Neal Stephenson’s 1992 novel is a brilliantly written futuristic novel. I really enjoyed reading it. I am definitely going to take some idea from his work for my final paper (I promise not to plagiarize though).
My favorite aspect of the reading was already mentioned by Dan Russo. People have divided themselves into burbclaves and the groupings are homogenous. This was an interesting idea, I though of racism and xenophobia as being an issue today. People are afraid of what they do not consider normal or what they are used to.
Dan explained that, “Not only are the burbclaves a logical progression of the current gated communities that exist, but are also a concept based on basic human psychology, taken to its logical (though perhaps extreme) conclusion.”
As I said above, this is a comment on human psychy that the author is drawing upon. Mr. Stephenson was demonstrating that these burbclaves also stuck together to keep out ‘undesirables’... anybody that is different. In an increasing globalized world today, some are fearful of large culture shifts. An example of this coul be the increasing latin population continually moving into the U.S. This can also be seen when looking at the alrge Muslim and Arab populations moving into Europe.
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