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All Tomorrow's Parties 66

Posted by Hemos from the it's-mister-gibson dept.
Duncan Lawie, our premier reviewer of fiction has sent us his take on William Gibson's latest effort All Tomorrow's Parties. There was a lot of press surrounding the release of this book - click below to find out more about it, or dicuss your impressions of it.
All Tomorrow's Parties
author William Gibson
pages 277
publisher Putnam Publishing Group
rating 7/10
reviewer Duncan Lawie
ISBN 0399145796
summary A stylish novel, so highly polished that the surface is almost impossible to see through.
William Gibson is surely an author who needs no introduction in this forum but he may need some context. Neuromancer was the first science fiction novel I ever read which had the word 'fuck' in it. This may seem insignificant but it was one tiny element of what made cyberpunk such a revelation. Whilst cyberspace, Gibson's gift to science fiction, was compiled on a typewriter, it is still the dominant public image of what the wired world is like or will become as it matures. His subsequent expansion of that world, with Count Zero and Mona Lisa Overdrive, was affected by the incredible advances in the world of computers through the intervening years. With this rate of change it is hardly surprising that Gibson chose to step back from the sharp near-future edge where even the wildest speculation can be overtaken in the time it takes to bring a book to publication. This withdrawal resulted, in Virtual Light, in the presentation of a society where computers are part of the backdrop rather than being of direct interest in the same way that atomic power underlies the science fiction of an earlier age. In Idoru, new technologies come to the fore again and were presented in a more global context.

Gibson's new book, All Tomorrow's Parties, is a capstone to both Idoru and Virtual Light, forming a trilogy of sorts out of books not explicitly tied together beforehand. The process of re-introducing characters who had reached reasonably satisfying closure feels a little forced though the minor characters from the previous two books who are brought back slip in easily and are played a little differently. There are a number of new characters but, as a whole, the cast seems older and wiser. They have dreamed and had their dreams broken or, perhaps worse, had their dreams come true.

There is a soundtrack to this novel and, to my mind, it is by Nick Cave - with an emphasis on his more recent material. There is a similar feeling of having come out of youth, where all nightmares and delights are still possible, into a maturity where having one breath followed by another is a kind of victory and where hope is balanced by experience. Nick Cave's mental landscape has changed over the years, as has Gibson's. This novelist no longer writes cyberpunk but this novel could not exist without its pure cyberpunk antecedents. The shock of the new is largely replaced by a nostalgia for the past. Whilst there are phases of sharp action these are seen as deadly interruptions to normality rather than desirable states. Death is the end, not a means.

Superficially there is very little actual plot in this book. Both character and idea are at the service of a fascinating surface rather than the constructors of genuine depth. It is a novel of style, which is not a common mode in science fiction. Gibson is often criticised for this approach but it is a natural development of the New Wave emphasis on pure literary values in science fiction. As a novel of style it is a great success: the phrasing and terminology glows, particularly in chapter titles - such as "Mariachi Static" - and the way these are incorporated into the text of the chapter; location and action are minimally but completely defined; some characters are kept as shadowy ciphers whilst others are clearly delineated through glimpses of their mental states.

What may underlie the polished surface of Gibson's writing is very difficult to determine. This has often been the case and it may be easier to simply accept that what would be central in most science fiction simply is not so important in this writer's work. In All Tomorrow's Parties however, it is plausible to suggest that Gibson is displaying how unlikely it is that anyone recognises the world-changing event even if they see it. The most significant moment of the novel is observed by an exceedingly minor character. He has no idea what it means and all the characters who might recognise it are too busy attempting to survive catastrophe elsewhere. This is a cool book (in more ways than one) verging on bleakness but saved by it's human values.

Purchase this book at fatbrain.

Nick Cave
All Tomorrow's Parties Website
William Gibson - too many to mention!
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All Tomorrow's Parties

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  • The book was great, funny enough I actually submitted a review of it on Epinions a week or so ago.

    It leaves you with the normal "What the hell just happened" kind of mental state when you are done. It's a great book, and like the review said, it is very weak on plot, but is written in pretty much normal Gibson style (over-description and a lot of detail).

