For those who don't know, William Gibson is the father of cyberpunk, coiner of the term "cyberspace," and a general God in the genre of Sci-Fi. His books have influenced many authors, including Bruce Sterling.
The first introduction I had to his writing was with his groundbreaking novel Neuromancer.
Published first in 1984, it made its way to my shelf in 2000. While being somewhat outdated (it's hard to get excited over gigs of RAM when you're using the internet from your phone), it still held meaning. Long before there was an Internet, Gibson created The Sprawl: a spread of urban development mired in decay. It was the playground of hackers and thieves, prostitutes and weapons dealers; it was my first peek into a rich world of technological possibility birthed by the lowest of human conditions. I continued in the series, reading Count Zero and Mona Lisa Overdrive. Both I found to hold the same spirit and intrigue as their predecessor. Meandering backward a bit, I read his short story Johnny Mnemonic (which had been made into a horrible film starring Ice-T and Keanu Reeves).
I touched upon his "Bridge Series" in reading Virtual Light, but then went on hiatus from his works. I'd love to read Pattern Recognition and Idoru, but every time I see them at the bookstore I think to myself, "Not yet!" I may be stalling on those, but that isn't to say his influence isn't still guiding me. If I'd never read Neuromancer, I certainly wouldn't have picked up Snow Crash, Zodiac or The Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson, or any number of books I've read since.
Not to end on a down-note, but in the last few years, rumors of Hayden Christansen starring in a movie adaptation of Neuromancer have been floating around the web, although I've yet to see anything concrete. One can only hope they don't slay it. Gibson deserves to have his work taken seriously and potrayed accurately. Until then, I offer this unworthy nod, on this, his 61st birthday.
The first introduction I had to his writing was with his groundbreaking novel Neuromancer.
Published first in 1984, it made its way to my shelf in 2000. While being somewhat outdated (it's hard to get excited over gigs of RAM when you're using the internet from your phone), it still held meaning. Long before there was an Internet, Gibson created The Sprawl: a spread of urban development mired in decay. It was the playground of hackers and thieves, prostitutes and weapons dealers; it was my first peek into a rich world of technological possibility birthed by the lowest of human conditions. I continued in the series, reading Count Zero and Mona Lisa Overdrive. Both I found to hold the same spirit and intrigue as their predecessor. Meandering backward a bit, I read his short story Johnny Mnemonic (which had been made into a horrible film starring Ice-T and Keanu Reeves).I touched upon his "Bridge Series" in reading Virtual Light, but then went on hiatus from his works. I'd love to read Pattern Recognition and Idoru, but every time I see them at the bookstore I think to myself, "Not yet!" I may be stalling on those, but that isn't to say his influence isn't still guiding me. If I'd never read Neuromancer, I certainly wouldn't have picked up Snow Crash, Zodiac or The Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson, or any number of books I've read since.
Not to end on a down-note, but in the last few years, rumors of Hayden Christansen starring in a movie adaptation of Neuromancer have been floating around the web, although I've yet to see anything concrete. One can only hope they don't slay it. Gibson deserves to have his work taken seriously and potrayed accurately. Until then, I offer this unworthy nod, on this, his 61st birthday.
2 comments:
you let me read neuromancer and i remember having a hard time getting into it. mostly because of all the technical lingo. i just couldn't keep up, and had a hard time finding where the story was.
that said, i think there's an argument here that it's my problem if i couldn't try harder to understand the lingo. i'm sure there's more to the book than i recognized. i need to try it again some time. in a long time.
excelsior!!
haha
I felt the same way about Clockwork Orange, and that's a classic.
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