abstract
| - Zodiac is an eco-thriller written by Neal Stephenson, published in 1988. It tells the story of an environmentalist, Sangamon Taylor, uncovering a conspiracy involving industrialist polluters in Boston Harbor. The title refers to the brand of inflatable motor boats Sangamon uses to travel across the Harbor, shortcutting Boston's frequent traffic gridlock. Sangamon Taylor is known as an Eco-terrorist by his opponents, and the "Granola James Bond," by the local student papers. He comes across as both, with a dash of Hunter S. Thompson thrown in for good measure. Taylor is a frequent recreational user of nitrous oxide, or laughing gas. His justification: the eponymous Sangamon's Principle, which explains, Over the course of the novel, he also imbibes hallucinogenic mushrooms and LSD. He admits the latter is a violation of Sangamon's Principle, but partakes anyways, making an exception during a forced overland march because he believes it is just too useful to ignore. Much of the plot concerns Boston's Spectacle Island, which at the time of publication was composed entirely of garbage. In the story, it is frequented by drugged-out and reputedly Satanic groupies of the "two-umlaut" heavy metal music band, Pöyzen Böyzen, who are too intoxicated with angel dust to realize that Sangamon is searching for toxic PCB's dumped on the island, not the drug PCP, which they sell. Hilarity Ensues.
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