    The bad guy wasn't very bad. Laney kept talking about the end of the world as we know it, and when the book was over, nothing apparently was different 'cept a minor event, and Gibson leaves you confused as to what exactly happened, but I've come to accept that from him...


    Those who talk do not know.
    Those who know do not talk.
    Keep your mouth closed.

  • But I actually liked "Virtual Light" and "Idoru" and this is just as good. More human, fuller characters and people talking about their lives instead of their computers.

    Don't get me wrong: I loved Neuromancer etc at the time, but I really feel that my tastes have matured and so has Gibson's writing.

    I just know I'm going to get a kicking from the rest of you for saying this, and from almost all fans, but thats how I feel.

    Richks

    http://totl.net/BeerWitch

  • I rarely purchase hardcover fiction, I find that more often than not I am dissapointed; having spent $25 bucks on a book that'll quickly end up at the used bookstore. Gibson novels are different, without having read the review I grabbed this book off the shelf. There's only a few novelists who have earned my hardcover trust, Orson Scott Card, Neil Gaiman, Tad Williams and William Gibson round off the top of this list. I can't wait to read this book.
  • I picked this up last weekend but haven't had a chance to start it yet. I'm a little trepidatious; I thought Virtual Light was "just OK" and I really didn't find Idoru engaging enough. I guess I still really pine for the edge that the "Sprawl Saga" trilogy had. But the world moves on I guess.

    It is rather neat that just the day before I first saw this book I'd decided to compare the three versions of the title song I have -- the ones by the Velvet Underground, Japan, and Apoptygma Berzerk. Nostalgia's love, O come to me...

    "A blackened shroud, a hand-me-down gown
    Of rags and silks, a costume
    Fit for one who sits and cries
    For all tomorrow's parties"
  • The soundtrack to the novel was indeed Nick Cave, it seems. I heard William Gibson on the BBC Radio 4 program "Desert Island Discs" this morning, in which he chose the 8 records he would get to have with him if stranded on a desert island. One was Nick Cave's "Are You the One I've Been Looking For", which was also his top choice if he had to narrow it down to one disc only.

    Another of the songs was an early demo of "All Tomorrow's Parties" by Velvet Underground. He also picked another John Cale song, performed by someone else. The remaining 5 tracks were by Doc Boggs, Steely Dan, Bruce Springsteen, Tom Waits and Taj Mahal. It was a great program, and I even looked around to see if it was archived on the web but had no luck. Anyone know if the Beeb has RealAudio archives of programs like this somewhere?
  • here's only a few novelists who have earned my hardcover trust
    Gene Wolfe has a new book out in hardcover. This starts a new trilogy, The Book of the Short Sun. I bought it, read it, and am very happy I did. His prose is something to be savored, not rushed.
  • I was hoping Virtual Light and Idoru would spawn another trilogy from this excellent author. When is Neuromancer going to be made into a movie? The Matrix was great, but a good director could make an even better movie with Neuromancer.
  • I've heard that music-video director Chris Cunningham (of Madonna; "Frozen"-fame + all the cooler stuff for leftfield etc...) is working on filming Neuromancer. I hope he'll succeed, as he's one of the few who can do it well IMHO.
  • Gibson's books are more an experience than a "story"

    I don't know how to explain it better than that. I finished _All Tomorrow's Parties_, and I just sort of sat back and said "wow." His books have less of a linear flow; but when you are done with them, a full picture has been created in your head that makes you think.

    His stories also have a depth that is lacking in many other stories. I have read _Neuromancer_ many times and after every read I have picked up another facet of the story I didn't understand before.

    Gibson is truely a talented writer and I look forward to rereading _All Tomorrow's Parties_ again and the details I know I missed the first time.

  • 'Mariachi Static' is from a Warren Zevon song.

  • Neuromancer Series Vs. Virtual Light Series. (Score:3)

    by neo ( 4625 ) on Friday November 19, 1999 @06:03AM (#1519516)
    I sorry to say that I was disappointed with All Tomorrows Parties. I
    suppose it's unfair to compare this work to previous books by Gibson,
    but there was nothing new there. Nothing to hold on to.


    I found myself constantly hoping for a character I could enjoy as much
    as I enjoyed Molly, or Case, or Automatic Jack. These were characters I
    cared about and who filled my imagination with ideas.


