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SNOW CRASH: An analysis of postmodern identities in Cyberpunk. By Carla Tirado Morttiz

One of the key concepts in recent decades has been the concept of crisis. Crisis of economy, of identity, of subjectivity, of language, of narrative. However, a crisis can also be a productive phenomenon since it forces a rethinking of things in order to find a solution, thus enabling creativity as a principle of problem reformulation. Throughout history, human experience has been organised through narratives that make reality intelligible. Both, history and literature have this as a common ground since reality is always mediated through language. Therefore, both types of discourses constitute sociohistorical constructions that retain a pragmatic function, even when they differ in their primary referents and, consequently, in their truth regimes. However, the totalising function of narratives originated what Lyotard refers to as metanarratives, which played a key role in the organisation as well as the unification of modern states since they set the rules that would create a notion of community and also a certain direction and meaning of existence. For instance, the idea of progress as constant improvement and a unified perception of the self. Nevertheless, with the rise of globalization and multinational economy as a result of the acceleration of capitalism that takes place around the 1960’s comes a new world order ruled by international capital in the form of privatized enterprises. The role that technology has played in the rise of this new global vision has been crucial, for it has permitted what seemed to be impossible – a bending of spatiotemporal boundaries in order to allow a constant flux of data in this Information Era in which information is money. Vivian Sobchack explains cyberspace in the following way: “Television, video cassettes, video tape recorder/players, video games and personal computers all form an encompassing electronic system whose various forms ‘interface’ to constitute an alternative and absolute world that uniquely incorporates the spectator/user in a spatially decentered, weakly temporalised and quasi-

disembodied state.”1 Science Fiction has been considered a crucial cognitive tool that approaches and explores the qualitatively new techno-logic in its attempt to: ”cognitively map the new terminal spaces, to establish a cartography within the paradigms of the simulated and the spectacular.”2 It is important to consider two main stages in the development of science fiction as proposed by the co-editor of the magazine Science Fiction Studies Istvan Csicsery-Ronay: the expansionist, which deals with outer space from a positivist perspective that reflects a scientific ideology that still has ethical control over the technological production, and the implosive which, having become extremely disappointed with the positivist outlook as a consequence of the mass destruction caused by technology during WWI, WWII and the Cold War, turns towards microcosms. Cyberpunk belongs to the second stage for, according to Brian McHale, it focuses on the diversification of postmodern societies through microcosms3, which imply the impossibility of establishing clear-cut frontiers between perceptual, cognitive, epistemological and even ontological categories such as: life/death, machine/human, man/woman, natural/artificial. The term cyberpunk contains in itself new forms of overlapping and integration of the Eighties counterculture and technology in an increasingly privatized environment, which makes it the apotheosis of postmodernism encompassing a symbolic map of contemporary ideology. Neal Stephenson is considered one of the most important writers of the second Cyberpunk wave. One of his most important novels is Snow Crash, originally published in 1991. Even though in his novel he explores the cyberpunk themes of oversaturation of technology, cyberspace and the hybridization of antinomies such as: male/female, machine/human, past/future, reality/artificiality, he does so from a satirical perspective that sets him apart from predecessors such as William Gibson, and establishes him as a paradigmatic example of this second wave. The plot consists of the emergence of a 1

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Vivian Sobchack, “The Scene of the Screen: Towards a Phenomenology of Cinematic and Electronic Presence,” Post-Script 10 (1990), p.56. Scott Bukatman, Terminal Space, The Virtual Subject in Postmodern Science Fiction, Durham, N.C., Duke University Press, 1993, p.107. Brian McHale, “Elements of a Poetics of Cyberpunk” en Critique 33 no.3, 1992. Available at: < http://www.questia.com/googleScholar.qst?docId=95178508 > Consulted on may 19th 2009.

