On the topic of Stephenson, i can't help wonder if his "cyberpunk" was more satire. After all the guy actually knew computers, and thus was perhaps irked by the "imagery" used by cyberpunk authors. He also basically pureed the prototypical cyberpunk during the opening chapter of Diamond Age.
And the opening of _Snow Crash_, too, was clearly a loving parody of an already-florid imagery. Cyberpunk as a fiction genre originated in the mid-80s and by 1990 people were calling it dead.