    I've heard it said that Gibson never liked the term "CyberPunk". If
    that's the case, he's certainly gotten as far away from that original
    idea as he could. Nothing here inspires like Cyberspace, nothing evokes
    the shear awe of vat grown street ronin. It's a shame really, because I
    enjoyed the high/low fantasy of those books more than this near future
    that has been vision corrected for the new millennium.


    Although I've never been pleased with the final story arcs from Gibson,
    this series was particularly disappointing. It was predictable beyond
    the scope of even the last book, with heavy foreshadowing back in Idoru.
    I didn't like the way the Neuromancer/Count Zero/Monalisa Overdrive series
    ended, but at least I didn't see it coming.


    I still enjoy the turn of a phrase and intense detail Gibson brings to the
    table, but I fell in love with Neuromancer and this pales by comparison.


    Neo -

  • Neuromancer Movie (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Not only is Neuromancer about to be made into a movie, it also now has an official home page [neuromancer.org]. William Gibson 1 [ee.oulu.fi]2 [uwa.edu.au] is writing the script so people have some hope it will work.

    Anyway, I see the All Tomorrow's Parties [penguinputnam.com] too has a home page.

    In the newsgroup alt.cyberpunk [alt.cyberpunk] there was a reference to an early script which was rather different from the book. Incidentally, the new book has been discussed at some length there already, you may wish to pop in to have look.

  • I thought the Card attribution sounded funny. Ursula seems to be making a hobby of mapping great SF writers onto mainstream writers--try to find a Bhil Dick novel without "Dick is our own Borges" on the cover some time.
  • Everyone always says:
    It's a dirty job but someone has to do it.

    Saw this guy on TLC here in the US. I give him credit. Who will ever really know how many lives he may have saved with his work.

  • ... Wouldn't Mr. Gibson be a perfect candidate for a /. interview? Please?
    --
  • I really do think it was Card who said that of Wolfe, but I have no idea where I read it, so of course could be engaging in, um, fabular reconstruction. :-)
  • I made a tape of the programme. The only mention of the programme at the BBC's website is on today's schedule.
    I am thinking about typing up a transcript and putting it on the web. Does anyone have an opinion about that? Am I likely to get in trouble? I haven't come across transcripts of other interviews but I would imagine William Gibson does a few interviews like this each year. Is there any demand?
  • Gibson reminds me of Philip K Dick. Not in terms of style but that feeling you get when you've finished the book. Rather than remembering the story as a sequence of events that make up the plot, you're left with an after image. A bit like a camera flash going off in your face.
  • He lifted a lyric directly from Cave's song "Red Right Hand" off of the album "Let Love In" at one point, which set the tone of the book rather nicely, I think.

    You're one microscopic cog in his catastrophic plan, designed and directed by his red right hand...

    -Akikage
  • Off topic I know but... I just hope Neuromancer doesn't end up like Johnny Mnemonic. A brilliant short story ruined by scrappy directing, hollywood plot line and wooden acting. I wish I'd never gone to see it.

  • Personal opinion, generally irrelevant to Gibson, per se.

    I found myself constantly hoping for a character I could enjoy as much as I enjoyed Molly, or Case, or Automatic Jack. These were characters I cared about and who filled my imagination with ideas.

    Actually that has been the same problem I've had with a lot of Anime (Japanese animation) in the 90s. Mind you, I'm refering to the more mature stuff, not the Pokeman and Sailor Moon flaptrap that the states keep getting nowadays. The strength of the series that were produced in the 70s and 80s (esp Macross) was as much or more in its characters. Nothing the 90s and the OAV revolution, however strong the "art" or the animation is, has reached that for me. There is nothing in the characters they present that is worth associating with. Most of that has to do with the lack of a long-term storyline; OAV releases tend to be one-shots, with a few exceptions (and some of those exceptions, such as Dirty Pair and Ranma, each started out as a series).

    The plot of a story means nothing if you don't care about the characters enough to be interested in what happens to them.

    All the action (or perhaps in Gibson's case, philosophy); all the "art" at that point ends up like icing eaten straight outta the can, w/ no cake. Tastes great at first, but leaves you empty inside when its over, especially when you've had too much of it...

