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"I went back to science fiction to try a few experiments …and my first experiment was a disaster…"
- Alfred Bester
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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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| Why Not Move A Warehouse District? |
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| AI-THu Shapeshifting Transformer Home |
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'I don't have to tell you about the seven two-mile-diameter orbital mirrors that circulate around the satellite, making it habitable.'
'The steel tortoise gave MacKinnon a feeling of Crusoe- like independence.'
'...then back to their work, though little enough it was on these automatic cultivators.'
't came out into plain view. Darkington glimpsed a slim body and six short legs of articulated dull metal.'
'The suit stands up and starts walking, gripping me round the calves and waist, taking the bulk of my weight off my throbbing feet.'
'Internally it’s made up of millions of components, but the most important ones are the thinking and memory parts of the Mind proper.'
'I could look down at that face of carefully molded synthetic rubber, tinted the exact shade of the doctor's living flesh.'
