Quote:Cyberspace. A consensual hallucination experienced daily by billions of legitimate operators, in every nation, by children being taught mathematical concepts...A graphical representation of data abstracted from the banks of every computer in the human system. Unthinkable complexity. Lines of light ranged in the non-space of the mind, clusters and constellations of data. Like city lights, receding...--William Gibson, Neuromancer
--For better or worse William Gibson, after winning the Hugo and Nebula award 4 Nueromancer, was tagged w/the label: the father of "Cyber-Punk". You already get an ideal of what this genre, w/in a genre, is from the quote above. I immediately loved Nueromancer when I first read it in '92, and while movie versions r said 2 b in the works, no movie yet, really captures Gibson's vision. The best movie 2 do this so far is Blade Runner based on Philip K. Dick's Do Andriods Dream of Electric Sheep? U do get a "taste" of the "cyper punk" world and a character that comes close 2 Case (see Nueromancer mini-reviews below) in the movie Johnny Mnuemonic w/Keanu Reaves. And speaking of Reaves the best movie "loosely" based on the cyperpunk concept is, w/out a doubt The Matrix. 2 briefly describe the "cyber punk" world picture the near future, say 2050, where computer weapons, virtual worlds, international corporate hegemonies, drugs, some bio-engineering, weapons grafted in2 human arms & eyes, hackers that "spinal-tap" themselves directly in2 computers, goth, nilism, apathy and anarchy run wild. Whew! almost sounds like 2day! Well, u get the ideal.
Books by Gibson: Nueromancer Virtual Light Idouro Bruning Chrome Mona Lisa Overdrive The Difference Engine w/Bruce Sterling Count Zero Johnny Mnemonic All Tomorrow's Parties (taken from a Velvet Underground song)
Movies adapted or loosely based on Gibson's visions: Johnny Mnemonic-Keanu Reeves Virtual Reality-Russell Crowe, Denzel Washington New Rose Hotel-Christopher Walken, Wilhelm DaFoe The Martrix-Keanu Reeves, Samuel L. Jackson The Thirteenth Floor Tron A, fairly, good Cyber Punk primer: Nueromancer & Count Zero-William Gibson Islands in the Net-Bruce Sterling The Diamond Age & Snowcrash-Neal Stephenson The Otherland series-Tad Williams Hardwired-Walter Jon Williams Green Eyes-Lucius Shephard
Other authors: Tom Maddox, Rudy Rucker, John Shirley, Eric Nyland
Gibson media contributions: wrote screenplay 4 Aliens 3 wrote 2 episodes of the X-Files w/Tom Maddox: "Kill Switch" & "First Person Shooter"
Books by Gibson that I have read & recommend: Nueromancer Count Zero The Difference Engine Burning Chome (I have heard many "iffy reviews" about Mona Lisa Overdrive, so b careful!)
Mini reviews of Nueromancer "borrowed" from All Sci-Fi.com:
A young computer genius named Case got too greedy doing a job for an ex-employer, when caught, they destroyed his nervous system leaving him to die a slow death, until a new employer recruits him. This new artificial intelligence has what Case needs, that is his health in order to go on living. When he joins forces with a mirror-eyed girl street-samurai, everything changes and the story becomes increasingly chilly. The social conditions, the mentality and the level of intelligence sets the tone for the book's compelling and riveting themes." linda d'amico, Resident William Gibson Scholar
"A burnt-out hacker and a streetwise badgirl attempt to outwit a psychotic artificial intelligence. Origin of "cyberspace" and font of all cyberpunk, for better or worse." Adam Greenfield, Resident William Gibson Scholar
"Neuromancer. A book written in 1982 that to this day is a better cyberspace read than most others. From the opening paragraph, i still get chills, 'The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.'." steven brown, Resident William Gibson Scholar
warning: many "cyper-punk" books move at hyperkinentic, breakneck speed so fasten ur seatbelt!!"
How far do you fall Pilot?<i>Edited by: danlo60 at: 2/11/04 2:12 pm </i>
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