  • Yeah, I like the Neuromancer series (used Neuromancer as one of the books in my senior thesis for Honors Lit in high school; my first exposure to that book), but I will say this for Idoru: there is one big Usenet reference when discussing the history of the City. I liked that (what can I say, I grew up on Usenet -- still don't care for this young newcomer "web" thingy...)

  • I personnely liked this book the most out of the Virtual Light series. I love Gibsons writing style, he seems to have the ability to explain everything in excutiating detail yet still allow your imagination to run wild. After reading the Sprawl series numerous times, and even going as far as reading a complete dissection of Neuromancer I found on the web as to get as much out of it as possible, I am left with a question after ATP's. Laney mentioned the change before, the one that had begun with Currie dying, I am wondering what people thought that might be. Theirs a weird moment in the book where Fontaine is examining an old watch which has the last year of repair as 1945 and there is mention of radiation burns (be it from the radium in the paint or somewhere else). This leaves me to believe Gibson to be hinting at the the creation of the Atomic Bomb as the last change. Any other theories? It really would make sense, I mean, after 1945 look what began... Cold War, Space Race, Supercomputers, changed everything completely. Flintoft

  • Hmm... (Score:3)

    by miscellaneous ( 14183 ) on Friday November 19, 1999 @07:22AM (#1519530) Homepage
    Maybe it's just me, but I never felt that ATP was lacking in plot. The plot was merely...subtle, as was the denouement. Subtle and oddly satisfying, to me.

    However, the consensus is right in one respect: Gibson has never really been about plot, nor, certainly, about theme. Gibson has always been about the characters; the plot is sort of window-dressing for that, Gibson's illustration of the things that people do to themselves, and each other.

    That, in my humble opinion, is where his genius lies, and it is very evident in ATP. Rei Todei is in the book for an almost indescribably short time, and yet she is more fully realized than many writers could have made her had they spent five hundred pages trying to do it.

    Chevette and Rydell, then, get more time, and by the end, you start reading things into them; they're familiar enough, real enough, that you start to infer and induct things things about them, making art imitate life.

    I think William Gibson would be a super-kickass interview, as would Neal Stephenson or Douglas Adams or...

    Also, I must diagree with the reviewer. The soundtrack for this album is Vanessa-Mae's Storm. A compulsive blend of the old with the new. It's funky, but it works. "Bach Street Prelude" for the final 10 pages. And I'm not even a classical music fan.
  • I definitely agree about Card and Gibson, so I'm curious to know what you think are really good books to start with for Gaiman and Williams -- books that highlight their style, as well as being particularly engaging?
  • Laney didn't know exactly what the change was. It was something fundamental, that lay below the data stream and not within it. He could not see it.

    The nodal points then and now (in the novel), you might think of as akin to Andy Grove's "inflection points". A ship's crew might not notice a slight change in course for hours or even days, but that change can vastly effect where they end up.

    A nodal point like that is sub-liminal; the effects are vast. There is no cause and effect relationship, in a traditional sense. In reference to 1911, then, I would say that you're barking a bit up the wrong tree, trying to find out what happened, what changed. Everything changed, and the death of Curie's husband was only the start.
  • Say *what*? I love getting moderated down for doing nothing wrong. Apparently some people don't understand how the karma system works. It's not my fault that I'm +2, and I should not be penalized for this.
  • Gibson's books are each about transitions; the transition of the AIs into autonomous 'beings' that produces Count Zero's ghosts in the Matrix, Rei's transition from to 'humanity' in Idoru. The fine, spider-web threads of these transitions wove their way through Gibson's earlier novels, linking the characters, plot and setting - I found those threads missing from All Tomorow's Parties. The technological 'change' he introduces isn't linked into the characters and so they seem to simply drift with the weak current of the plot.

    For me, All Tomorow's Parties doesn't have the power that the earlier books have. It's still a good read, and Gibson is a master of "setting the scene" (I would say 'the master', but I think P.K. Dick is equally skilled), such that the things he describes seem so unequivocably "right" and "true" that they become part of one's world-view. But I don't think I'll pull it off the shelf to re-read as often as I do with his other books.

    ai731
    --

  • I went and checked before I posted (and love myself all the more for it). The back cover of the paperback Urth of the New Sun sez Le Guin. It makes more sense, too. Card isn't a quarter the prose stylist Le Guin and Wolfe are.
  • Utterly wonderful prose; briliantly inventive "imagineering;" sheer pleasure.

