The Second Apocalypse
Miscellaneous Chatter => Literature => Topic started by: Wilshire on May 09, 2013, 03:22:22 pm
-
Just read Neuromancer on a whim, didn't realize it was one of sci-fi's most acclaimed novels. Though it was pretty good, laughed at some of the 80's version of the future, but still a good read.
Was muddling around on the interwebz and found this quote, which was added into a re-release in 2000 as an afterword by Jack Womack:
suggest[ed] that Gibson's vision of cyberspace may have inspired the way in which the Internet developed, (particularly the World Wide Web) after the publication of Neuromancer in 1984. He asks "[w]hat if the act of writing it down, in fact, brought it about?" (269).
Don't know if that is true or not, but what a powerful statement... and probably every sci-fi writer's dream, to directly influence the path of future technology. (Of course then I thought... what if cataloging the Dreams, and their differences, fundamentally changed the world around our old Wizard's obsession)
Anyway, good book, a quick read, I'd recommend.
Edit. (so as to not double post):
Anyone here a fan or a critic of Gibson and his writings? I know hes got several other books and I'm wondering if they are worth the read.
-
Yep, the other ones keep up a good deal of the ideas in Neuromancer. There's one, I can't remember it's name, where the story starts with one of the main characters as a child - well, he thinks he is because he's in a virtual world - which he's in because his body is in a vat after being blown up by a phermone seeking missile during a mission. It's a hell of a scene where they've brought him around and he's just walking through an airport, back at work, when his memory comes back and he instantly vomits into a nearby bin, but does so without stopping.
Ultimately the stories contain a kind of romanticism in the various seperate stories intertwining into a final head on climax.
-
I don't know if I just ignored this or totally missed it...
Either way, thanks for the response. I think I'll probably try and pick up the sequel some time in the near future.
-
There are actually two follow-on novels to Neuromancer. I read them all years ago, don't remember much, but do remember the titles.
Book 2 is Count Zero
Book 3 is Mona Lisa Overdrive
If you like them, I'd recommend another trilogy of his. They're also cyber-punkish, but not set as far forward in time as the Sprawl series (Neuromancer, et al). The books are Virtual Light, Idoru and All Tomorrow's Parties.
-
I have this compilation of his short stories called "burning chrome",which you might enjoy ;)
-
Yeah I knew about the sequels and all that. Thanks for the responses guys.
-
My favorite Gibson novel is actually Pattern Recognition. Fantastic quasi-SF novel with lots of typical postmodern elements.