I tried really hard to get through Snow Crash. It reminded me a lot of The Matrix. So this week I decided to do my response on the parallels between the Matrix and Snow Crash. The first and quite possibly largest similarity between the two is that in both humans are depicted in a virtual world and in a real world. In each story, human interactions within the virtual world can impact the happenings of the real world and vice versa. In each a human can die or be seriously injured as a result of the virtual world. Both story lines but a high importance on computer coding and the way in which it can be interpreted and interacted with. Another similarity I noticed is that both characters have action fight scenes. More specifically in these action fight scenes they use surprisingly “low tech” weapons, such as guns and samurai swords. Both the Metaverse and the Matrix are presented as virtual worlds in which the user has to be connected. In the Matrix’s case the user is connected through the back of their skull and in Snow Crash the user is connected by using goggles. IN both programs the user is able to add things and change things within the program.
The effects of these realities have a great affect on the reader. First and foremost it takes time for the reader to fully understand and become involved in the dialog and surroundings of the world being invented. It takes time to imagine an object that doesn’t exsist in the real world merely based on a description. I think this is a good thing. Everyone knows what an umbrella looks like but not everyone knows what the goggles look like that are put on to enter the Metraverse. This leaves room for imagination. While it was a little difficult for me to catch onto some of the coding/computer lingo the plot was relatively clear and the world was fascinating and well constructed. This book also reminded me of the film series Caprica slightly.
No comments:
Post a Comment