    I do wish the last chapter was a bit more explicit about the changes that happened.

  • I have to agree. I loved Idoru because it specifically got the the 'so what?' questions raised by the amazing technological surfeit explored in the Neuromancer trilogy. Okay, we have all this technology, a global cyberspace and a purely virtual pop star, so what?

    And then Gibson explores that most ancient of themes, love, and the entire question of whether love can conquer all (even virtuality!). Combining one characters quest for love with another's loyalty and a third's concern.

    The technology advances, but people are still people. Similar, IMHO, to what JMS was saying with B5.

    Just MHO.

  • Like everyone else in this discussion (it seems) I just finnished All Tomorrows Parties, but I was only moderately impressed with it. To me this book did not offer much more than its predecessor Iduro, which I thought was rather disapointing.

    The character of Laney, with his ability to spot patterns in the data flows of society, is very fascinating, but Gibson doesn't build on him at all in this book, leaving just a more insane version of what we saw in Iduro. I have always enjoyed the depth and variation of Gibsons characters, but lately he has been falling into some pretty bad stereotypes. In Iduro he had the girl who tells people she is a street fighter in Mexico City on the Internet and turns out to be an invalid, and in this one he has crypto-cracking street kid (if Bruce Willis beat you to it, you know you're not quite original). Which is a shame because the Silencio is otherwise a pretty cool character (though Alex Garland wrote the part a lot better in his recent _The Tesseract_ (a must-read)).

    I also never hooked onto the idea of the Iduro. While liking the idea of a fictionous idol attaining an identity, I feel Gibson treats her like just another Pinnochio figure. And what is the meaning (spoiler ahead) with making a great event out of the emergent system making herself human in a Lucky Dragon nanofax system? Isn't the great event of the future rather the opposite, that man is gaining ever greater ability to turn itself into the immortal iduro?

    Finally, while I don't mind (in fact, I like) a book that doesn't tie all the ends together, I sort of feel that a book tagged as the conclusion to a triology should. While fun reading, as always with Gibson, this book really left me more with a feeling of "what now?" than "wow".

    -
    We cannot reason ourselves out of our basic irrationality. All we can do is learn the art of being irrational in a reasonable way.
  • Uh, I thought The Matrix was based on Neuromancer. Well, I know it's based on something Gibson wrote. Anyone know what it is?
  • ..I've read several times throughout the years that Gibson did not have net access until fairly recently. He did have access while writing this book however, and it shows. ..After my first read, I'm startlingly disapointed. Where Gibson broke new ground in the past, here he flounders; it almost seems he is pandering to current trends rather than scetching new ones. ex: Suddenly The Walled City, formerly a mud, is described as a Web Site. Characters in this book seem to be a re-hash of older models - Gibsons characters have always followed a formula, but in ATP they seem to fail to even expand beyond pat. There's no future in this book. It's story turns out to be a thin grey cloth draped over the worlds built in Idoru and Virtual Light. This work is a far cry from the staic poetry that was Neuromancer and the dark/light contrast of Virtual Light.
  • I picked up this book about a week ago before I was going to make a train trip, and was dissapointed by it. While Gibson does a great job of creating a very believable future (I especially like the visions of the cyberpunk San Francisco, complete with people living on the Bridge), the story falls kinda short. I found it weaves around too much, making some of the subplots a little difficult to follow, especially in the beginning.

    The story does move along better towards the end, however. I kinda get the feeling that this may have made a better screenplay... I'm not sorry I purchased it, but I wouldn't recommend anybody buy it unless you are a really big Gibson and/or cyberpunk genre fan. If they ever made a film based on it, though, I'd probably be first in line to buy tickets.


  • I was quite startled by this book. I thought prior Gibson novels got a little sloppy in the writing and plot. Lots of great ideas, interesting characters but far too much was crammed into the book detracting from the appreciation of language and individuals. This book is in a completely different style. This is a work of real precision writing - exact use of the language to communicate. In my opinion this was easily the best written book Gibson has done to date, and a finely polished gem. The only other science fiction author I have seen write on this level is Ursula LeGuin. Bravo!

