
Snow Crash: HBO Max adaptation of Neal Stephenson's 1992 cyberpunk novel - tosh
https://www.cbr.com/snow-crash-hbo-max-adaptation-dream-cyberpunk/
======
seisvelas
I am so unabashedly excited for this to happen. I don't care about the
habitual cynics. My only apprehension is that the director will try to relieve
the absurdity by making it comedic, when the best way to handle it is to just
have it be openly ridiculous without apologizing for it. Magical realism sets
a good example for how to accept ridiculous, wondrous, and absurd things in
stride.

Even if it 'sucks', I don't care, I'd watch this as a backyard play and be
happy.

~~~
dleslie
> My only apprehension is that the director will try to relieve the absurdity
> by making it comedic, when the best way to handle it is to just have it be
> openly ridiculous without apologizing for it.

The Fifth Element did this _excellently_, and yet there hasn't been a
similarly themed movie since AFAIK.

~~~
bane
Oh man, the tone of that movie is excellent. Really sorry Valerian ended up
such a dud. Snow Crash with a high quality 5th element vibe would be pretty
amazing.

~~~
BerislavLopac
Valerian had so much potential, and its intro sequence is one of the best I've
ever seen.

~~~
celticninja
I still enjoyed it though, it's no so bad that it's unwatchable, ,just a let
down from what it could have been.

~~~
jdxcode
I don’t keep up with sci-fi culture so I watched it not knowing how bad
everyone thought it was. I actually really liked it in the same way I liked
fifth element. I also enjoyed watching Prometheus for the same reason.

I feel when you’re aware of the zeitgeist it messed a ton with your
expectations.

------
SeanLuke
I greatly dislike Snow Crash: it feels like slogging through Leviticus, plus
an astronomical amount of suspension of disbelief.

However.

There is no doubt in my mind that Snow Crash has the finest first chapter I
have ever had the pleasure of reading. You should buy the book just for the
first chapter.

~~~
frosted-flakes
I have similar feelings about the book. "an astronomical amount of suspension
of disbelief" is a good way of putting it. There's too much detail and too
little explanation, and so I felt like I couldn't see the forest because the
trees were in the way.

Here's a HN comment I wrote shortly after reading it last year:

> Snow Crash is so bizarre. It launches you straight into the story with no
> explanation, starting off with some crazy pizza delivery man in a rocket car
> with swords and an electric zapper thing for people who don't pay the bill.
> The whole book is like that--it never explains how, why, or when, leaving
> you to piece it all together yourself. The entire time I was reading it, I
> was waiting for a 30000 feet view of the world. But then it ended, never
> having fully explained itself.

> I've never read anything else quite like it, and honestly don't know what I
> think of it. Are all of Neal Stephenson's books like that?

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19704665](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19704665)

~~~
sfjailbird
To your last comment, I bought Snow Crash, based on a lot of recommendations,
and hated it, for the stated reasons. It completely put me off Neal
Stephenson. Then, much later, I relented and got Cryptonomicon, and it is one
of my favorite books ever.

I have since dabbled a bit with Stephenson, and amazingly his other books fall
along the same divide for me. Zodiac is amazing, the Victorian sci-fi series
(Diamond Age?) are unreadable. One book, Seveneves, the first part is amazing
Neal Stephenson, the second is lazy, naive and dumb Neal Stephenson. Super
puzzling, almost as if he has (really bad) ghost writers.

I have since gone back to Snow Crash (could not finish it the first time), and
with some overbearing, it is not entirely unlikable.

~~~
aidenn0
That's funny because I love _The Diamond Age_ , I like _Snow Crash_ and
thought _Cryptonomicon_ was mediocre at best. I also never made it to the
second half of _Seveneves_ because I disliked the beginning so much.

Clearly there are two styles of Stephenson books, and we like the opposite
ones.