new drug that can be acquired both, in the real world and in the cybernetic world. The drug, also known as snow crash contains a neurolinguistic virus that alters the brain’s structure. This draws the attention of the main character Hiro Protagonist, who is one of the most famous hackers that participated in the development of the cyber world or metaverse and decides to do some research after one of his friends was affected by the drug. With the help of his intelligence partner Y.T., Hiro finds out that the virus has its roots in a Sumerian myth concerning the linguistic consequences of the biblical myth of the tower of Babel. Simultaneously, the virus is being distributed by the magnate L. Bob Rife who is looking to augment and spread his power by infecting refugees in the real world and hackers in the metaverse. Thus, the main conflict revolves around Hiro and Y.T. trying to stop and revert the infection. Stephenson’s novel is set in an alternative contemporaneity in an attempt to enhance the critical function of the text in relation to the transformation of existence due to technological entities that aim to overcome human limitations. These modifications may be in the physical plane (cyborgs) or in a psychological plane with the constitution of an alternate reality based on simulation (cyberspace). In either case, the microcosmical diversification in post-industrial societies based on objects, images and information ends up eroding social identities, causing a destabilization of the individual. In Snow Crash, both reality and cyberspace are equally important, constituting parallel universes in which the story takes place. Nevertheless, the implosion of traditional identities, as well as the overlapping of worlds in both, society and the different characters, makes the construction of identity a more complex and therefore liquid phenomenon. The novel has a fragmented narrative structure in which the omniscient narrator alternates between the stories of the two main characters: Hiro Protagonist and Y.T., both in the real and the cybernetic plane. According to Fredric Jameson fragmentation is a structural characteristic of postmodern texts since identity in the post-industrial era is compared to schizophrenia due to the imminent simultaneity rendered by the media culture, making it impossible to experience continuity and thus deriving in a

fragmented experience of the self.4 On the one hand, Martha Agoustinos in her book Social Cognition: An Integrated Introduction5 considers that identity originates from distinguishing the “me” from the “other” which is why she mentions two basic types of identity: personal identity, that refers to characteristics that we see in ourselves and that are strictly individual, for instance a trait of character; and social identity, which is the part of an individual’s self-image that derives from the acknowledgement of belonging to a certain social group. On the other hand, Amin Maalouf in Murderous Identities defies the notion of essentialism when he says that identities are composed of all the elements that have shaped it, emphasizing the fact that the particular dosage varies from one person to another, and it is precisely the singular dosage what conforms an identity.6 As a consequence, Maalouf states that the importance of diversification relies on the mediation between different cultures that creates numerous bonds, making identity a more specific phenomenon considering all the individual belongings to different communities. Due to the microcosmic diversification in postmodern societies, multiplicities of worlds, as well as identities converge simultaneously, making personal identity a far more complex issue. In Snow Crash, the story takes place in Los Angeles, California which constitutes a heterogeneous zone in which an imploded cultural juxtaposition takes place, turning it into a microcosm or compressed referent of the global community. It’s important to bear in mind the way society is organized, for it is divided into different franchulates7 and burbclaves that appeal to specific identity features, such as race or culture, for instance, Nova Sicilia, Mr. Lee’s Greater Hong Kong, White Columns (White people only. Non-caucasians must be processed), Metazania, New South Africa, Narcolombia, among others. Therefore, the moment identity is reduced to several membership cards and multiple bar codes that reduce one’s identity to a series of data that can be easily reproduced, it is 4

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Fredric Jameson, “Postmodernist and Consumer Society” in Foster, Hal, The Anti-Aesthetics, essays on postmodern culture, New Press, New York, 1998, pp.111-125. Martha Agoustinos, Iain Walker, Ngaire Donaghue, Social Cognition: An Integrated Introduction, Sage Publications, London, 2006, p.25. Amin Maalouf, Identidades Asesinas, Madrid, Alianza Editorial, 2008, pp.10-13. The word franchulate originates from the fusion of the terms franchise and consulate.

