Snow Crash: A Brechtian Story

Snow Crash is absolutely a Brechtian story, and there are many instances in the book that back up the assumption that forces outside of Hiro’s control are propelling him forward into something he wouldn’t have expected.
The novel starts out with Hiro Protagonist almost “disappearing” after a near-late pizza delivery. While we find out that he does work, and has worked, we also learn that he lives his life in a near constant state of contentment, albeit riddled with poverty. He does not seek out to change or improve or disrupt anything; most of the knowledge he acquires or the action he endures is based off an outside party disrupting his life and sending him on a new course of action. His story line proscribes exactly with what Brecht says, that “the character is...the object of economic or social forces to which he responds and in virtue of which he acts.”
We first see Hiro become interested in something besides gathering intel to sell to the CIC when he is offered Snow Crash as a drug in the Metaverse, and shortly following, seeing Da5id experience a computer crash after using Snow Crash. It is obvious to see that an outside party, which we later find out is a combination of L Bob Rife and Raven trying to work their will on the rest of humanity, propels Hiro into his thirst for knowledge and understanding of this new “drug”.
One of the quotes I think distinctly supports a Brechtian story is said by Raven, when he tells YT that “...the world is full of things more powerful than us. But if you know how to catch a ride, you can go places” right before they have sex. Now, he may be referring to what they do in the next chapter in some strange way, but I think it is reasonable to say that this quote is a powerful one in terms of how most of the characters in the book are propelled into action because of other things going on around them. They may make some of their own decisions, but ultimately, they were lead there because of the push of something bigger than the individual.