[edit]

Maybe I should try finishing Seveneves to see if I like the ending?

~~~
Alex63
Hear, hear. _The Diamond Age_ is probably my favourite:

    
    
      The Diamond Age +++
      Snow Crash ++
      Quicksilver/The Confusion/The System of the World ++ (I think it makes sense to rate them as a series)
      Anathem +
      Seveneves -
      Cryptonomicon -
      Reamde --
    

_Fall, or Dodge in Hell_ : hate to admit it but I haven't read it yet. It's
sitting right next to _The Rise and Fall of DODO_ , which is also waiting to
be read. And I should probably read _Zodiac_ at some point, but it hasn't
seemed urgent.

~~~
cozuya
I roughly agree with your ratings and would rate Fall/Dodge in Hell at a ----.

~~~
qzio
yeah, I too did not like Fall/Dodge in Hell. However, the first section, about
internet hate/bot culture I liked.

------
EvanAnderson
Snow Crash is one of those books that I envision so vividly that I feel like
I've already seen the movie adaptation. I have nearly equal parts horror and
excitement about the idea of a video adaptation. (Perhaps not equal parts--
it's probably more horror than excitement...)

~~~
germinalphrase
I felt this way about the first Lord of the Rings movie. I was young when it
came out , very excited, and totally hated it. I’ve softened since then - and
genuinely like Peter Jackson - but those movies never quite jived for me.

~~~
Fezzik
I am in the same boat, but unsoftened - for me, the movies ruined the books,
because no matter how hard I try to dispel the bland images of the movies from
my mind they overpower the once awesome images I envisioned when reading the
LOTR books. I can still read the Silmarillion and enjoy the fantasy though.

I feel like Jurassic Park is on the other end of the spectrum, where seeing
the original movie greatly enhanced re-reading the book(s).

And I never watched Ender’s Game... but I have a hunch, based on clips and
reviews, that doing so would sully the book. Given the modern direction of
big-budget cinema just being ridiculous action sequences I try to avoid movie
adaptations of good books. Arrival is the only recent film I can think of that
was better than the book (short story) it was based on.

Edit: spelling

~~~
_theory_
Now I'm curious: if you read A Song of Ice and Fire after watching Game of
Thrones, would that sully your view of the Unsullied?

------
metroholografix
Neal Stephenson is not bad (unlike the Altered Carbon person), he can actually
write, but he's so mind-numbingly boring. He takes one good idea and stretches
it out while explaining it 20 different ways to make sure you absolutely get
it. Plus, he simply doesn't have interesting things to say. His best books are
essentially fan-service to nerds. As this series is -in all probability- going
to be.

Now Sprawl trilogy, dial me in. That's what I call cyberpunk. Uncompromising
presentation, ideas that pummel you, a future that feels so current yet so far
away. And the implications, the insinuations of what Gibson is methodically
describing. Absolutely brilliant. All of that means that there is practically
0 chance this is going to be done right. So I'd rather never see it butchered.
Read the books people. Focus on the social implications, the environments, the
language and culture, the meta-story. The VR and cool tech are the icing in a
much more meaty and philosophically heavy series.

~~~
spookybones
Maybe it’s because I read it as a teen, but I thought Snow Crash was fairly
lively and comical for Stephenson ... at least compared to Cryptonomicon.

~~~
throwanem
There's a Stephenson who likes action and guns and swords and cars and stuff,
and a Stephenson who aspires to be Stanislaw Lem but in English. Snow Crash
was as close to parity as I've ever seen them. The latter has been
increasingly in the ascendant since then.

------
walrus01
In these times with the popularity of Westworld, Altered Carbon and the
imminent release of the Cyberpunk 2077 game, we live in a golden era of
cyberpunk-themed near future scifi. I hope that if they ever adapt the Gibson
sprawl trilogy of books to a TV series, they don't ruin it.

~~~
throw1234651234
Altered Carbon was disappointing trash. In the end, it was just a sitcom with
a cyberpunk backdrop.

