "Nachmanoff to script 'Snow Crash'" (http://www.variety.com/vstory/VR1117466053.html?categoryid=38&cs=1) . 'Variety'.
http://www.variety.com/vstory/VR1117466053.html?categoryid=38&cs=1. Retrieved 2009-11-27.

External links
Snow Crash (http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1182) publication history at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
Neal Stephenson's web site (http://www.nealstephenson.com/)
Audio review and discussion of Snow Crash (http://www.sfbrp.com/archives/33) at The Science Fiction Book Review Podcast
(http://www.sfbrp.com/)
Science Fiction Inventions From Snow Crash (http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/AuthorSpecAlphaList.asp?BkNum=21)
Snow Crash (http://www.worldswithoutend.com/novel.asp?ID=617) at Worlds Without End
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow_Crash"
Categories: Novels by Neal Stephenson | 1992 novels | Fictional cyborgs | Fictional drugs | Fictional diseases | Postcyberpunk | Cyberpunk novels
| Science fiction novels | Anarchist fiction | Texts related to the history of the internet | Computers in novels | Virtual reality in fiction | Fictional
cults

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