Interface.

So I just finished readin Interface, by Stephen Bury. Stephen Bury is apparently the pseudonym for Neal Stephenson (Author of Snow Crash, amongst other books), and his uncle (whose name I do not know). Now, for those of you who have read N.S, you’ll know what I mean when I say that his tone is mostly flippant humor. Sure, he is very Satirical. Sure, he touches on heavy subjects now and then. But mostly, I find him really, really funny. Interace is not. I think it is probably supposed to be. It is so outlandish in premise and follow-through, that really, it should be. It should be high satire. But it comes across to me as nothing but tired cynicism. The subject is that of American politcal campaigns, and how they use and abuse the system to their own ends. Specifically, this seems to be about how campaign media managers manage campaigns. Unfortunately, there isn’t a likeable character amongst them, which makes it a hard read. The lone likeable character is so incredibly unrealistic that you couldn’t possibly root for her.

Oh well. I wonder how much of the tired cynicism in this book stems from its subject matter (it’s so hard to remain satirical about a subject that really, has become almost a satire of itself), or from the injection of the N.S’s uncle, who worked for the U.S. government in some capacity for a while. I don’t know.

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