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"The trouble with too much genre SF is that it's so obviously the product of the conscious mind."
- William Gibson
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| Burbclave | ||
| Contraction of suburban enclave; an extension of today's gated communities. |
Stephenson spends a fair amount of time looking at this future extension of the idea of a gated community. In his conception, these small housing developments are virtually independent countries. They were "...vast house farms out in the loglo wilderness a culture medium for a medium culture."
In the novel, pizza delivery is awarded a mystique once held only for grail-chasing or other mythic quests.
| The Deliverator never pulled that gun in anger, or in fear. He pulled it once in Gila Highlands. Some punks in Gila Highlands, a fancy Burbclave, wanted themselves a delivery, and they didn't want to pay for it. Thought they would impress the Deliverator with a baseball bat. The Deliverator took out his gun, centered its laser doohickey on that poised Louisville Slugger, fired it. The recoil was immense, as though the weapon had blown up in his hand. The middle third of the baseball bat turned into a column of burning sawdust accelerating in all directions like a bursting star. Punk ended up holding this bat handle with milky smoke pouring out the end. Stupid look on his face. Didn't get nothing but trouble from the Deliverator. |
| Technovelgy from Snow Crash,
by Neal Stephenson. Published by Bantam in 1992 Additional resources -
|
Here's another description:
Now a Burbclave, that's the place to live. A city-state with its own constitution, a border, laws, cops, everything.
<>
Places advertised on sites like privatecommunities.com try to offer safety and refuge from the problems of modern life. Of course, this option is only open to those who can afford it.
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'Our planes are going to start bringing in bales of discarded plastics...'
'... completely forgetting the ship at sight of the awesome figure and great head of the giant Gaut...'
'So, Ender, we will now begin your education.'
'What strange sensitivity! What an amazing development of science was manifested in every move and act and word of this Robot!'
'Forget the head atop it, the legs below, feet, arms, hands. It compels erasure.'
'That explains how it was so easy for me to remain motionless in midair or to perch on a flagpole in imitation of a giant bird, even in the windy city of Chicago.'
'The thirty-odd miles of The Factory’s circumference...'
'Wandering mines, you took them out on the edge of the desert, set them down and activated them.'