~~~
ceejayoz
What part of Altered Carbon struck you as a _comedy_?

~~~
throw1234651234
The part where far far into the future, the protagonist(?) takes out a
SWAT(more like 75th rangers?) team that has him surrounded with cover with the
tactics of firing from the hip. The funny thing is that it all started so
well. The apartment scene is almost believable.

Altered Carbon was just cyberpunk eye-candy. There was no technology explored
in a meaningful way besides the stacks.

------
sneak
A classic cyberpunk novel, I'm greatly looking forward to torrenting this once
it's out.

I'll never willingly give AT&T (which owns Warner/HBO) a dime of my money, and
you shouldn't either. They're an eager participant in the surveillance state
(since 1985(!)).

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WarnerMedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WarnerMedia)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hepting_v._AT%26T](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hepting_v._AT%26T)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairview_(surveillance_program...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairview_\(surveillance_program\))

[https://www.propublica.org/article/nsa-spying-relies-on-
atts...](https://www.propublica.org/article/nsa-spying-relies-on-atts-extreme-
willingness-to-help)

------
daniel-thompson
I'd watch it in a heartbeat, but sadly, this book has been optioned more or
less continuously since it was released in 1992. Another option isn't really
news, at least not until the production is greenlit and they start filming.

------
code_chimp
If they could get Jason Momoa to play Raven I would definitely give it a shot.

~~~
burnto
Not bad. I always pictured a kind of embiggened Danzig in this role.

------
monadic2
Why is this exclusive to Max? Seems like they’re just diluting their brand to
me—I don’t know which product to purchase to get their new content.

~~~
slg
HBO, Warner, AT&T, or whoever is making the decisions have been absolutely
awful at branding. This will now be the third streaming service that has the
HBO name on it. I would bet that the number of consumers that could actually
describe the differences between the three is extremely small. As it stands
now, my initial instinct is to question the quality of this show and the
commitment to supporting it if they are making it exclusive to Max rather than
airing it on HBO proper.

~~~
futhey
This has always been the challenge between HBO GO and Now. There were legacy
contract obligations that historically prevented these from becoming one app.
It's always been such an issue that every app store listing headline just
disambiguates between the related apps.

I assume this still factors in to the decision to now have four US apps: HBO
Max (the new one), Max Go (Cinemax), HBO Now (pay with credit card), & HBO GO
(cable subscription).

The good news is, there is no separate, lower-tier team producing content for
Max vs. HBO proper. The content team just has way more money to invest (from
AT&T) after the acquisition.

------
cwp
Trying not to get too excited, but damn, I've wanted to see this brought to
life for so long.

~~~
incompatible
"Development hell" is the technical term for where this one has been for many
years.

* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Development_hell](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Development_hell)

------
dylanz
The first book I ever read from Neal was Cryptonomicon and I absolutely LOVED
it. I think I heard about Van Eck phreaking at some point, heard it was in the
book, and was intrigued. I read Snow Crash after and was blown away. It's so
different from Cryptonomicon but the tangents are fantastic.

When I think about all the books I've read in my lifetime, Snow Crash has
given me the coolest and most fun mental images out of all books. I'm 40+
years old, and when I'm stuck in traffic, I still think about latching on to
cars in front of me and escaping the grid I'm sitting in.

------
lachlan-sneff
Now we just need an adaptation of Revelation Space and my life will be
complete.

~~~
dariusj18
They could do an entire 10 seasons on just 1% of that series.

------
InTheArena
The series I really want is a Baroque Cycle series. With Virtual Backgrounds,
I think it could be really really immersive.

~~~
JeremyNT
> _The series I really want is a Baroque Cycle series. With Virtual
> Backgrounds, I think it could be really really immersive._

I recently finished the Baroque Cycle after having bounced off of it a few
years ago - this time around I appreciated it so much more.

It's his masterpiece, as far as I'm concerned. I'd love to see it as a series,
but good lord... how long would it have to be to actually do it justice? How
many scenes of Isaac and Daniel talking about geometry or philosophy? It's so
difficult for me to imagine somebody actually making such a sprawling thing
because I feel like the attention span of modern viewers could not tolerate
it.

I feel like we could only be left with an elided "adventures of Jack Shaftoe"
version which gives short shrift to the court drama and scientific
conversations, resulting in a partial and unworthy adaptation.

