The original manuscript of Neil Stephenson's "Snow Crash," which coined the term "metaverse," will be auctioned by Sotheby's, according to a page on its official website . The auction is part of a series titled "Infocalypse" on February 23, which includes six physical and six digital items related to the famous book.
The original manuscript is in Lot 2 of this series. It is "wrapped in original Xerox 4200 paper," taped in place, and contains "corrections and annotations in blue ink by Neal Stephenson's own hand." book title.
Also included in Lot 4 is a "Revised Typesetting Manuscript." This is a newer edition with additional handwritten notes and revisions by the author. Other physical items auctioned as part of the series include the original painting that was used as the cover art for the book's 1993 mass-market paperback edition, the leather jacket that will be used in the graphic novel video promotion, the concept used for the graphic novel, and the The real sword inspired by the Sword of God.
In addition to these physical items, the collection will also feature digital art NFTs inspired by the graphic novel concept that preceded Avalanche. Published in 1992, Snow Crash is set in a dystopia where most people live in small storage facilities. It follows the exploits of the main character, Hiro, a pizza delivery boy who must fight robbers to deliver his pizza. Hiro spends all his free time in a virtual world called "Metaverse," where citizens can escape the misery of everyday life. But a computer virus has rendered the inhabitants of the Metaverse "nothing more than a disturbing cloud of bad digital karma." The plot of the novel revolves around Hiro trying to figure out how to stop the virus.
According to The Washington Post, the book has sold more than 1 million copies in North America alone. Since the book's publication, virtual reality enthusiasts have increasingly used Stephenson's "metaverse" to describe the emerging virtual worlds that virtual reality technology is creating, and in recent years it has become a buzzword.
The rise of the Metaverse brought new career opportunities for some and helped reshape Web3 gaming.
