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Ensign_Ricky posted:Oh, and thank loving Christ the film adaptation of Neuromancer starring Hayden Goddamned Motherfucking Christensen as Case fell right the gently caress through. Well not really. Same director is attached and he's still doing it, just not with Hayden. Seeing this, I can now only see one actress as Molly:  (Olivia Wilde, duh) Oh, and since this was a leaked promo poster, I think they have the right idea about Armitage:  Brad Pitt? 
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Mar 17, 2014 23:43
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Olivia Wilde would definitely fit, but I really wish the Gina Carano was a better actress, just for the fight scenes. I cannot get enough of her. I can't picture Armitage having a giant Screaming Fist tattoo... does he have that in the book?
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Mar 18, 2014 00:01
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Snak posted:Olivia Wilde would definitely fit, but I really wish the Gina Carano was a better actress, just for the fight scenes. I cannot get enough of her. He does not. Wintermute pretty much rebuilt his whole body from the word go, afterall.
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Mar 18, 2014 08:06
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Ensign_Ricky posted:He does not. Wintermute pretty much rebuilt his whole body from the word go, afterall. That's why I couldn't picture it. According to my memory, Armitage might not even know he's Corto. I can't remember if there's a 3rd act reveal about it...
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Mar 18, 2014 15:03
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Snak posted:That's why I couldn't picture it. According to my memory, Armitage might not even know he's Corto. I can't remember if there's a 3rd act reveal about it... He doesn't. There is. Corto doesn't take it well when he resurfaces. In my opinion, Screaming Fist is a scifi rehash of the Son Tay prison raid, and the pow/mia issue in the 70s/80s.
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Mar 18, 2014 18:49
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For my money, Zero History is the best Gibson book. Because it's about pants. And drones. And it's the most science fiction thing that is set now and includes mostly things that exist right now that I've ever read. And Virtual Light is good too! I quite like the Bridge Trilogy, although it generally never reaches the heights of Virtual Light again.
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Apr 5, 2014 16:34
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I don't think I've ever known anyone who thought Virtual Light was the BEST book in the Bridge Trilogy. I remember being pretty bored by it, compared to the next two. I'll probably get around to re-reading it sometime, it's the only book of his I've only read once.
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Apr 5, 2014 17:52
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To me it's a lot more effective in setting up this world and these characters and the other two kind of feel like they're rehashing the same thing. It probably helps that I like the characters a lot more than the main two in Idoru.
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Apr 5, 2014 22:17
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Most of his books involve a lot of rehashing of older ideas. The sequels to Neuromancer were embarrassing to me, it seemed so juvenile. The Bridge trilogy sequels less so. He's got these flashy moments of inspiration that are pretty scintillating, but he's had a habit of recycling ideas just beyond where I appreciate it. Like incorporating Steely Dan song names or lyrics and eventually branching out to other bands' names, lyrics and song titles as well. There are places where it really works and places where it feels kinda tacky. But he had this knack for catchy words and phrases and the timing thereof, kind of hit-or-miss but still felt pretty good when it was working, such as a knack for poignantly-titled chapters. When I first played Half Life, I got this feeling vaguely reminiscent of that. "Forget about Freeman" isn't the best example but the only one off the top of my head. But a lot of my favorite artists are hit-or-miss and I once felt like any artist that has done nothing but 100% successes is probably propped up by a whole lot of something, most likely bullshit. So I'm kind of forgiving if I like at least some of an artist's work. And I think of Gibson as sort of a voice for my 'rustbelt refugee' demographic. I guess part of his gift and his personal fascination is that point where a meme becomes really catchy or really powerful. Sometimes he manages to do something pretty poetic, but other times he oversteps and takes it to where it becomes a cliche. Sometimes it apparently gets picked up by some science-fiction-readin' nerd that becomes a millionaire. For instance, of course, I don't think he actually invented the word "microsoft" but I doubt Microsoft was even up to Windows 1.0 when he first used the term in Neuromancer. Maybe somebody here knows the specifics on that one? I'm also curious whether the abortive Real Audio empire of the 90s got their name from him. He had a major media network named RealOne in the Bridge trilogy and I believe Real Audio did try to make that a Reality. Now, thankfully, the only people I can think of that use RealPlayer for anything is the BBC. And of course the whole 2nd Life thing or whatever it was called never caught on. Virtual reality isn't going to be a thing until 1) it gets a whole lot better and 2) actual reality gets a whole lot worse. Both of which I can see in the cards for our children. SnakePlissken fucked around with this message at 18:28 on Apr 6, 2014 |
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Apr 6, 2014 18:06
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Second Life was a lot closer to the VR in Snow Crash I thought, up to and including Snow Crash's prediction that everyone in a VR universe would immediately make their avatars into giant dicks and run around as such.
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Apr 8, 2014 17:01
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CNN Sports Ticker posted:For my money, Zero History is the best Gibson book. Because it's about pants. And drones. And it's the most science fiction thing that is set now and includes mostly things that exist right now that I've ever read. It's clearly far and away the best book, though I feel guilty saying it's better than Neuromancer. 
