Nice to see you, ladymoon! I finally finished Snow Crash. The basic premise was interesting enough: that, milennia ago, a part of all humans' brains was "hard-wired" to share a common language; then the Sumerians discovered a secret speech that caused a new "branch" to form, and from there on, languages diverged. Mr. Stephenson's Protagonist described this secret speech as a virus. I was rather put off by the style. The stereotypes were so overdone that I suspected he must be spoofing someone (possibly himself?) or some genre; and that seldom goes down well, with me. Give me a nice, straight, believable story any time.
I intend to get back to Grendl, if I can steal it back from my daughter.