I'm going to give it to you straight, I felt like Stepheson really stepped away from his own writing style by the end of Snow Crash.  I won't sit here and knock the ending or even the character development...although SPOILER:  the Raven and Y.T. hook up felt strangely awkward given our initial impressions of Raven.  No, what kills me is the way the entire world seems to shift after the first few chapters.  The opening of Snow Crash feels raw, just really raw.  The characters are "in your face" and really daring.  Every moment feels incredible fast paced, not too mentionally ridiculously (this post isn't academic so...) bad ass.  Stepheson shapes a world that pulses with energy.  Everything about the world gives a sense of chaos and lack of control.  You have Hiro introduced as a sword-wielding hacker, who is nearly unstoppable when on Metaverse, Y.T. a no non-sense kourier who is not to be toyed with, and then of course Raven, who another student on the blog essentially describes as an uber villain.  These characters don't change they hold their attributes throughout the story, yet some how the world itself begins to slow down incredibly as the plot progresses.  As the end of the book drew nigh, I frankly lost interest because I felt as if I was in a totally different place.  The Metaverse somehow falls into the background, purposefully boring places like the Fedlands becomes a primary focus, and half of the book takes place in the Library, discussing the origins of Snow Crash through history.  In many ways the shift the world undergoes, moves Metaverse to the background, which in essence makes Hiro's position as a pro-hacker fairly unimportant since we don't return to Metaplace until the very last few moments of the novel.  Somehow the introduction of the drug as a serious threat outside of the Metaverse completely shifted Stephenson's focus away from the virtual realm that just had an aura of cool.  I can't critique Stephenson for the book he didn't write, but Snow Crash lost its forward momentum when the Library was introduced as the main means for Hiro Protaganist to advanced the plot.  The shift in focus altered the concept of the world I had immediately latched on to at the beginning of the novel.  Although I wouldn't discredit the novel (I do actually believe that Snow Crash and the idea of using language for control is very interesting), as a reader I freely admit that I would write a katana program and chop the book to bits.  By the time the book wraps up, you are left with a less than satisfying feeling.

Rather than just leave this post as a little rant against Snow Crash, I found the metaverse to be a really interesting place that should have been furthere explored, which okay yes may be why I ahave taken arms against the shift in plot.  What strikes me as interesting is how much Second Life comes across as an interpretation of what Metaverse was supposed to be in the novel.  Users can create things and essentially do whatever they want.  Second Life has a sense of geography and space.  The user, player seems like an inappropriate label, has the ability to explore the space.  After seeing the blog post about Raven, I wanted to find my own rocking picture from Snow Crash to add to the mix, however I ended up stumbling onto a rant-laden blog post about how much Snow Crash sucked.  The user absolutely smacks the novel down as racist, but that's not what I'm interested in at all.  His post as well as the subesquent comments deal with the fact that Second Life used the Metaverse as its main source of inspiration.  It's a cool link to see the Metaverse some what actualized in reality, which yes is a problematic term.  Comments on the blog initially agree with the author's thoughts on Snow Crash, yet one particular user states, "Wow. Bashing Snow Crash. Like it or not, I have to admire Prokofy's chutzpah here. In these circles, that's akin to walking into a Baptist church and announcing that you found the Bible to be a bit of a snooze with a shakey ending."  Because Second Life is the Metaverse actualized, perhaps people feel very strongly about its origins out of Snow Crash. 

I will be interested in seeing what the class wrap up discussion for this book is, yay or nay to being a good book?  I love what Stephenson does in terms of creating a virtual space, but eh it is a pretty weak ending that leaves me dissatisfied.  And speaking of endings!  I am really, really looking forward to talking about Avalon tomorrow in class.  I just haven't been able to sleep with all these thoughts about what reality is on my mind!!