Cyberpunk and Steampunk

This week I read Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson. Snow Crash contained many of the upper class American values such as religion, rules and order, and visions of America. Neal Stephenson shows us a version of America where issues that are currently corrupted and how it has impacted our society. There are sections that shows how Immigration goes rabid on the Raft and how racism becomes institutionalized in skin-color segregated Burbclaves. Sacrifice Zones are cordoned off as parts of the land that are too contaminated to ever be reclaimed for use. Not all of the characters in Snow Crash are religious as others, and the non-believer characters get to have a say in how to interpret and implement religious ideas, too. We see a range of religious believers and the underlying message is that religion is complex. Just like humanity. In the Snow Crash, having money or the right connections will get you pretty far, which is how our society works as well. Snow Crash digs deep into its impact, exploring notions of linguistic infrastructure, glossolalia (speaking in tongues), and neurolinguistic programming. The main point is that language is a tool: In the hands of the right people, it's constructive and lets folks communicate, while in the hands of the wrong people, it can be destructive beyond measure.