History Literature / SnowCrash

* ChurchOfHappyology: L. Bob Rife's organization. His name is an obvious reference to L. Ron Hubbard.

* PluckyGirl: Y.T., a 15-year-old skateboarding courier that doesn't take an ounce of crap from anyone and is loaded with enough self-defense gear to break out of an FBI building. [[spoiler:This is not hyperbole; she actually does that.]]

* TheDragon: Raven.[[spoiler: Specifically he's the enforcer to Bob Rife. As one of the deadliest men on the planet, Raven is far beyond Rife and his typical cronies and henchmen. Raven is however, fairly satisfied with his role as his goals and those of Bob Rife coincides and Raven isn't the type of person who's interested in a leadership role.]]

** Hiro also turns himself to one after purchasing a badass bike and some kevlar motorcycle leathers.

* BadassBiker: How badass? No other biker drives around with a [[CrazyPrepared nuclear bomb]] on a DeadManSwitch. Hiro also turns himself to one after purchasing a badass bike and some kevlar motorcycle leathers.

* MegaCorp: What criminal gangs and branches of the US government have become. The Navy and Army are now two separate private security corporations. The CIA likewise has become the CIC, while the Crips and the Mafia have become big business to the point of having job fairs.

* VaginaDentata: There is an anti-rape device Y.T. has, called, unsurprisingly, a Dentata. [[spoiler:Too bad she forgot to take it out before ''consensual'' sex with Raven. There's even a point during the act where she thinks there's something she forgot, but is ''promptly'' distracted.]]

** Raven's glass knives are SharpenedToASingleAtom, having a cutting edge a molecule wide, and pass through body armor like [[ArmorIsUseless tissue paper]].

* TheDragon: Raven.

* SnipingTheCockpit: Hiro threatens to do this to a mi-24 Hind, referencing the reports of Mujahedin doing so in Afghanistan. However rather than using the Mujahedin choice of combined anti-tank rife and crew-served machine gun fire aimed at the ballistic glass, Hiro threatens them with a ''9mm handgun''. While everyone else is initially incredulous, one person who should know better, the Russian pilot, is for some reason the one who falls for it, nevertheless nothing comes of it.

Apart from its frenetic action sequences and overt use of the RuleOfCool, the book is surprisingly deep, with a substantial portion of the plot given over to exploring metaphysical interpretations of the Tower of Babel myth. Typical for a Stephenson novel, the plot juxtaposes action sequences, lengthy humorous digressions, and extremely detailed {{Infodump}}s seemingly at random. The book is also notable for its uncanny prediction of future trends. Memes play an important role in the plot, which was written years before the public became aware of the concept through [[MemeticMutation Internet memes]]. While holographic web terminals have not yet come to pass, and the jury's still out on whether Google Glass will allow the "gargoyle" to finally be realized, we do have heavily populated 3D virtual worlds, satellite photograph software, and [[Wiki/{{Wikipedia}} a massive user-created online library]]. Certain real world equivalents (''Second Life'', Google Earth) having been inspired by the book itself.

Apart from its frenetic action sequences and overt use of the RuleOfCool, the book is surprisingly deep, with a substantial portion of the plot given over to exploring metaphysical interpretations of the Tower of Babel myth. Typical for a Stephenson novel, the plot juxtaposes action sequences, lengthy humorous digressions, and extremely detailed {{Infodump}}s seemingly at random. The book is also notable for its uncanny prediction of future internet trends. While holographic web terminals have not yet come to pass, and the jury's still out on whether Google Glass will allow the "gargoyle" to finally be realized, we do have heavily populated 3D virtual worlds, satellite photograph software, and [[Wiki/{{Wikipedia}} a massive user-created online library]], and certain real world equivalents (Second Life, Google Earth) having been inspired by the book itself.

* ShownTheirWork: As usual, Stephenson really wants to tell you all about his latest obsession. This time it's Sumerian mythology.

** Raven's glass knives are SharpenedToASingleAtom, having a cutting edge a molecule wide, and pass through body armor like [[ArmorIsUseless tissue paper]][[note]] Derived from RealLife - bullet resistant materials like Kevlar do not offer much protection against bladed weapons, although current designs often try to compensate for this. And knives made of obsidian--aka volcanic glass--really are that damn sharp, with a well made knife having an edge only 3 nanometers thick.[[/note]].

* AccentUponTheWrongSyllable: When the black policeman emphasizes the Y in Y.T. ("whitey"), which is not how she pronounces it. Even after being corrected, he doesn't see the difference.

* AwesomeMcCoolname: Yours Truly (Y.T.), Da5id, and ''Hiro Protagonist''. Only the last of these, however, is not self-applied (Hiro is short for Hiroaki).

* BadassBiker: How badass? No other biker drives around with a [[CrazyPrepared nuclear bomb]] [[DeadManSwitch wired to explode if they die]]. Hiro also turns himself to one after purchasing a badass bike and some kevlar motorcycle leathers.

* NinetiesAntiHero: Raven is a well-done example. He's a (glass) knife-using BadassBiker who carries a nuke around and he's named Raven. While at first his characterization is pretty much "this guy is badass," he eventually gets fleshed out more.

* NoKoreansInJapan: Averted, Hiro's mom is Korean, who lived in Japan during [[WorldWarTwo the War.]]

** The Mafia lieutenant with the glass eye is never given a name. He even [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] it himself... ''"You can think of me as that one guy.''" He isn't even given his nickname, "Fisheye," until halfway through the book.

* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture: If you factor the chronology of it out, Hiro was born in the 1970's and is about 30 years old, so the story takes place around 2005. The book was written around 1992.

--->“It’s, like, one of them drug dealer boats,” Vic says, looking through his magic sight. “Five guys on it. Headed our way.” He fires another round. “Correction. Four guys on it.” Boom. “Correction, they’re not headed our way anymore.” Boom. A fireball erupts from the ocean two hundred feet away. “Correction. No boat.”

* Gorn: Oh yeah, there's some graphic violence in here, such as a scene where [[spoiler: Raven guts Lagos like a fish, then cuts a gangster's femoral arteries causing ''all his blood to fall out of him''.]]

Apart from its frenetic action sequences and overt use of the RuleOfCool, the book is surprisingly deep, with a substantial portion of the plot given over to exploring metaphysical interpretations of the Tower of Babel myth. Typical for a Stephenson novel, the plot juxtaposes action sequences, lengthy humorous digressions, and extremely detailed {{Infodump}}s seemingly at random. The book is also notable for its uncanny prediction of future internet trends. While holographic web terminals have not yet come to pass, we do have heavily populated 3D virtual worlds, satellite photograph software, and [[Wiki/{{Wikipedia}} a massive user-created online library]], and certain real world equivalents (Second Life, Google Earth) having been inspired by the book itself.

** For a brief period, FourChan had a problem where people would be instructed to save an image, change the extension, and run it for their "free sample of Snow Crash". Fortunately all it did was use your computer to post more such images back to 4chan instead of frying your brain, considering the apparently sizable number of people ''stupid enough to do it''.