turned into a mass consumption product, thus liquidating its transcendental value. In the accelerated process of globalization hybridization is one of the inevitable consequences that leaves the idea of identity as a pure concept behind. Taking the main character Hiro Protagonist as an example of this idea, we come across a complex identity for he is the result of a merge between an African-American and a Korean origin, mixed with an adopted Japanese identification in a North American environment. Nevertheless, these peculiarities are not fortuitous for they refer to a representative moment of the United States' history, mainly the Korean War, Vietnam, WWI, WWII, as well as the Cold War, thus becoming a referendum of the cultural and ethnic hybridization that derived from these events. His father was a sergeant major, his mother was a Korean woman whose people had been mine slaves in Nippon, and Hiro didn’t know whether he was black or Asian or just plain Army, whether he was rich or poor, educated or ignorant, talented or lucky. He didn’t even have a part of the country to call home until he moved to California, which is about as specific as saying that you live in the Northern Hemisphere. (p.61) In addition, Hiro’s hybrid nature is not only racial but also professional, for he is also an unemployed freelance hacker and at the same time, “the greatest sword fighter in the World” (p.17). This particular combination is interesting for it incorporates two different historical approaches on the heroic image: a traditionalist one, represented by the samurais, and a new one, represented by hackers which are the new heroic symbol for they fight against the oppressive regime of mega corporations in the era of hyper technology. As a result, this configuration not only reaffirms the allegorical nature of the character but also functions as a link between different historical concepts of heroism, thus creating a dialogue between the past and the present. The reconciliation of categories that historically have come across as excluding such as East and West, past and present, technology and conservatism, to name but a few, illustrates the postmodern notion of identity that Maalouf refers to as composite identity: “With the accelerated and vertiginous process of amalgamation and merge in the globalized era it is necessary – urgent- to elaborate a new conception of identity.” (p.41) However, there is a clash in the novel between a traditionalist and conservative perspective of identity that Maalouf refers to as “tribal”, -for

it stands for an essentialist and reductionist viewpoint- and the postmodern one when Hiro faces the Neo-traditional Nipponese man in the Metaverse. The conflict has its origin in Hiro’s hybrid nature which leads to a patronizing and discriminatory attitude on behalf of the latter character: His path [Hiro’s] is being blocked by the Nipponese man – the neo-traditional. The guy with the swords. He’s facing off against Hiro, about two sword-lengths apart, and it doesn’t look like he intends to move. Hiro does the polite thing. He bows at the waist, straightens up. The businessman does the much less polite thing. He looks Hiro rather carefully up and down, then returns the bow. Sort of. “These -“ the businessman says. “Very nice.” “Thank you, sir. Please feel free to converse in Nipponese if you prefer.” “This is what your avatar wears. You do not carry such weapons in Reality,” the businessman says. In English. “I’m sorry to be difficult, but in fact, I do carry such weapons in Reality,” Hiro says…“These are ancient weapons[…]How did you come to be in possession of such important family heirlooms from Nippon?” the businessman says. Hiro knows the subtext here: What do you use those swords for, boy, slicing watermelon? “They are now my family heirlooms,” Hiro says. “My father won them.” “Won them? Gambling?” ”Single combat. It was a struggle between my father and a Nipponese officer[…]”Please excuse me if I have misinterpreted your story,” the business man says, “but I was under the impression that men of your race were not allowed to fight during that war.”[…]”Do you think that the manner in which you came to possess these swords was honorable?” the businessman says. “If I did not, I would long since have returned them,” Hiro says. “Then you will not object to losing them in the same fashion,” the businessman says. “Nor will you object to losing yours,” Hiro says. (pp. 85-86) In the end, the postmodern perception represented by Hiro prevails. Nevertheless, these constant juxtapositions throughout the novel imply a new conception resulting from transcontextualization. According to Linda Hutcheon: “parody, by its very doubled structure, is very much an inscription of the past in the present, and it is for that reason that it can be said to embody and bring to life actual historical tensions”.8 In the novel, and specifically in the metaverse, where the possibility of selfmodification is unlimited and privileges subjectivity and interiorization, the past paradoxically works as a point of reference to model cybernetic identities. For instance: Ng's Metaverse home is a French colonial villa in the prewar village of My Tho in the Mekong Delta. Visiting him is like going to Vietnam in about 1955, except that you don't have to get all sweaty […] He has a large office with French doors and a balcony looking out over endless rice paddies where little Vietnamese people work […] She's [Y.T.] not a bithead, but she knows that this guy is throwing a lot of computer time into the task of creating a realistic view out of his office window […] Ng himself, or at least Ng's avatar, is 8

