On first readthough, I categorized Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash as being your standard cyber-punk dystopian novel, but on upon subsequent rereadings, I realized that it was, in fact, a deconstruction of the same. It gives the standard set up: collapsed government, deranged Mega Corps vying to control the world, deadly computer viruses; but eventually, it is shown that the majority of the issues that the world faces aren't really that much worse than real life, and everything eventually works out in the end. The real fridge brilliance, though, was in realizing that Stephenson's writing style was actually perfect for hammering home this point. For example, his constant and abrupt switches between POV characters give the narrative a fractured feel, increasing the dramatic tension and giving the reader the impression that too many things are going for the characters to ever properly resolve. But then they do just that. So the point is, complexity doesn't necessarily doom a system to failure, and that just because something looks broken doesn't mean it is. —Taelor
Another example from Stephenson: during my second read through of Cryptonomicon, I realized that the section detailing the various Hive Mind Projects were actually a rather subtle Take That against collectivism: to wit, a project dedicated to proving that individuality is merely an illusion was crippled by a series of schisms resulting from differences in opinions about relatively minor details. — Taelor
And another example from Cryptonomicon: during my fourth or fifth read through of the scene where Goto is talking to Enoch Root about what to do with the gold the tone of Enoch's lines abruptly shifted from consoling to reprimanding. Particularly the line that goes something like: "Jesus takes away the sins of the world, but the world remains". That change in Enoch, from kindly priest trying to make Goto feel better, to a man exasperated by Goto's unwillingness to see that something must be done with the gold, really brought home that Enoch is not just a priest, but a man who wants that something to have a positive effect on the world. On this world that we live in, regardless of the repercussions for one man's soul in heaven. Then I read 'The Baroque Cycle' and things about Enoch really clicked. -Mookmaster
