In his book "The Shape of the Signifier: 1967 to the End of History," Walter Benn Michaels targets Stephenson's view that "languages are codes" rather than a grouping of letters and sounds to be interpreted. Michaels contends that this basic idea of language as code is central to the construct of "Snow Crash" ("... a good deal of "Snow Crash"'s plot depends upon eliding the distinction between hackers and their computers, as if—indeed, in the novel, just because—looking at code will do to the hacker what receiving it will do to the computer"), but at the same time, trivializes the role of meaning in linguistic works. In this respect, Stephenson's views are not shared with other contemporary writers such as Bret Easton Ellis, Kathy Acker, Octavia Butler, Paul de Man and Richard Rorty (with respect to the latter's literary criticism). In contrast, it uniquely risks developing a racialized view of culture. Because "in "Snow Crash", the bodies of humans are affected by "information" they can't read; the virus, like the icepick "American Psycho", gets the words inside you even if you haven't read them," culture is not transmitted by beliefs and practices, but rather by physical characteristics, such as blood (or genetic codes).