Linda Hutcheon, A Theory of Parody (The Teachings of Twentieth Century Art Forms), Chicago, University of Illinois Press, 2000, p.xii.

a small, very dapper Vietnamese man in his fifties, hair plastered to his head, wearing military-style khakis. At the time Y.T. Comes into his office, he is leaning forward in his chair, getting his shoulders rubbed by a geisha. A geisha in Vietnam? Y.T.'s grandpa, who was there for a while, told her that the Nipponese took over Vietnam during the war and treated it with such cruelty that was their trademark before we nuked them and they discovered that they were pacifists. The Vietnamese, like most Asians, hate the Japanese. And apparently this Ng character gets a kick out of the idea of having a Japanese geisha around to rub his back. (p.43) The use of the past in the cybernetic universe also contributes to legitimating an artificial plane by referring to certain historical tensions, considering parody as a strategy to create historical and cultural continuity in a new context through repetition and ironic criticism. Simultaneously, the resulting transcontextualization alters the significance of the traditional context it is reinserting, thus creating a new synthesis and acting according to the double function that Linda Hutcheon attributes to parody. The importance of the past and of traditional identities that verge on extreme conservatism in an electronic space that allows new realities is both, significant and paradoxical, for it shows how our current representations derive from the past ones, as well as the ideological consequences that continuity and difference imply. Therefore, this easily recognisable world representation that instead of becoming an authentic alternative universe becomes an extension of reality on a different plane calls for an interpretative evaluation from the reader, taking into consideration the importance -or lack of itof historical continuity. Cyberpunk, and specifically Snow Crash are examples of how popular genres are a reflection of their context, for they depict a society's scientific, technological, social and cultural changes, thus mirroring the current situations and preoccupations that derive from a particular economic system - mass consumerism or multinational capitalism. Snow Crash is a paradigmatic novel in which we find clear representations of the postmodern ideology in which traditional concepts turn out to be ineffective to relate to an increasingly globalized context that, although it has a homogenization tendency on the one hand, also has a more diverse and individualized one on the other. At the same time, the influence of

traditional models in the novel's contemporary conception of identity questions the so-called “development” in postmodern societies; more specifically, the North American one through its parody. Moreover, the critical distance created by the use of parody as the main rhetoric strategy through the open use of conventions and cliches that refer to their metatextual nature creates an auto-reflexivity that makes the novel's discourse simultaneously critical and auto-critical. As a conclusion, science fiction proves to be a fertile ground for questioning and exploring not only the future but more likely our present by creating a recognisable atmosphere that at the same time distances itself from reality. Furthermore, the study of popular genres greatly contributes to a deeper understanding of the cultural production of a specific epoch for they incorporate and reflect different cultural, technological, political and social dilemmas of the time that make them symptomatic and enable new creative polyphonic and multicultural solutions to postmodern situations.

Bibliography:

Agoustinos, Martha, Walker, Iain, Ngaire Donaghue, Social Cognition: An Integrated Introduction, Sage Publications, London, 2006. Bukatman, Scott, Terminal Space, The Virtual Subject in Postmodern Science Fiction, Durham, N.C., Duke University Press, 1993. Hutcheon, Linda, A Theory of Parody (The Teachings of Twentieth Century Art Forms), Chicago, University of Illinois Press, 2000. Jameson, Fredric, “Postmodernist and Consumer Society” in Foster, Hal, The Anti-Aesthetics, essays on postmodern culture, New Press, New York, 1998. Maalouf, Amin, Identidades Asesinas, Madrid, Alianza Editorial, 2008. McHale, Brian, “Elements of a Poetics of Cyberpunk” en Critique 33 no.3, 1992. Available at: < http://www.questia.com/googleScholar.qst?docId=95178508 > Consulted on may 19th 2009. Sobchack, Vivian, “The Scene of the Screen: Towards a Phenomenology of Cinematic and Electronic Presence,” Post-Script 10, 1990....