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William Gibson on Movies, Music, Media
automatic_jack writes "William Gibson gave a talk at the Directors' Guild of America's Digital Day last week. The text of it is up in his 'blog, and in it he says some intriguing things about the nature of the entertainment and media industries. There's a bit of a surprise conclusion at the end!"
Stop with all this blog (not a word, remember, kids?) nonsense, please, before it gets out of hand. The proper word is weblog. Thank you.
Maybe it's just the beer (Maudite from Unibroue; it's good; you should try it), but I thought that was nonsense. Bear with me as I try to figure out why.
So this is a guy who writes novels where computer nerds have superhero like powers and secretly control the world while battling against various non-computer nerds who also use computers to have superhero like powers. It's a feel good romp for people who society rejects and have very little real power. Sure, the world wouldn't function without us, but the very same thing applies to garbage collectors. I think that Scott Adams is the only one who views them as superheros. Maybe Gibson likes us better because we are more modern and have more money. I don't know...
Anyway, that really sets the scene for his vision of the future. Johnny X, his young protagonist, uses his computer to manipulate his entertainment world to completely fit his own vision. Johnny is obviously very computer literate in our 21st century-modern sense. On the other hand, he is portrayed as not knowing the computer backends that do all the heavy processing on his behalf. He'd probably have his computer generate him a set of wings so he could fly through cyberspace and land in Paris and give them a real taste of freedom, except that the audience is the MPAA, not George Bush.
Apparently this random building layers of abstraction to allow Johnny X his control over his movies and kung-fu Meryl Streep with dog head action figures is just what the MPAA has to look forward to. Embrace technology and you can continue to make lots of money by becoming increasingly absurd.
Gibson claims that this is derived from the ancient past where moving light came from fire. All interpretation was, umm, verbatim interpretation. There really isn't much story in a flickering flame. Now the story is there, well maybe, but you can definitely see the picture. Interpretation is kept to a minimum. Gibson wants to relate the future to his mystical past by claiming that we will have almost infinite interpretive power in the future.
Somehow, Gibson's vision seems increasingly irrelevant. I don't want dog heads on Meryl Streep; I remember my little brothers when they were eight. They didn't want that either. My nephew won't want that; when I have children they won't either. Gibson is spinning his story line that computers turn people into bizarre all-powerful superheros. Fundamentally though, we are still people. If I want to be entertained, I want to "be entertained." I don't want to make my own entertainment. I watch a movie to relax, not to think about how I could make it better. Guess what, editors reject most scripts because they are crap that not even the author could love if they were made. Seeing just a little of the crap that is made, that's saying a lot. The average Johnny X could do no better; my assertion is that the average computer nerd kid has even less intuition about creating compelling visual art than most.
So after reading that, I wish I hadn't because it was a waste of time.
in stringing the words together in the right order if the underlying thoughts are so banal. Unless the intention is to advertise that fact.
Better to be quiet and thought a fool, than speaking and confirming it.
Sorry if it sounds like flamebait, it isn't intended that way, but old WG just isn't that hot, IMHO...
Slashdot quality declines as the number of hot grits posts decreases. - Provolt's Law, Apr-09-2005