Small Government Book Fan Club discussion

I'm about ten percent in and it is great. It is almost as if Stephenson was writing a parody of the genre while expanding it.

Oh, and this bit of news is timely:
Honduras signs deal to create private cities

I read the beginning a while ago but had to return the book before I could read more. I remember it having a great start. Hopefully it will keep up.

That link is interesting, but doesn't have a lot of information. I don't know that if these cities are successful, the general population or the government won't simply over-run them and take whatever wealth they have created.

Picking it up tomorrow! Can't wait.

Got it yesterday and read the frist 2 chapters. Typical Stephenson. I told my teenager about the premise of the US only being good at those 4 things "in the near future" and he says well isn't it the case already?

I'll be moving slowly since have another book I'm reading at the same time.

I've only read Quicksiver before so I'm not really sure what "Typical Stephenson" means.

Weird, irreverent, challenging, unpredictable, overly verbose yet impossible to put down. I would not be surprised if he failed a writing class in high school. One of a kind.

I read SNOW CRASH a few years ago, the second NS book I read after CRYPTONOMICON. I remember thinking that the future United States he wrote about was very much a libertarian ideal, broken up instead of 50 states into a dozen or so "provinces" or city-states (or something like that) that were quite literally ruled by the people, and incorporating the values of the people who lived in those city states more thoroughly than what we have today. And people who didn't like it? Well, they would go someplace they did like, that did share their values, and live there. And he did make it a point in showing that large corporations are not so much "greedy" and "evil," as your average liberal would have you believe, but essential.

The characters, though, are the best part. Everything Masha just described above. Hiro Protagonist being one of the best names in SF ever. The skater girl was great, and the kayaking Indian terrorist was something to behold (can't remember his name, but I remember it was cool, like a lot of NS character names, and the characters themselves.).

A fifth of the way in now. It's interesting to see that Hiro and Y.T.'s chapters are not in chronological order relative to each other. I wonder if this will be the case through the entire novel.

I'm up to "poor impulse control" now. I'm assuming he's going to be the big bad.

I obviously over-estimated my free time this month. Going back to Snow Crash today. Can't wait!

About 10% in. It's interesting that he sees the future, at least Reality part of it, as so segregated.

Segregated... but still highly functional. At least, from a distant, objective point of view. Which could be interpreted to mean that people who segregate themselves in order to govern themselves more directly (in a way that is more in line with their own values) might be a better option than the alternative, which is an all-powerful totalitarian governance of everyone. I've read reviews that basically said this book depicts a libertarian "utopia," which may or may not be true, but is still interesting. I will try to track down that quote.

Rich wrote: "I've read reviews that basically said this book depicts a libertarian "utopia," which may or may not be true, but is still interesting. I will try to track down that quote. "

That sounds like something said by the type of person who refuses to distinguish between libertarianism and anarchy.

In any case, at some point that I forgot to note down, this novel turned overtly philosophical on the subject of language.

This society does not represent anarchy. If anything, it seems oppressive in its own way, just not universally so. It's "utopia" in a sense that people can choose the way they live and create their own version of ideal communities.

It is mentioned many times that there are no laws. There is no government to protect the rights of individuals. I don't see anything libertarian there.

About 20% in. It's a good thing I read Stephenson before, so I figured out the story is non-linear, or it would be really confusing!

I hope the cable industrialist is not the main Big Bad. It would be way too predictable and Stephenson should be better than that.

Generally speaking, a cyberpunk setting has no shortage of assholes.

Yeah, but there are likable assholes and then there are just plain jerks.

Violence is pretty graphic. I didn't expect that.

Was this the book with the fascinating discussion on language and the Tower of Babel? I wish I could remember what I read.

That's the one. Get it from the library to refresh your memory and jump in!

I may not be able to finish it right away. My library screwed up the renewal. It's like I'm not meant to read this book for some reason. About 1/3 in now, by the way.

OK, never thought I'd say this, but... this book is even weirder than Cryptonomicon! It's messing with my brain. Which I guess is the point.

If the book has the same name as the drug, and the drug has the same name as the virus... oh crap I'm infected!

Well I know I'm not a "hacker" cosidering I can't even get Googledocs to co-operate with my Mac. So...I guess I'm safe.

In the news: An unidentified man broke up a fight inside a Phoenix train after drawing his samurai sword

http://supportyourlocalgunfighter.com...

Priceless!