~~~
InTheArena
I don't think Court Drama would be hard. The science stuff would be hard, but
a unique challenge.

Plus, I want to see Jack in India.

------
nutshell89
Of all of the Stephenson books I think Zodiac or Cryptonomicon (both somewhat
grounded) would adapt the best - Snow Crash has this dyed in the wool early
90s escapist VR vision of the internet that doesn't really make sense today,
along with a ton of religious overtones and weird, rapey bits.

~~~
ilaksh
I was with you until you got to the end. Remember, it's HBO.

------
plerpin
HBO Go, HBO Max, HBO Now. How many HBOs do we need?

------
Gatsky
Does anyone have an example of a book they love that was turned into a movie
or TV series that they also loved? I find it is generally not the case.

A Clockwork Orange... the movie was OK, but the book was much much more
enjoyable IMHO.

Lord of the Rings... I would say I enjoyed the movies a lot.

Altered Carbon... I liked the book a bit better, although the writing wasn't
the greatest.

Watchmen... the graphic novel was much better and enjoyable than the movie.

~~~
lostmsu
I haven't read Watchmen, but the movie is very very good. The others you
mentioned are just OK, true.

~~~
blaser-waffle
I read the comic and I get why people complain about the movie... but taken on
it's own it's decent.

------
infinitezest
I really like this book when I started it but by the end I just didn't feel
invested anymore. All of the long conversations with the Librarian felt like a
club to hammer in a bunch of complicated exposition. I remember thinking quite
a few times during those passages: "how in the world would you pull off a
movie version of _this_?"

That said, I will absolutely watch this.

------
ilaksh
I read that in the mid 90s I think and don't remember it very well. But that's
not because it isn't memorable. It's just because it was a long time ago.

I had a lot more time for books back then. There was no YouTube.

I wish we didn't have to wait until next year for the Cybertruck.

Question. What genre came after cyberpunk? Are there any innovative science
fiction authors in 2020?

------
LargoLasskhyfv
_YAY!1!!_

/me summersaults to 'Vitalic - Poison Lips (Live)'
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBgHSJg7oKc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBgHSJg7oKc)
4min48sec

------
imgabe
So, does HBO Max mean I need to subscribe to a different thing if I already
have HBO? It's so confusing. I have HBO via Amazon Prime channels and it's not
at all clear if this will be available there or not.

~~~
futhey
If you already have HBO Now, then no. You're already going to get HBO Max on
launch.

If you're subscribed to HBO via your cable provider, then you need to rethink
your life choices (I mean, rethink your purchasing decision, because you'll be
missing out on a ton of content).

------
lsllc
With the right treatment Snowcrash should be fun! (e.g. J.J. Abrams or Luc
Besson).

Personally, I'm holding out for Alastair Reynold's Revenger books/series
directed by someone thoughtful like Peter Jackson.

------
chx
> Snow Crash’s prose is richer.

Do you have any relatives in Afghanistan?

Just a caress, but it might as well be a two-handed blow from Satan's electric
ax handle.

~~~
NikolaNovak
I am (geniunely) struggling to parse/interpret the comment, and I've tried for
a while... any elaboration/explanation would be appreciated :-/

~~~
CompuHacker
Both are direct quotes from Snow Crash, illustrating the prose comment.

~~~
NikolaNovak
Ahh, thx; I recognized the 2nd but not the first and assumed they were a
related message as opposed to a quote.

------
aporetics
Can you please rename “L. Bob Rife” to Ajit Pai?

~~~
blaser-waffle
Larry Ellison would be more appropriate. He already has the yacht fleet and
the mind control systems, too.

------
arkis22
This is kind of an aside... but a couple of years ago I sent an email to HBO
begging them to adapt Dune.