  • First of all, it is your fault that you're +2! If you don't want to be +2, stop posting so many insightful, informative and interesting comments!

    Secondly, just as in life, the karma system isn't perfect - it is the sum of what all people do to each other, and sometimes people do bad things to each other, even when assigning karma. Hopefully meta-moderation should ultimately ensure justice for the assignors of undeserved bad karma.

    My advice is just sit back, relax, let karma happen, and don't get in it's way!

  • You're in a maze of twisted little Flash pages, all unreadable.
  • Apparently some people don't understand how the karma system works. It's not my fault that I'm +2, and I should not be penalized for this.

    Apparently, some people don't know how moderation works. It's not the moderator's fault that every post you make isn't worth a +2, y'know. Surely you wouldn't want to make people with +2 thresholds read every single thing you write, just because you're attached to your (useless) "karma."

  • I'm half way through at the moment, and the book's been sitting on my side table for two days (unusual for me). It's very "put downable" whereas Neuromancer has you hooked.

    I can't empathise with any of the characters, the plot? is weak, it's decidedly slow paced.

    To be honest I don't think he should have bothered. Idoru was heading in this direction.

    On to the new Tad Williams book I think.

  • I read ATP, and it was worth every penny (though the local bookstore has an *autographed* copy that might be worth a few more pennies)...

    And I would just like to say one thing: Chapter 68 of ATP was probably one of the most unique, fun, scientific and enthralling chapters I've ever read. If you haven't read ATP, just wait until you get to Chapter 68... all one and a half pages of it. Pure Gibson pleasure!

  • Gaiman is freaking brilliant, so all of his stuff is worth picking up, but we've all got to start somewhere. I suggest starting with the Sandman series. They've been published in softcover collections that are properly numbered. There are ten of the books, and by the time you get to The Kindly Ones, the penultimate collection, your mind will be properly blown.

    For some of his prose, I suggest Smoke & Mirrors. It's a short story collection that highlights the depth and variety of story of which Gaiman is capable.

    Also, if you get a chance, go see him speak. It's very much worth your time, and not just 'cause he's cute & has a lovely accent. He does a wickedly funny Harlan Ellison impression, and he's a thoughtful, intelligent, funny speaker.

  • Did anyone else notice that the movie Johnny Mnemonic incorporated a lot of the aspects of Gibson's other works? For example, the bridge the lo-techs lived on was soooo much the bridge we first saw in the short story "Skinner's Room," and which figured prominently in Virtual Light and All Tomorrow's Parties. There were a lot of other minor details, too, that were completely cribbed from other stuff. I can't remember too many specifics right now, because I've never been able to make it through the movie for a second time (it just hurts too badly, but the screenplay's good), but that's the major thing that stuck with me after having seen JM (that, and the fact that it was such a horrible movie). Gibson's books & stories are of great importance to me, so in a way, seeing so many bits and pieces from his works put into this movie made it even worse.

    I think the short story "Johnny..." would make an excellent animated short. Maybe they should have done that instead of making the movie. And as much as I would love to see a Neuromancer movie, especially after The Matrix turned out so well, I think Idoru would make a truly interesting character driven movie.

  • One might also find interesting the emphasis on rare and fine mechanical watch collecting in ATP. Some months before the book came out, William Gibson wrote a piece for Wired magazine about his eBay experiences bidding on collectable wrist watches. Perhaps a writer can declare such purchases as tax deductible research expenses. By the way, find a rental copy of the "Wild Palms" videos... there's a walk-on role Gibson plays as himself at a cocktail party.
  • I truly enjoyed ATP. I work at a bookstore & was talking to several people about it, and we all agreed that while this trilogy isn't as intense as the Sprawl trilogy, it's still very much worthwhile.

    I think Gibson is the most poetic of the Cyberpunks. He's the one who deals in imagery more than hard science. His novels are series of snapshots. He paints small moments in time that add up to huge events, and ATP truly illustrates this. As a writer, Gibson's the most lyrical of the bunch. I think he's more a poet than a prose writer. The Virtual Light, Idoru, All Tomorrow's Parties trilogy is more like an extended series of prose poems than three novels, and I think this may be what turns a lot of hard SF folks off to them. A poster above called this book a "put-downer," which illustrates this point. Instead of a "put-downer," I'd call these three "ones-to-slowly-savor." THe characters and the images unfold like a flower blooming, and it's gratifying to spend the time truly appreciating the process instead of zooming through them.

