Subject:
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Re: The Nam-shub of Enki (was Re: One of my issues with the god of the old testament)
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Thu, 15 Nov 2001 16:17:28 GMT
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Viewed:
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455 times
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In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Adam Wood writes:
> You really like 'Snow Crash' by Neal Stephenson? If you haven't read it, you
> should. The entire book is about Nam-Shubs and 'neurolinguistic hacking'.
> Very cyber..
I read Stephenson's novel last year, and while I liked it, I don't think he
ever gets any more interesting than his obvious sources: Sumerian mythology,
and William Burroughs. And I guess I fault Stephenson, and many other
Cyberpunk authors, for not weighing in more heavily with Burroughs' more
interesting project -- the fight for freedom (more realistically against
multinational corporations than against goverments, although both are
implicated). Instead, they weigh in more heavily on stealing his techniques
of pulling off the cover and looking under the boards of reality. But
looking and giggling is different than looking and doing something about it.
In a strange way, and esp. because I live in the United States, I remain
unconvinced that computer geeks aren't some version of Burroughs' "Ugly
American" figure. Despite some early image-shaping efforts on the part of
the "Cyberpunks" and their ilk, your average computer geek is rushing us
towards a REALLY scary Database Nation/Rollerball future -- and All Hail Our
Corporate Sponsors! I'll allow that Stephenson himself might have been
having a private joke when his "Hiro" dons the appearance of a "Gargoyle,"
covered in technology in the final parts of the novel -- but I'm not sure
there wasn't a genuine technological glee underlying the characterization --
confusing love of technology with erotism.
Control of *information* is very much the point, and sadly no comicbook
Hiros will magickally appear to stop the schemes of the "Ugly American."
Frankly, most such hackers learn just enough dangerous code to enter into
the data security industry as consultants and full-time sys admins. Where
are the warriors from within? Where are the "Wild Boys" of the new age of
information?
Collecting paychecks, of course. Just like Oppenheimer when he built the bomb.
There is something key that is lost on most Americans: Freedom is NOT free,
and you shouldn't actively work for the enemy even when the pay is good. Not
even when it looks cool, ala Mondo 2000.
And you see, the problem is that most people WILL read Stephenson and NOT
William Burroughs. More's the pity...
For that matter, they could do worse than read Sumerian mythology.
-- Hop-Frog
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