[mquander]

See, when you say it like that...Obviously Stephenson is well aware that the setting and characterization is sort of over-the-top.

But I'm pretty sure his fundamental motivation was just, fuck it, if people write Star Trek / Star Wars crossover fanfiction I can write my story about a hacker samurai pizza detective. And we read it, because once in a while it's fun to read a story about hacker samurai pizza detectives.