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Dec. 2nd, 2002 09:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bzarcherOccasionally I write for purposes other than thinking, sex, or emotional spew. :D
This is something that's been in my head since I did a literary analysis of Snow Crash last year, and now's as good a time as any to write a bit on it.
Human life is defined by moments of percussion and tactile impact/force. Conception as the sperm colliding/merging with the ovum. Birth as the expulsion from the womb. Our heartbeats as a constant series of respiratory explosions. Even breathing itself the act of intake and expulsion. Sex as a rythmic collision of partners. Fights. Hugs. Even our writings are impressions created by force, heat, and light. (Even so called 'laser printers' require the pressure and heat of the toner and fuser assemblies.)
The computer age has changed this. While the act of typing is a percussive one, or the 'clicking' of a mouse, modern ergonomics experts have reduced even these to near fritctionless, silent, events. (Even the 'mouse ball' has been replaced by a laser, and many companies offer flexible, solid state keyboards made of soft, malleable plastic that produce no sound and little sensation.) Media is not written on by the scratch of a pen or pencil, or even the strike of a typeface, but by silent, invisible movements of energy. Text appears on screens as bursts of electrons, untouchable. To remedy this, we incorporate devices such as 'force feedback' technology in the attempt to induce a bit more 'reality'. Sound becomes a key. Bass sounds often note important events to grab attention of the user through vibration.
In addition, much of our communication and interaction over computers is an attempt to inject percussive life into them. We simulate combat. We simulate intimacy. We simulate travel.
Snow Crash is no exception to this in how it portrays the electronic life. In the first pages, we hear of Hiro's 'Deliverator' job. The description of his car is incredibly tactile, and the descriptions include buzzes, vibrations, and impacts. A massive amount of description is given to the virtual and real sword/knife/gunfights, with as much concentration on the feeling of the weapons and their impacts as the results. Even the choice of the primary weapons of the protagonists and antagonists is a choice to imply greater contact and percussion.
Hiro uses a set of swords, or the 'redneck katana' during the chapter on his training. Even the 'reason' firearm is one that acts with hypervelocity shells described as 'slicing' or 'penetrating'.
Raven uses knives.
Y.T. uses her skateboard, fists, or the 'liquid knuckles' that, while a chemical, are still described as an impact. Even her defensive dentata is a weapon of injection and impact, activated by the injection of Raven's member into her sex.
Uncle Enzo, in his climactic attack on Raven, uses a steel razor.
The mafioso known as 'Fisheye' has lost his eye to an icepick.
Each combat is described in terms of percussive forces, slashing, feedback, and damage. Even the magnetic harpoons of the various skateboarding characters are -impacts-. The sonic charges of the skateboards used for Y.T.'s attempted escape or to destroy Raven's glass weapons are described as 'driving her {Y.T.'s} stomach into her brainpan.'
A continual implantation of force, and the descriptive language of force into the narrative serve to help spread more life and existence into the Metaverse of the novel.
I need to do more with that....but this is a start.
This is something that's been in my head since I did a literary analysis of Snow Crash last year, and now's as good a time as any to write a bit on it.
Human life is defined by moments of percussion and tactile impact/force. Conception as the sperm colliding/merging with the ovum. Birth as the expulsion from the womb. Our heartbeats as a constant series of respiratory explosions. Even breathing itself the act of intake and expulsion. Sex as a rythmic collision of partners. Fights. Hugs. Even our writings are impressions created by force, heat, and light. (Even so called 'laser printers' require the pressure and heat of the toner and fuser assemblies.)
The computer age has changed this. While the act of typing is a percussive one, or the 'clicking' of a mouse, modern ergonomics experts have reduced even these to near fritctionless, silent, events. (Even the 'mouse ball' has been replaced by a laser, and many companies offer flexible, solid state keyboards made of soft, malleable plastic that produce no sound and little sensation.) Media is not written on by the scratch of a pen or pencil, or even the strike of a typeface, but by silent, invisible movements of energy. Text appears on screens as bursts of electrons, untouchable. To remedy this, we incorporate devices such as 'force feedback' technology in the attempt to induce a bit more 'reality'. Sound becomes a key. Bass sounds often note important events to grab attention of the user through vibration.
In addition, much of our communication and interaction over computers is an attempt to inject percussive life into them. We simulate combat. We simulate intimacy. We simulate travel.
Snow Crash is no exception to this in how it portrays the electronic life. In the first pages, we hear of Hiro's 'Deliverator' job. The description of his car is incredibly tactile, and the descriptions include buzzes, vibrations, and impacts. A massive amount of description is given to the virtual and real sword/knife/gunfights, with as much concentration on the feeling of the weapons and their impacts as the results. Even the choice of the primary weapons of the protagonists and antagonists is a choice to imply greater contact and percussion.
Hiro uses a set of swords, or the 'redneck katana' during the chapter on his training. Even the 'reason' firearm is one that acts with hypervelocity shells described as 'slicing' or 'penetrating'.
Raven uses knives.
Y.T. uses her skateboard, fists, or the 'liquid knuckles' that, while a chemical, are still described as an impact. Even her defensive dentata is a weapon of injection and impact, activated by the injection of Raven's member into her sex.
Uncle Enzo, in his climactic attack on Raven, uses a steel razor.
The mafioso known as 'Fisheye' has lost his eye to an icepick.
Each combat is described in terms of percussive forces, slashing, feedback, and damage. Even the magnetic harpoons of the various skateboarding characters are -impacts-. The sonic charges of the skateboards used for Y.T.'s attempted escape or to destroy Raven's glass weapons are described as 'driving her {Y.T.'s} stomach into her brainpan.'
A continual implantation of force, and the descriptive language of force into the narrative serve to help spread more life and existence into the Metaverse of the novel.
I need to do more with that....but this is a start.
