Snow Crash fanart by Fasole (paradanmellow). Click thumbnail to view larger image in artist's gallery. Finally, a quality Hiro portrait that actually respects the author's character description. ;-) (Snow Crash is a cyperpunk novel by Neal Stephenson. The protagonist is of African American and Korean descent.)
Has anyone noticed that most of the official Snow Crash
covers with Hiro on them show either a silhouette or back view? And the few covers that have Hiro in profile or three-quarter view portray him with Caucasian features. One Hiro illustration, which made it into Spectrum some years ago, didn't even get the hair right. (That particular illustrator portrayed Hiro as someone with white skin, European features and lank hair.)
Has anyone noticed that most of the official Snow Crash
covers with Hiro on them show either a silhouette or back view? And the few covers that have Hiro in profile or three-quarter view portray him with Caucasian features. One Hiro illustration, which made it into Spectrum some years ago, didn't even get the hair right. (That particular illustrator portrayed Hiro as someone with white skin, European features and lank hair.)
This isn't an issue unique to Snow Crash covers. Another example is the treatment of Ursula Le Guin's Earthsea books. As the author herself describes in Slate article A Whitewashed Earthsea, publishers seem to go out of their way to avoid showing non-white faces on book covers, out of fear that doing so might hurt sales.
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