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"Snow"
by John Crowley

Publishing DataPreviewBackgroundNavigation GuideFurther Exploration
Publishing Data

Originally published November 1985 in Omni
Collected in The Norton Book of Science Fiction

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Preview
A widower accesses memories of his wife through a program that randomly projects episodes from her life.
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Background
  • Brownian movement, first observed by botanist Robert Brown in 1827, is the term used to describe the random motion of particles suspended in a fluid.
  • In April 2007 Steven Levy reported in Newsweek about a planned network of "lifecasters" who are wearing cameras in order to send video feeds of their lives over the Internet.
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Navigation Guide
Describe the purpose of the Wasp.
Describe the narrator's relationship with Georgie and his feelings towards her.
What does the narrator expect when he first visits the archives at the Park? What does he actually get?
How does the narrator initially feel about the experience of viewing scenes from Georgie's life? Why does he keep coming back?
Why is the access to the archives random? Why does the access seem to get less random?
Why does the quality of the access deteriorate?
Why does the Director decide to quit?
Why will the Park eventually go out of business?
Why does the narrator stop going to the Park?
Note all of the references to snow. What does the concept of snow represent in this story? Why do you think the story is titled "Snow"?
Compare and contrast the narrator's experience of accessing the archives to the narrator's actual memory of Georgie.
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Further Exploration
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Einstein's Explanation of Brownian Motion: an illustration of the concept of Brownian motion
 
Saturn bulletSources
Levy, Steven. "This is Your Life, Every Bit of it!" Newsweek. 30 April 2007: 18.
 
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