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Apr 15, 2014 03:24
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Maybe i should reread these books. 15 year old Cimber did not really understand them, but *cough* year old cimber probably get it a lot better now. But, how well does it age?
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Apr 15, 2014 03:42
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Cimber posted:Maybe i should reread these books. 15 year old Cimber did not really understand them, but *cough* year old cimber probably get it a lot better now. The books you liked aged better. Neuromancer aged well, I thought. The bridge trilogy, less well.
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Apr 15, 2014 04:16
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builds character posted:Neuromancer aged well, I thought. Actually it aged pretty badly in my opinion and you really have to look at it as a product of it's time.
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Apr 15, 2014 04:22
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Stravinsky posted:Actually it aged pretty badly in my opinion and you really have to look at it as a product of it's time. But I enjoy it as such. Actually I have the abridged audio version on mp3 and hearing young Gibson read it himself with young U2 doing a bit of the background music and all is a sweet little trip down memory lane for me. He sounds like he's baked.
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Apr 15, 2014 06:05
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I felt like the Bridge trilogy was less trying to be a 'possible' future and more trying to be an 'alternate' future if that makes sense.
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Apr 15, 2014 07:29
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I try to look at them less about how they age and more by the products of the questions they're engaging with. Sure, the potential futures in the early books are a lot less likely to how we see things now, but they're still very interesting possible futures. I will agree that the technology and how it's implemented in the early books seems pretty low tech these days, but I still like the idea of a lot of it.
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Apr 15, 2014 15:48
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Cimber posted:Maybe i should reread these books. 15 year old Cimber did not really understand them, but *cough* year old cimber probably get it a lot better now. Neuromancer aged incredibly well. I'd read Pattern Recognition soon since I think it's got a very short lifespan for peak effectiveness relative to his other works, though I think Zero History will hold up much better. Stravinsky posted:Actually it aged pretty badly in my opinion and you really have to look at it as a product of it's time. I think the reason it aged well is because it's the genre defining work of cyberpunk. The things that aged poorly (tapes as computer drives, big hulking desktop machines, future bits that never came to pass) are now kind of trope-y and not out of place as a work of genre fiction instead of futuristic foresight.
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Apr 15, 2014 18:14
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Which band do you imagine The Curfew from the Blue Ant trilogy sounding like?
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Apr 15, 2014 20:07
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CNN Sports Ticker posted:Which band do you imagine The Curfew from the Blue Ant trilogy sounding like? Siouxie and the Banshees, I think he may even have said that at some point.
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Apr 16, 2014 02:37
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CNN Sports Ticker posted:Which band do you imagine The Curfew from the Blue Ant trilogy sounding like? I always just went with Garbage.
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Apr 16, 2014 04:59
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CNN Sports Ticker posted:Which band do you imagine The Curfew from the Blue Ant trilogy sounding like? Obviously Blondie
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Apr 16, 2014 09:36
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Hell, maybe i'll dig out my front 242 and Skinny puppy tapes and give this a go again.
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Apr 16, 2014 12:23
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edit: ^^^^ Do it, Front 242 is literally perfect Gibson soundtrack  corn in the bible posted:Obviously Blondie Nah there's references to them being gothy, unless I'm just making up my own Gibson details now.
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Apr 16, 2014 12:30
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precision posted:I don't think I've ever known anyone who thought Virtual Light was the BEST book in the Bridge Trilogy. I remember being pretty bored by it, compared to the next two. I really, really enjoyed VIRTUAL LIGHT and was not really expecting to. I think I just really cared for the characters. I felt that they were endearing. I loved the Skinner/Yamazaki interactions, and I really like Berry. But Sublett, man, Sublett steals the show.
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Apr 17, 2014 12:26
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I like Berry a lot. I like the constant reminders that he's competent and knows some stuff but then he keeps coming up against people who are another level of competent and are actually scary or dangerous.
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Apr 17, 2014 15:49
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WAFFLEHOUND posted:The things that aged poorly (tapes as computer drives, big hulking desktop machines, future bits that never came to pass) are now kind of trope-y and not out of place as a work of genre fiction instead of futuristic foresight. Last time I read Neuromancer, which was a while ago now, I was more impressed by the amount of things he got right than the few things he missed.
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Apr 17, 2014 19:27
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I never really thought there were gonna be space rastafarians and I hope that hasn't disappointed too many readers.
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Apr 18, 2014 09:31
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SnakePlissken posted:I never really thought there were gonna be space rastafarians and I hope that hasn't disappointed too many readers. There's still time! I'm rereading it and the version has an intro by Gibson where he basically says, "So... cell phones. Did not see that coming. Ah, gently caress it, I love the pay phone scene."
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Apr 18, 2014 09:38
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Leospeare posted:There's still time! You're reminding me right now that in Resident Evil 2 there's a scene or two where Alice walks past a bank of payphones and they all ring once as she walks past them. Unrelated but anyway.