    What I'd like to see is some of Gibson's poetry if he writes it. I'd also like to see a fourth novel in this series, and then see him move onto something else. It'll be something new & exciting as Gibson always is.

    All in all, I'd say this has been a good Speculative fiction year. We got Crytonomicon, which was nothing short of amazing, and this week, Neil Gaiman released Sandman: Dream Hunters amongst other worthwhile offerings. There've been great stories published in the magazines & Fantasy & Science Fiction celebrated its 50th year. Looking back on the decade, we've gotten mind-blowing stuff from the likes of Rudy Rucker, Paul Di Fillipo, Connie Willis, Nancy Kress, Bruce Sterling, Nalo Hopkinson--the list can go on & on and on. My point? Basically, it's a good time to be alive & to be a fan of SF. Read ATP & enjoy the magic of the way words can be used.

  • I read the last page in full without knowing it *was* the last one. Next phrase (on next page) was: "THANKS. To everyone who waited for this one blah blah blah May 10, 1999 Vancouver, B.C.". Reminded me a chapter in "Godel, Escher, Bach", about fake endings.
  • agreed. personal savior, $2000, cypher as judas, and plus, "the one"
  • You have an option of clicking the box that says "no score +1 bonus" when posting a comment that isn't quite so insightful. If you read /.'s moderation faq, you'd find that Rob wants moderation to happen this way.

    Of course, you have better things to do, so I'll step out of your way now. ;)
  • In Idoru there is a passage where Rez says something that is exactly the same as the lyrics from 'Music and Politics' by The Disposable Heroes of HipHoprisy. Here is what is on the lyric sheet in front of me:

    "...sometimes it's easier to desire and pursue the attention and admiration of 100 strangers than it is to accept the love and the loyalty of those closest to me"

    sound familiar?

    I can't remember if the following bit was in there as well:

    "...I'm suffering from the worst type of loneliness. The loneliness of of being misunderstood, or more poignantly, the loneliness of being afraid to allow myself to be understood."

    At any rate, I didn't see any mention or accreditation for Mike Franti or TDHOHH in the book.

    Bastard!

  • Mr. Joyner wrote:

    > Gibson has never really been about plot, nor, certainly, about theme.

    I have always thought that Gibson's strengths were thematic, especially
    in the sprawl trilogy

    The themes are: first, a grimly dystopic near future with nuclear warfare,
    environmental catastrophe, and violent criminals prowling everywhere;
    second, a biotechnological dominated lifestyle featuring designer drugs,
    enabling mechanical implants, and a flourishing gene and organ trade; third,
    an international and extraterrestrial computer network whose sophistication
    is so vast that it dominates all human life. The thematic level is epic. The
    thinness of the books belies the density of their themes.

    On their other literary levels--plot, characterization, humor, heroism,
    romance--the books sometimes work very well, and sometimes they do not
    work so well. I think the books could do with a little less sorcery. The concept
    of the trodes is bogus. This is the user interface, which just attaches to the head
    as in the "Johnny Mnemonic" and "Strange Days" movies. Neurobiology is
    far too complicated for this to conceivably work. The mention of brand names
    is almost at the product placement level of Bret Easton Ellis.

    These are minor quibbles. Reading Neuromancer was one of the strongest
    influences in many people's lives. I started playing with computers because I
    wanted to be like Case.

    Each of Gibson's post-Neuromancer novels has disappointed many people. I
    think this is due to his overpowering thematic content. The impact of a novel
    literary theme is nearly irreproducible. I noticed this after I found I did not
    much enjoy reading Virtual Light for the first time. In order to really enjoy it,
    I had to make a little effort to recall how Neuromancer really affected me on first
    reading. Gibson did not originate all (or really even any) of these themes, but
    his original presentation was a tour de force. He is far from a perfect novelist,
    but he is very nearly the best we have.