The response I got was funny and expected. They basically told me to join the
union and write a script. Then we could talk.

I guess my point is you think Hollywood is full of great writers. That idea
might be generous.

Every industry is begging for creatives that will increase their productivity.

Netflix has billions of dollars of debt and not a single show I consider worth
remembering.

~~~
jdkee
Stranger Things.

~~~
arkis22
The one show I remember. And I didnt even watch the latest season :(

------
cjones26
Now how about The Diamond Age!

~~~
bmn__
[http://enwp.org/The_Diamond_Age#Proposed_television_adaptati...](http://enwp.org/The_Diamond_Age#Proposed_television_adaptation)

I'm so sad Diamond Age never happened.

------
overcast
Excellent, time to sell my mint copies of 1st pressing hardcovers.

------
hprotagonist
"no firm release date". Ah, thank goodness.

------
rexpop
If they make a worthwhile adaptation, it will usher in a revolution. If they
want to keep their advertisers, they'll water down the anti-corporate
cynicism.

~~~
imgabe
HBO doesn't have advertisers.

------
federicosan
It was about time!

------
bredren
TLDR; No firm release date.

~~~
Rebelgecko
Kind of a pointless article, not really anything new info since Cornish was
announced as the director back in _2012_ and HBO took over from Paramount

------
theschmed
I admit, what I primarily remember from reading this book was how it turned my
stomach that Stephenson included an explicit semi-nonconsensual sexual
encounter between the underage punk heroine and the brutal villain.

I guess that fits HBO’s modus operandi? Anyway I’m sure I won’t be watching.
_shrug_

------
cletus
So I read Snow Crash years ago and loved it (although endings aren't
Stephenson's strong suit) but I'm not sure how well this will hold up today on
screen.

Cyberpunk was thinly-veiled xenophobia about the Japanese and this was really
the zeitgeist of the 1980s. Granted the ideas of virtual reality, what we now
know as the Internet (to be fair, the Internet already existed in the 1980s in
nascent form) and personal enhancement were fairly new ideas at the time but
we're now living in that future and it is of course nothing like the dystopia
predicted.

It's really no coincidence that the heyday for all this was the 1980s (Blade
Runner, Neuromancer and so on). I wouldn't be surprised if this is what the
project is stuck on: interpreting and translating this story to the small
screen in a modern way.

~~~
9nGQluzmnq3M
> Cyberpunk was thinly-veiled xenophobia about the Japanese

This comment might apply to Gibson's works (although I'd dispute even that,
Japan is generally presented in a positive light), but Snow Crash doesn't
really feature Japan at all. The setting is American through and through, and
the main character is part-Japanese mostly just to make "Hiro" a plausible
name.

~~~
cletus
I like this quote [1]:

> Since the late 1970s, a key idea in Western science fiction has been that
> Japan represents the future. Japan's "weird" culture is a figure for an
> incomprehensible tomorrow.

which I found here [2] (titled "Cyberpunk Cities Fetishize Asian Culture But
Have No Asians").

Cyberpunk cast (Asian) megacorporations as the architects of a dystopian
future with American cowboys (essentially) fighting back (see [3]).

[1]: [https://io9.gizmodo.com/why-do-westerners-fetishize-
japans-f...](https://io9.gizmodo.com/why-do-westerners-fetishize-japans-
futuristic-weirdness-5428322)

[2]: [https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/mb7yqx/cyberpunk-
cities-f...](https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/mb7yqx/cyberpunk-cities-
fetishize-asian-culture-but-have-no-asians-blade-runner)

[3]:
[https://www.depauw.edu/sfs/backissues/57/nixon57art.htm](https://www.depauw.edu/sfs/backissues/57/nixon57art.htm)

~~~
dleslie
And yet the streets of Bladerunner were full of asians; and for many written
works, the ethnicity of those on the street were whatever you imagined them to
be.

When reading Vice/Gizmodo/Kotaku/etc: assume they are projecting.

