Finished Snow Crash [8/26/2007]

This book had a few interesting parts. I liked the Rat Thing. But, why, oh why, did it have to take almost 500 pages to execute it? Did Stephenson refuse an editor? Did his editor like repetitive, exaggerated descriptions of the same thing over and over? I think the whole story could have easily been told in under 200 pages.

While reading the part about the Sumerian mythology and the Bible, I kept being reminded of Zecharia Sitchin. And I kept thinking that maybe it would mean more to me if I was Christian and knew the Bible better. Not that I want to read the Bible or anything, cause I don't. But, I do get the feeling that sometimes I miss certain blasphemies, hereticisms, and revolutionary ideas.

The book also got me wondering about whether or not "virus" was an appropriate term to describe the various brain-washing methods he was proposing. It didn't just spread on it's own, you had to take the drug or see the jpg. It seemed much more like a cult than a virus. I reject the Saphir-Whorf hypothesis and Volosinov's theory. So, I had a lot of trouble believing in the power of this language hack.