    Bukvich

  • An accusation of plagiarism presupposes that Gibson intentionally took these phrases and copied them into his book without giving due credit. Perhaps an exact quote from the book, matched up with the quotes from TDHOHH would enlighten us all. "...sometimes it's easier to desire and pursue the attention and admiration of 100 strangers than it is to accept the love and the loyalty of those closest to me" Similar words have been said and written many times, does that make TDHOHH plagiarists too? One of the problems with forums like /. is that people post before they come up with a well-reasoned argument and supporting evidence. It has sped up discussion to the point where it is as important to some to have first post as it is to have the best post. But that's just my not well-reasoned, unsupported opinion. :-)
  • Perhaps an exact quote from the book, matched up with the quotes from TDHOHH would enlighten us all

    William Gibson - Idoru - Viking Australian paperback edition page 95 - (c) 1996
    "If we could ever once stop talking about the music, and the industry and the politics of that, I think I'd probably tell you that it's easier to desire and pursue the attention of tens of millions of total strangers than it is to accept the love and the loyalty of those closest to us."

    The Disposable Heroes of HipHoprisy - Music and Politics - Hypocrisy is the Greatest Luxury - (c) 1992
    "If ever I would stop thinking about music and politics, I would tell you that sometimes it's easier to desire and pursue the attention and admiration of 100 strangers than it is to accept the love and loyalty of those closest to me"

    So there you go.

  • Re:Hmm... (Score:1)
    by bukvich on Saturday November 20, @11:29AM EST (#63)
    (User Info)
    Mr. Joyner wrote:

    > Gibson has never really been about plot, nor, certainly, about theme.

    I have always thought that Gibson's strengths were thematic, especially
    in the sprawl trilogy

    The themes are: first, a grimly dystopic near future with nuclear warfare,
    environmental catastrophe, and violent criminals prowling everywhere;
    second, a biotechnological dominated lifestyle featuring designer drugs,
    enabling mechanical implants, and a flourishing gene and organ trade; third,
    an international and extraterrestrial computer network whose sophistication
    is so vast that it dominates all human life. The thematic level is epic. The
    thinness of the books belies the density of their themes.

    Not to be rude, but I don't think that those are themes, in the literary sense of being the main idea that a work is intended to convey.
  • The themes are: first, a grimly dystopic near future with nuclear warfare,
    environmental catastrophe, and violent criminals prowling everywhere;
    second, a biotechnological dominated lifestyle featuring designer drugs,
    enabling mechanical implants, and a flourishing gene and organ trade; third,
    an international and extraterrestrial computer network whose sophistication
    is so vast that it dominates all human life. The thematic level is epic. The
    thinness of the books belies the density of their themes.

    Not to be rude, but I don't think that those are themes, in the literary sense of being the main idea that a work is intended to convey. Motifs is more appropriate, I believe.
  • You would be breaking UK copyright law if you did make a transcript for public consumption. The BBC is in the habit of licensing programmes to overseas markets so you would be depriving them of their revenue stream in some small way. You could write a summary, but it would have to avoid quoting from the programme verbatim.

    Radio 4 does transmit a simultaneous broadcast on the Net. Unfortunately,
    (1) as this page [bbc.co.uk] states:
    We regret that, for rights reasons, we are not yet able to offer a full webcast service across the the Radio 4 schedule
    (2) and of those programmes that are webcast, archived copies are only accessible to BBC researchers.

    IMHO I think the only solution to this is to get /., or some similar site, to host discussions concerning wider topics of interest to us. We should be able to vote for people who arouse our curiousity. For instance, earlier today on the Radio 4 programme, In Touch, there was a lively debate about consciousness between Roger Penrose and a doubting physicist. Penrose is one of the chaps, the other being Stuart Hameroff, who have suggested that there a structures in the brain called microtubules where electron tunneling occurs [across Gap Junctions] between microtubules in each of two adjacent neurons. These microtubules are connected to each other by Microtubule Associated Proteins (MAPs). With these structures in mind Roger Penrose and Stuart Hameroff propose that Consciousness involves a Planck scale Collapse of Quantum Superpositions that they call Orch OR. More info here. [innerx.net]

    Penrose claims that there can be no artificial intelligence due to the purely mechanistic workings of automata. He called for more research into consciousness as a bridge between the micro - quantum physics and the macroscopic everyday world.

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