Okay so I'm only at like the first chapter but I honestly can't tell if the stupid little bildrungsroman bit about the midwestern tech bro turned feudal lord is intended as satire.

Choice bits:

...(he) found that the surest way to shock most people, in those days, was to believe that some kinds of behaviors were bad and others good, and that it was reasonable to live one's life accordingly.

...while people were not genetically different, they were culturally as different as they could possibly be, and that some cultures were simply better than others.

Honestlt I'd assume satire but coming from what I know about Stephenson I'm really not sure.

    • VapeNoir [he/him]
      ·
      3 years ago

      I think whats more important is where the book is going with this. If this is a naive dscription from an unreliable narrator, that's fine. If those entired two pages of Great Man theory are not criticized or subverted in the text of the novel, then it's not worth my time.