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Apr 18, 2014 10:37
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SnakePlissken posted:You're reminding me right now that in Resident Evil 2 there's a scene or two where Alice walks past a bank of payphones and they all ring once as she walks past them. Unrelated but anyway. It's worse than that, it's not a bank of payphones. They are in sequence, spread out, like every 50 feet.
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Apr 18, 2014 12:35
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CNN Sports Ticker posted:I felt like the Bridge trilogy was less trying to be a 'possible' future and more trying to be an 'alternate' future if that makes sense. I remember reading an article that went into how much of the Bridge trilogy was inspired by the idea of interstitial communities, which I read as a common thread in his work. The spaces that emerge as centers, nodes, and social axis around which the meta idea of 'humanity' expands. This is one of those bigger bleedthrough ideas that makes Gibson not just one of the most relevant "soft" sci-fi authors, but important authors in, the oh-so pretentious terming of, Speculative Fiction. The colonization of cyberspace in the Sprawl, the beehive of the Bridge, and the corporate appropriation of individual creative endeavours in Blue Ant, all still continue a very Capital "A" Anarchic thread in literary Cyberpunk. Worthy to note is the 2000 William Gibson documentary, No Maps for These Territories:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSnPa1mWgK0 Does a great job of conveying the momentum his perception of technology's transformation is, as the film is really one long interview with him in the backseat of a car talking about the world, but all in all a great insight into his framework. Trigger Warning: If you missed the zeitgeist of Bono being full of himself, you'll get a big dose of it here.
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Apr 20, 2014 16:00
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One of my favorite puns in science fiction was Gibson's friend Sterling doing the one on "the map is not the territory," to which the response was, upon finding a mic planted in the tablecloth, "the tap is not meritorious." If you like Gibson, read some Sterling maybe. Especially the shorts collections, oldest first, Distraction, five stars, and Heavy Weather, five stars. If Gibson deserves a thread, so does Sterling. Even if Prof. Sterling cashed out and got himself a University gig. I'm still rounding out my classic cyberpunk collection, currently reading "Sewer Gas & Electric" by Matt Ruff and vaguely planning on reading a bunch more Walter Jon, and John Kessel's "Corrupting Dr. Nice." Great stuff, all of it. Bonus, goons, "Sewer Gas & Electric" is dedicated to Ayn Rand.
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Apr 20, 2014 19:12
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CaptainCrunch posted:Having absolutely loved the Blue Ant trilogy (I love his other two, but this is my favorite of his work.) would anyone have any recommendations for other works that fit that "now, but maybe tomorrow, in the real world, but out on the socio-technological fringes" vibe that the Blue Ant books do so well? I keep re-reading those books to get my fix, but fall short when seeking new material. Try reading John Brunners Stand on Zanzibar, The Shockwave Rider and The Sheep Look Up. They were written in the 70s but are still amazingly relevant to modern life. Gibson, Sterling et al were all heavily influenced by him.
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Apr 20, 2014 21:15
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echomadman posted:Try reading John Brunners Stand on Zanzibar, The Shockwave Rider and The Sheep Look Up. They were written in the 70s but are still amazingly relevant to modern life. Love me some Brunner. Unrelated but I found a really cool book at a thrift about the grim reality of Edwardian England called "The Anti-Society." Looked it up online and found to my surprise that Gibson really loved it. Pretty awesome book. Highly recommend to any goon. SnakePlissken fucked around with this message at 02:13 on Apr 21, 2014 |
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Apr 21, 2014 02:10
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I loving loved the Sprawl trilogy, though its taking me a bit to warm up to his more recent books. I also second whoever recommended following his Twitter. He reposts some really cool stuff. Something about such a visionary author using a new wave of technology to post about new tech stories is really neat.
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Apr 21, 2014 06:15
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I'm reading Count Zero now for the first time after having read Neuromancer awhile back and then recently reread about 3/4 of it. Count Zero is amazing so far, and I think I actually like it better than Neuromancer. Gibson just makes everything feel so visceral. It's engrossing.
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Apr 23, 2014 15:13
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I think I'm the inverse in that I read Neuromancer/Mona Lisa Overdrive recently (couldn't find Count Zero) and I vastly prefer Pattern Recognition to either of them. Ignoring the obvious dating/'what Gibson invented has now become so adopted its cliche' criticism, Pattern Recognition feels like it has more room for characters, whereas all I can recall of Case is that he really liked the internet and Molly had knives in her fingers and sunglasses for eyes.
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Apr 23, 2014 17:16
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That's part of why I like Count Zero more than Neuromancer. I have not read any other Gibson yet, so I can't compare otherwise. Characters in Neuromancer were much more archetypal than in Count Zero and maybe more fetishized.
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Apr 23, 2014 17:21
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I'm reading Count Zero for the first time and really liking it. I haven't read prose like his before and I've seen some people rag on it but I'm really enjoying it.
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May 3, 2014 16:17
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