LOGOCENTRISM OF PURITAN IDEA AND ITS TRANSFORMATION IN POSTMODERN ERA: NEAL STEPHENSON’S NOVEL “SNOW CRASH”
Authors:   Poltava V.G. Korolenko National Pedagogical University, Krynytska Nataliya I. 
Published: December 2024

The aim of the article is to determine the ways of transforming the logocentrism of the Puritan idea in
Neal Stephenson’s post-cyberpunk novel “Snow Crash” (1992). The tasks of this research include: review-
ing Puritan sources relating to the Word of God from the point of view of modern language theory; study-
ing the transformation of text into a logos that changes reality in “Snow Crash” and Puritan sermons; dis-
playing the opposition ‘body / mind (soul)’ through language in these sermons and overcoming it in the vir-‘body / mind (soul)’ through language in these sermons and overcoming it in the vir- body / mind (soul)’ through language in these sermons and overcoming it in the vir-
tual reality of the novel; comprehending the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis and combining linguistic determinism
with the idea of Puritan logocentrism in “Snow Crash”; studying the implementation of the Tower of Babel
motif in the novel; and analysing intertextuality in Stephenson’s work. The main methods of research are
cultural-historical, philosophical-aesthetic, hermeneutic, mythopoetic and intertextual analysis.
The new findings prove that the Puritans’ focus on the Holy Scriptures as a direct path to divine truth
corresponds to the novel’s exploration of language as a powerful tool of control and influence. Adhering to
the Holy Scriptures, the Puritan leaders aimed not only at a high spiritual mission but also at a purely prag-
matic task of fighting the chaos of an unknown and dangerous world and controlling their flock for the most
rational and effective survival in difficult conditions. The author emphasizes that both in the Puritan ideol-
ogy and in the poetic world of the novel, there is a transformation of writing into speech. This is as if Ste-
phenson is following a puritanical script of using the Present Tense to bring the text to life for the audience
and then to change reality with that logos.
Parallels have been found between Puritan rhetoric and the achievement of transcendence in Ste-
phenson’s Metaverse. Comparing the Word of God to medicine, food, glass or a trumpet in their sermons,
Puritan priests thus activated the sensory perception of their flock, giving ‘flesh’ to an abstract text. The au-
thor assumes that they were intended to ‘reprogram’ the believers’ perception of reality with an empha-
sis on the negative aspects of society. The Metaverse is also a text – a computer protocol, and every year
programmers increase its virtual flesh, i.e., its size and diversity by simulation of neural sensory perception. The Puritans and the programmers rely on the text and on the interaction of body and mind/soul through
language. However, whereas the Puritans used the text to improve the real world according to their views,
the programmers created a new virtual world. The Metaverse is the embodiment of the Puritan dream of a
‘Millennial Paradise’ or ‘City upon a Hill’. On the one hand, this cyberspace is created in search of freedom
by hackers to escape from hyper-capitalist reality, but on the other hand, only the richest or those with
high technology have access to this form of transcendence.
The paper studies “Snow Crash” as an illustration of the ‘strong’ version of the Sapir-Whorf hypoth-
esis, which looks at the dangers of using language as a mental or computer virus where the minds of hu-
mans as biorobots are literally reprogrammed. Puritan beliefs were often characterized by moral absolut-
ism and a desire to control social behaviour to conform to religious ideals.
The Tower of Babel motif is traced from the point of view of the existence of a single protolanguage,
which split into many others after the destruction of the tower by God. In “Snow Crash”, the Los Angeles
fragmented reality is as diverse as post-infocalypse Babel, where the protagonist is a virtual frontier cow-
boy, culture hero and trickster. Stephenson praises the Babel infocalypse, when human language became
heterogeneous, understanding it as a moment of liberation and the beginning of the countdown of inde-
pendent rational thinking of humankind. He also reverently perceives the following of the Bible over the
centuries as ‘informational hygiene’ – this is how the people of the ‘Book’ resisted the ancient pagan chaos.
The novel’s reinterpretati on of the idea of Puritan logocentrism takes place within postmodern aes- ’s reinterpretati on of the idea of Puritan logocentrism takes place within postmodern aes- s reinterpretation of the idea of Puritan logocentrism takes place within postmodern aes-
thetics through the use of deconstruction (revaluing the idea of logocentrism and the Tower of Babel
myth), parody (debunking the myth of the City upon a Hill), irony and intertextuality. But although “Snow
Crash” is ironical, the writer at a deeper level rejects postmodern cynicism and helplessness. The Amer-
ican nation continues to develop, critically reviewing and reforming its founding myths. Adhering to the
science fiction faith in science and the Puritan belief in the constructive potential of the word for society,
Neal Stephenson created his metanarrative about the Metaverse. This became the prototype of the mod-
ern Internet, but, in its full embodiment of an alternative reality, remains a dream and a guide for progres-
sive humanity today.