I was just wondering if anyone else has read or reads Cyberpunk? Or has read "Neuromancer" by William Gibson or anything by Bruce Sterling? I just had to put it in here as everyone seems to be trekkied, or X-philed but there misses an element that only certain people seem to fill. <HR> Stryderunknown
Perhaps I should extend my list to the realms of Cyberpunk Manga, so what of Ghost in the Shell? Could a consciousness live... And do you think they will ever get to the point of a sequel with such a high quality as its original story line? Will the puppet master return as a singularity, or the new combined cyborg emerse herself in a new plot from information that Section 6 let slip?
To be honest, I'm unwilling to speculate. I'm happy to just wait and see. On the subject of cyberpunk in general. Gibson's sprawl trilogy is, to my mind, still unsurpassed. After they came out, I read what seem to be hundreds of crappy ripoffs, all unimaginative. I also disliked Gibson's subsequent books; Idoru in particular. Authors I would recommend: Pat Cadigan, Bruce Sterling, Linda Nagata. Nagata is a nanotech writer rather than cyberpunk per se, but I reckon it qualifies. The Bohr Maker is a great book.
I agree that Idoru wasn't that good. Certain portions were okay like the idea of a Quantist watching over particular Simstim celeb's but the sotry wasn't his most imaginative. I know that when the book was published the website that accompanied it sat their with nothing on it. Perhaps he knew it wasn't his best, but people shouldn't get too disheartened. I suppose it's a bit like how people see the newer Star wars, as once upon atime those films were cutting edge and the only film to be made that year, and now adays people are use to those sorts of films being pumped out within a few months. So perhaps the world is just catching up with Gibsons prophetisisms, so what imaginative streaks he might write, become tainted at what we see nowadays. I did wonder about a few things, for instance their has been rumours for the past Two years of a Neuromancer film, of course I haven't seen anything materialise, most information points at the rescripting not being to Gibson's liking but I have no proof of that. Of course I would prefer to think that he's waiting for the correct media, or special effects or idea. I looked at two possibilities... 1) Neuromancer is created like Final Fantasy was, That would capture my imagination and I'm sure it would others too. 2) A Neuromancer is created into a Series first, I thought of this one, it could work, building up some following, afterall some people tire of Star Trek and others have never read a Gibson book. Perhaps that's the answer. As for other books, Well I do have a few of Bruce Sterlings, I read one or two of the short stories from "Global Head", to tell you the truth I've built up an expansive collection of Gibson and Sterling but haven't even started to read them yet. (I think I should get some glasses or something first hehe) I will keep an eye out for books by the people you have mentioned, Knowing me I'll probably buy as many as I find and stock... I'll go blind before I read them all. I did once find a Audio version of Neuromancer read by Gibson, admittedly on the net. That's a good way of hearing it, straight from the author, you can then tell how he wanted his characters portrayed. I found this Gibson site once that I liked http://www.8op.com/gibson/en/, I got hooked into playing the DOS Neuromancer Game. (Which is based on a mixture of Burning Chrome/Johnny Mneumonic/Neuromancer)
Yeah, read the Gibson trilogy and got seriously hooked on the whole cyberpunk thing.. Mind you that was back then when it was new and fresh. Strange that nobody could recreate the vibe of it in the movies until Matrix showed up eons later Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! (hey this is my first post here!!)
The technology wasn't really available until relatively recently. When neuromancer was written (on a manual typewriter - I still find that fact cool) CGI was distinctly, well, tron-like. And Captain Sheridan notwithstanding, it's not a film I'm eager to watch again. It gives me headaches. Actually, now that I think of it, I wouldn't class the Matrix in the same category as Neuromancer. It looked cool and it involved computers, but thematically, whey were radically different. We're still waiting for a good cyberpunk movie. Well posted. Keep agreeing with me and we'll get on fine.
Oh by the way. Has anybody seen "Johnny Mnemonic" lately? Keanu dumped his childhood memories to be able to store 40gigs of data in his brain Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Admittedly the Johnny Mneumonic Film was different from the original Short story titled the same name but found within the Burning Chrome selection. Some people actually prefered the book (including myself) because the film doesn't exactly follow the same track. As well as the film did add a few pieces in and missed such things out like "The Killing Floor" that Molly and the Lo-Teks "danced" on. Johnny actually gets mentioned in "Neuromancer" by Molly, since Molly became "assigned" to Case. Anybody got a Cyberspace Seven?
