For this post, I am arguing that Snow Crash is a Hegelian story.
On page 86 Boal states that for Hegel, “epic poetry presents ‘a complete world, whose ideal or essential content must be spread before us under the external guise of human actions, events, and other manifestations of soul-life.” He goes on to say that “It is the deeds that are important and not the subjectivity of the poet who narrates them, or of the character who perform them (86). To me, this means that the sole purpose of each character is to serve as a representation for something else; a kind of metaphor.
In terms of Snow Crash, I feel that Stephenson’s inclusion of far- fetched technology (i.e. the Narrow Cone Tuned Shock Wave Projector) and the character’s usage of them (i.e. to shatter the glass doors of the office building entry way) is deliberately made to seem ridiculous as a way to critique certain technological advances. In that sense, the deed of using technology to fly down stairs and shatter glass to avoid capture isn’t important because of who did it, but it is important that it is done. Even though Y.T. uses this technology, she still gets caught and I think that this is Stephenson’s way of arguing that even though technology can keep advancing; there are still certain social constraints.
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Your interpretation of that quote is interesting, I didn’t think of it as a metaphor. I thought of it as meaning that it doesn’t really matter who the character is or what their social role is (which is why it contrasts to Brecht’s ideas), but rather what the character ends up doing. I don’t completely understand how the first part of the quote relates to what I just said, but I don’t really understand what “manifestations of soul-life” refers to.
ReplyDeleteI liked how you read that quote from Boal. I interpreted that quote as the actions and duties carried out by the characters is what molds the character. But I liked how you went a few steps further and said the actions carried out in the book are seen as metaphors. Your examples back your statement up nicely.
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