How does the book Snow Crash make me feel? Confused. Curious. This book is absolutely ridiculous, yet in some ways it seems plausible! Pizza delivery is controlled by the Mafia. The military is privately owned. You have to pay the cops. Apartheid is enforced in some neighborhoods. What the hell is this...Capitalism on steroids?! Where is the author Neal Stephenson taking me?
Feeling empathy for the character Y.T.:
“Better take her uniform--all that gear,” the second MetaCop suggests, not unlewdly. The manager looks at Y.T., trying not to let his gaze travel sinfully up and down her body...She unzips her coverall all the way down below her navel. Underneath is naught but billowing pale flesh. The MetaCops raise their eyebrows. The manager jumps back, raises both hands up to form a visual shield, protecting himself from the damaging input. “No, no no!” he says. Y.T. shrugs, zips herself back up (53-54).
Y.T. is young--15 I believe. Her mom does not know she’s a courier who spends her days harpooning speeding automobiles to travel from point A to point B, delivering parcels via skateboard. She is in jail for delivering Hiro Protagonist’s pizza on time. She is in jail essentially because she did the Mafia a favor. She knows that if these cops want to see her naked, she had better comply without acting vulnerable. She can’t afford to be weak. She must keep them on their toes, just like the cars on the highway. Y.T. shouldn’t know all this! Poor thing! What kind of society leads 15-year-old girls to abandon all their innocence and embrace such danger? Stephenson doesn’t give Y.T. any other options. Her life is normal. Even now, right now, teenagers are addicted to sex, drugs, and violence. Priests have sex with children. If priests do it, surely cops do as well. The more I think about it the more realistic Y.T. and her situation become. Stephenson’s futuristic society is not that far off.
The bathroom thing:
OUR SPECIAL LIMITED FACILITIES--THRIFTY BUT SANITARY
STANDARD FACILITIES--JUST LIKE HOME--MAYBE JUST A LITTLE BETTER
PRIME FACILITIES--A GRACIOUS PLACE FOR THE DISCRIMINATING PATRON
THE LAVATORY GRANDE ROYALE (186).
That’s right. You have to pay to use the bathroom in this book. The consumer gets exactly what they pay for. You want a cheap deal? Use the shitty bathroom (literally)! You want a butler? Fork over the money and we’ll give you one! This all seems absurd--paying to use the restroom and having multiple choices, but then again, as Stephenson quietly points out, it’s only capitalism. Now that I think about it, in most places I have to pay to get a tampon, so paying to relieve one’s bladder could be next.
How far away is Stephenson's America? Or is it already here? I'm really not sure anymore.
Sunday, October 25, 2009
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Wow..I just did not think of any of this. I just flat out told myself that I could not find empathy for Y.T. because I have just never been pregnant. But you're right, her situation isn't that farfetched from some things we see today. I also found the bathroom thing to be kind of comical and so interesting! It's just like anything could become a good. Maybe there will be corporations that specialize in coin machines for bathrooms. Maybe it will be Walmart, whos knows. This is all just interesting stuff!
ReplyDeleteI felt I should just throw out there that paying for public restrooms is the norm more than an exception. Even if there is no set price, in most clubs there is a bathroom attendant who expects to be tipped (unlike the servers) It's a strange world but really not that far fetched.
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