William Gibson on his Tech Life and Latest Novel

An anonymous reader writes "The Philadelphia Inquirer is running a brief article on William Gibson. In it he discusses his tech life, the ad that inspired Neuromancer, and his latest book, Pattern Recognition. He says, 'Between my wife and daughter who still lives at home, I'm always the one with the slowest computer. I don't find that being really up on all the latest tech ever does me any good.'"

Comments

He used to blog..

[aurum42]

Gibson used to maintain a fairly interesting blog, but he quit to work on his "day job", which is really too bad - I like looking in on the lives of the writers I read, although it feels a little voyeuristic at times (and that's when I stop). It's fascinating seeing the creative process in action.

Re:He used to blog..

[metlin]

He gave a talk at Georgia Tech last week, and it was quite cool.

He actually explained why he had stopped blogging. He felt that when he had the "urge" to write or do something, the net is an easy outlet but not the best. Writing, on the other hand is a more organized and better outlet, and ofcourse has better benefits :)

I had also asked him about why he had ended Neuromancer in a way that almost killed all the characters (in terms of a future) -- and his response was something along the lines of, even if down the line I'm so broke that I want to write a sequel, I should not be able to, because it won't be the work of the moment. He said that he would ideally like to re-write Neuromancer, and felt bad about how he had not thought about cellphones and other common technologies being common in the real future :)

A really cool guy, and he really gave very proper answers for everything. And yes, he said his favourite book was Idoru.

And I strongly recommend reading Pattern Recognition to those of who who have not -- that book rocks!

Why won't my memory stick fit in my ear?

[Supp0rtLinux]

"I remember seeing posters for the small, semi-portable version of the Apple IIc".

Just goes to show what using an Apple can do for you. :) Rumor has it he has another book on the way... and one with a movie deal in the works. Maybe they'll pass on Keanu this time and get a real actor and his next book-based movie won't suck so bad.

Still working on how to get my new 512Mb USB 2.0 memory stick to interface with my brain.

The only thing necessary for Micro$oft to triumph is for a few good programmers to do nothing". North County Computers

Re:Why won't my memory stick fit in my ear?

[cmowire]

The problem is that the one movie that I'd *love* to see is Neuromancer. The rights to it sat unused in the eighties because of "Cabana Boys Productions" (who were actually 2 cabana boys) and, at this point, the non-initiated would just view it as a lame attempt to copy the Matrix.

Wait 50 years and we'll be able to do it like they do Jules Verne novels, I guess.

Otherwise, it's as he said, you can make a movie without actually buying any rights. And he's not famous enough, outside of certain communities, to sell on name recognition.

What gibson really is interested

[peripatetic_bum]

And what I wish Pattern Recognition was going to be about was the take over of the corporation. I think Gibson's real contribution in his neuromancer trilogy was the complete and utterly believeable and scary description of the "Corporation as the World".

When I re-read his stuff I am most impressed and awed by how clearly he was able to create a world in which the corporations ran everything and were god-like beings. I know this isnt new now but back in the 80's when Governments were the big powerhouses, saying that someone like Nike was more powerful than the US (say someone like Halliburton) was a bit of shock since we were seeing the US and Russia go at it from Gov't run models of economies.

Anyway, just pick up his early books and you can taste the corporations presence everywhere and how so soaked into the culture that no one is his books ever saw it.

Anyway, getting back to his more recent books, I miss the fact that he no longer seems to be fascinated by the corporations (his fascination with AI's was most explicit [ie the AI, as a real being, representing/being the corporation])
and he now is more of a Tipping Point type writer (much like Crichton, ie spot a trend and write about it )

Anyway, just my thought, would like to hear your replies

Not really...

[asklepius]

For one thing, language style used in speaking and writing are remarkably dissimilar. Second, depending on how you dictate, there can be quite a bit of extraneous sounds like ah, umm, like, etc. that can gum up the works. It may be more difficult to go back and edit what the SR software interpreted than typing from scratch.

The real tough thing to get used to is that when you write, you get realtime feedback for the text. When you use SR, it lags behind your voice, and even further behind your thought processes...it tends to trip you up.

I occasionaly use SR to dictate a draft of different documents, but I do so only if I can do it fairly seemlessly (no ummms) and I NEVER look at the screen. I bet Mr. Gibson's writing style just doesn't accomodate the workflow needed to effectively utilize SR. Just my $.02.

Re:Gibson is a Luddite, thought everyone knew this

[-tji]

In a previous interview with Gibson, he said he had no clue about computers when he wrote Neuromancer. He described his disappointment upon finally using a computer. He was expecting some magical star trek experience, instead he got slow, spinning floppy disks and cumbersome interfaces.

Re:Better than Gibson, IMO

[russotto]

Philip Jose Farmer wrote _Venus on the Half Shell_ as Kilgore Trout. Vonnegut gave him permission, but hasn't let anyone do a Trout book since.

Gibson should stick to what he doesn't know.

[rufusdufus]

I don't think I am alone among Gibson's fans in being of the opinion that the more hip the author became with tech, the less hip his writing became.

Although they are based on similar themes,
"Neuromancer" was a psechedelic ride through things unimagined before, "Pattern Recognition" is a familiar drab story about internet fanboys.

For Gibson, I say, write what you don't know, please!

Like Gibson? Read Vernor Vinge

[puzzled]

Gibson is great, so is Stephenson, but if you like either one of them you should branch out and read Vernor Vinge.

Vinge wrote True Names way back when - *the* seminal work for hacker culture.

That work alone would make the man's efforts worthwhile, but Across Realtime, A Fire On The Deep, and A Deepness In The Sky just completely blow that one out of the water.

If Gibson is working with his personal binoculars focused on the future, Vinge is doing the same thing using his own personal mental Hubble Telescope.

Stop clicking that mouse, get up, and get yourself to a bookstore RIGHT NOW!!!

Re:Blasphemy

[bigberk]

If you want some real futurism and mind-numbing conceptual sci-fi novels, try reading Philip K Dick.

I'm actually a fan of both Gibson and Philip K. Dick... check out The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldrich, this is a wild book and you don't hear too much about it.

10 years ago I chatted briefly with him...

[DerProfi]

at some lackluster book signing (can't even remember which book) he was attending at a store in Washington DC. I asked him to sign my copy with "Dear Stranger, Sorry I had this book printed in such a terrible typeface. It won't happen again, Thanks, WG" He got mock-defensive and I apologized profusely at which point he grinned and talked with me for several minutes about why he had selected what he called the "East Berlin Street Sign Font", most of which I proceeded to forget although I do remember that he mentioned something about having traveled there shortly after the wall came down. I doubt I'll ever come face-to-face with another well-known writer who's cool enough to talk to some random schmoe the way he did, so mad love to you, Bill! And there ends the one and only semi-namedropping post I could ever hope to make on Slashdot...

Oh, and he chose to sign my book with a simple "BAD TYPE! William Gibson".

Smart-ass...

PS, anyone checking out his oevre should definitely not miss his short stories