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Boehm, Carl. "‘Hiro’ of the Platonic: Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash." Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts 14. (2004): 394–408. Added by: joachim (8/3/09, 2:31 AM) Last edited by: joachim (7/14/11, 12:11 AM) |
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| Resource type: Journal Article Language: en: English Peer reviewed BibTeX citation key: Boehm2004a Email resource to friend View all bibliographic details  |
Categories: General Keywords: "Snow Crash", Philosophy, Stephenson. Neal Creators: Boehm Collection: Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts |
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In The Republic, Plato constructs the ideal city-state built on the principle of justice. Plato establishes an urban utopia with a set of morals through which the citizen helps the state and the state helps the citizen. Centuries after Plato's Republic, Neal Stephenson presents in Snow Crash, a cyberpunk adventure, a virtual city known as the Metaverse. Hiro Protagonist, as his name implies, defends his virtual city from a threatening virus in the same way that a citizen in Plato's Republic would protect the city-state. An analysis of Snow Crash using ideas from The Republic reveals the “hacker” to be a socially minded individual who preserves order in the cybernetic utopia that is the Metaverse. This analysis demonstrates that justice must be sought in every era, and that heroes unique to their milieu pursuit justice.
Added by: joachim Last edited by: joachim |