Reading Report: William Gibson
On Wednesday night, I went with my son and his girlfriend (who I just met) to a reading-with-book-signing by William Gibson, one of my favorite authors. I’ve read his novels Neuromancer, Count Zero, Mona Lisa Overdrive, Virtual Light, Idoru, and The Difference Engine (co- with Bruce Sterling), as well as his short stories in the Burning Chrome collection. Virtual Light is one of my all-time favorite books: I own it on cassette and re-listen to it about once a year. I also name most of my computers Wintermute, after his AI character in Neuromancer. So, yeah, I’m a fan.
The event was in the Coolidge Theater in Brookline, an old-fashioned theater with some style and elegance, not like the mall movie theaters of today, which look like they were extruded out of sheet aluminum. He’s a tall, slender guy, obviously both shy and mild-mannered. He looks like someone you might see feeding the birds in the park, or leafing through old magazines on the quiet sidelines of a party. He does not look like someone who has co-founded the cyberpunk and steampunk literary genres, won multiple Hugo and Nebula awards, and written blistering and violent science fiction. You never can tell.
His subjects are the near future, the interaction of lowlifes and high-tech, obsession, and people dealing with the dueling worlds of technology and economic disappointment. He has an amazing gift for creating deft phrases, strung gems of words. He shows us the world not by lecture, but by its effects on his characters. Think Steinbeck with cybernetic implants.
At the event on Wednesday, he read two excerpts from his recent book of published essays, then took questions from the audience. He reads his material in a measured, soft manner, as if reciting nursery rhymes to sleepy children. But the material itself is wild and attention-grabbing. The world speeding toward post-nationalism. The Japanese knack for always being a few steps ahead as early adopters. Obsession in the multi-national search for a perfect drain stopper. Schoolgirls constantly texting. The accelerating cult of celebrity. New hermits who live in their rooms, interact only in cyberspace (a term he coined), and buy their necessaries out of vending machines. As my son observed, there’s lots of humor in his work, but it probably comes across better when you read it than when it’s read to you.
The questions from the audience elicited more humor. I was amazed to witness that this superbly talented writer didn’t talk about writing at all. He talked about the world and the futures he observes and creates. He’s like a sociologist or archeologist in advance, sifting relics of what the world will become.
Someone asked him an apt question about what new technologies he thought were significant. Now, this is a guy who chronicles – or invents – technologies for his books. Technology is almost a main character in his stories. He regards technology as what moves society forward, more than ideology, religion, or biology. So his answer was surprising. “I’m not interested in technology as much as I’m interested in what people do with technology. I like to watch.” He made the point that people seize, twist, and manipulate technology beyond what the creators of the technology ever envision. Just think of how people personalize their cars, which supposedly exist for transportation. Who knows where people will take the technology that’s available to them now and in the future?
To me, this gives a hopeful spin on what can sometimes seem a bleak and dystopic future. As much as technology affects us, we will affect technology back. Maybe it’s the hand that’s important, and not the pointy rock it’s holding.
This is part of a series run by Brookline Booksmith:
http://www.brooklinebooksmith.com/events/mainevent.html
Some of them are free. Others, like this one, cost $5. Some big names coming up, like Jodi Picoult.
On Wednesday night, I went with my son and his girlfriend (who I just met) to a reading-with-book-signing by William Gibson, one of my favorite authors. I’ve read his novels Neuromancer, Count Zero, Mona Lisa Overdrive, Virtual Light, Idoru, and The Difference Engine (co- with Bruce Sterling), as well as his short stories in the Burning Chrome collection. Virtual Light is one of my all-time favorite books: I own it on cassette and re-listen to it about once a year. I also name most of my computers Wintermute, after his AI character in Neuromancer. So, yeah, I’m a fan.
The event was in the Coolidge Theater in Brookline, an old-fashioned theater with some style and elegance, not like the mall movie theaters of today, which look like they were extruded out of sheet aluminum. He’s a tall, slender guy, obviously both shy and mild-mannered. He looks like someone you might see feeding the birds in the park, or leafing through old magazines on the quiet sidelines of a party. He does not look like someone who has co-founded the cyberpunk and steampunk literary genres, won multiple Hugo and Nebula awards, and written blistering and violent science fiction. You never can tell.
His subjects are the near future, the interaction of lowlifes and high-tech, obsession, and people dealing with the dueling worlds of technology and economic disappointment. He has an amazing gift for creating deft phrases, strung gems of words. He shows us the world not by lecture, but by its effects on his characters. Think Steinbeck with cybernetic implants.
At the event on Wednesday, he read two excerpts from his recent book of published essays, then took questions from the audience. He reads his material in a measured, soft manner, as if reciting nursery rhymes to sleepy children. But the material itself is wild and attention-grabbing. The world speeding toward post-nationalism. The Japanese knack for always being a few steps ahead as early adopters. Obsession in the multi-national search for a perfect drain stopper. Schoolgirls constantly texting. The accelerating cult of celebrity. New hermits who live in their rooms, interact only in cyberspace (a term he coined), and buy their necessaries out of vending machines. As my son observed, there’s lots of humor in his work, but it probably comes across better when you read it than when it’s read to you.
The questions from the audience elicited more humor. I was amazed to witness that this superbly talented writer didn’t talk about writing at all. He talked about the world and the futures he observes and creates. He’s like a sociologist or archeologist in advance, sifting relics of what the world will become.
Someone asked him an apt question about what new technologies he thought were significant. Now, this is a guy who chronicles – or invents – technologies for his books. Technology is almost a main character in his stories. He regards technology as what moves society forward, more than ideology, religion, or biology. So his answer was surprising. “I’m not interested in technology as much as I’m interested in what people do with technology. I like to watch.” He made the point that people seize, twist, and manipulate technology beyond what the creators of the technology ever envision. Just think of how people personalize their cars, which supposedly exist for transportation. Who knows where people will take the technology that’s available to them now and in the future?
To me, this gives a hopeful spin on what can sometimes seem a bleak and dystopic future. As much as technology affects us, we will affect technology back. Maybe it’s the hand that’s important, and not the pointy rock it’s holding.
This is part of a series run by Brookline Booksmith:
http://www.brooklinebooksmith.com/events/mainevent.html
Some of them are free. Others, like this one, cost $5. Some big names coming up, like Jodi Picoult.
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