The Black Sun

The Black sun in Neal Stephenson's cyberpunk novel Snow Crash is comparable to any rave or night club found in the US from coast to coast. But there are some distinct differences between Stephenson's version of a night club and a real life night club. In description, the Black Sun is as big as a couple of football fields laid side by side. The decor consists of black, square tabletops hovering in the air evenly spaced across the floor in a grid. Like pixels. Everything is matte black, which is easier for a computer system to draw things on top of the desktop. All of the attention can be focused on the Avatars(people in the metaverse). In the Black Sun, avatars can collide with one another but not always. We all know about colliding into one another in real night clubs!! Everything is solid, opaque and realistic. The Black Sun includes a bouncer like any night club in our real world. The Black Sun also has a bartender that mixes imaginary drinks to serve to the avatars.


In the Black Sun there are fights that take place like that in any bar. The difference between just any bar in the US and the Black Sun would be the Black Sun is designed for the more elite avatars-kind of like a Planet Hollywood in California. People that have more sophisticated computer systems and technology that can create an avatar of color and personality have greater advantages. The Black sun is an exclusive night club. There are always avatars mingling around its outerdoors waiting to get in to party and find out who's who. People say these avatars speak idle jargon that is hardly understandable. Those types that hang out around the Black Sun aren't popular-they are to be ignored.