What does /lit/ think about William Gibson?
technically unremarkable
sort of good at being visionary
johnny mnemonic is a clever idea
his essay about singapore was spot on
pretty cool dude all around
>>8188040
the cyberpunk turned out to be different than he imagined
>>8188057
Was he claiming to be writing an accurate portrayal of the future in the first place?
>>8188040
i liked the sprawl trilogy and his short stories, but i stopped following him on twitter after i realized he was a bit of a twat irl.
>>8188569
Why's that?
>>8188654
overly political.
His books are good. He's an ideas guy more than anything, but he does have a genuine talent for atmosphere.
His personality is unfortunately very capitulating and he makes some retarded lefty statements sometimes.
But I don't think politics touches his books much at all
neuromancer and count zero were fantastic. he's a great stylist and i'm eager to read more from him.
Went downhill since Neuromancer.
His most recent work, The Peripheral, is totally different from his earlier work save the style, and yet I still loved it, so I guess I would say his style is compelling for me; his philosophy of imbuing his stories with brief sidetracks into "liminal" experiences fascinates me, as I feel it does much for his verisimilitude.
The Bridge Trilogy is phenomenal cyberpunk and, though he personally would deny it (since I had the opportunity to ask him point blank once), I still think it was his first attempt to come to grips with the idea of the Singularity.
The "modern" trilogy after that, for lack of a better word, is unfortunate because it is informed by his politics and lends some of his characters a context which removes you from the plot and back into the real world too much. However, the trilogy remains stunning as a reimagining of SF very important to the digital era (the notion of past future particularly). The trilogy ends on a maddeningly intriguing note that I am still processing. Spook Country is the weakest of this series.
>>8188040
Not as prettyvas Mel.
>>8188040
His script to Alien 3 was boring.
>>8188662
Good
>>8188057
>imagined
>predicted
two different things. Besides, we're not even at that level of futurism yet.
>>8188057
Shut the fuck up pseud
With the exception of his collaborative works I've read every book Gibson ever wrote , and so-far got the impression he's only deteriorated as a writer. He doesn’t seem all that interested in the actual characters or overall workings of the world but rather in the small details of his technology.
The Sprawl trilogy trilogy, for it nominal faults is actually enjoyable if only for it's futuristic hacker fantasy. But its probably the most grounded Gibson has ever been and even then Count Zero's wannabe hacker protagonist is flat and too wish-fulfily.
The bridge trilogy starts strong with Virtual Light but Idoru and Parties had nothing going on in them. They were also the point where Gibson's habit of warping up every loose end in a single short chapter finally got annoying. It worked in the Sprawl because those were essentially noir stories so the sudden cut to black finisher actually worked. everywhere else it just feels hurried and out of place.
Pattern Recognition is, I shit you not, about a woman who is allergic to brands and brand names and works in advertising. . And has some of Gibson's worse writing to the point where large chunks of the story have no plot at all.
Still The Peripheral was alright tho …. and had clever bits in it so it's not all a waste of time.
(written on phone so excuse the spelling mistakes )
>>8190633
here here
you should withstand strong opinions better, especially when they are not even fully serious, can i have a little fun too
>>8190668
PS: his early short stories are nice as well
>>8188113
>>8190633
>>8188040
The Sprawl trilogy is a GOAT-tier summertime read.
Pattern Recognition was begging for an early 2000's low budget made-for-TV-movie adaptation by some just barely inept art film director with a chip on his shoulder who would squeeze every little bit of abstraction past quality control and air it on some grainy channel 47 at two am or something
