Megapolis and Cyberpolis in Neal Stephenson’s "Snow Crash"

Abstract

Snow Crash, as a novel that belongs to a cyberpunk literary subgenere, develops an urban vision taken from the present cities and blows up thisvision in a dystopian future. There are cities more fragmented and withmore socio-economic differences. Furthermore, a rival appears to this realspace, a virtual simulacra, an unplace become into a place, which plays withthe concept of the Second Life. A comparative work between these spacesreveals the force possessed by science fiction to advice about the presenttroubles.