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Reading Neuromancer for the first time in 2025

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Re: Reading Neuromancer for the first time in 2025

#141

Post by api »

reactordev wrote: post #125
macleginn wrote: post #50

One thing that I found remarkable about Gibson is how a-technical he was at the time: "When I wrote Neuromancer, I didn't know that computers had disc drives. Until last Christmas, I'd never had a computer; I couldn't afford one. When people started talking about them, I'd go to sleep. Then I went out and bought an Apple II on sale, took it home, set it up, and it started making this horrible sound like a farting toa…

Sometimes, ignorance is truly bliss. Imagine if he had known what was going on in there. It would have been a much different environment if he even would have the inspiration to write about it at all. Sometimes, a butterfly flaps its wings. Sometimes, it’s because someone didn’t know. And sometimes, the mystery is more intriguing than the actuality.

There's a phenomenon in engineering sometimes where an engineer, sometimes even an early career one, will do amazing things because "nobody told them it was hard" and/or nobody told them the "correct" way to do it.

Re: Reading Neuromancer for the first time in 2025

#142

Post by deadbabe »

macleginn wrote: post #50

One thing that I found remarkable about Gibson is how a-technical he was at the time: "When I wrote Neuromancer, I didn't know that computers had disc drives. Until last Christmas, I'd never had a computer; I couldn't afford one. When people started talking about them, I'd go to sleep. Then I went out and bought an Apple II on sale, took it home, set it up, and it started making this horrible sound like a farting toa…

Just goes to show, if you want to write romantically about something, it’s best to have little or no idea what you’re talking about, so that your imagination can take over. Shouldn’t be too hard for some people on hackernews, they do it everyday!

Re: Reading Neuromancer for the first time in 2025

#144

Post by navane »

anton-c wrote: post #89
loloquwowndueo wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What makes life so much more interesting today as compared to 50 years ago?

When's the last time you were bored? It's been ages for me. Too much going on all the time. Most people have an endless scroll one phone tap away. I was bored all the time in the 90s and early 2000s. I actively am trying to cut off the overstimulation though. I never used those types of phone apps but youtube and the net have endless content. I think if you searched you'd find other articles mentioning the lack of bo…

When's the last time you were bored? When's the last time you did something interesting?

Re: Reading Neuromancer for the first time in 2025

#145

Post by jszymborski »

KaiserPro wrote: post #121

Neuromancer was a much easier read to me than "A scanner darkly" I had the same trouble physically reading it as I did with a picture of dorian gray. (top tip, audiobooks totally made them easy and enjoyable to "read") I'm not a natural scifi-cyberpunk literature person. I want a good story, not spectacle. Neuromancer was a spanking good story. One thing that did stand out was this: Everywhere had memory foam mattres…

I'm by no means a quick reader and I devoured Neuromancer. I really had zero problem parsing the introduced words. Easier even than A Clockwork Orange.

My experience reading A Scanner Darkly was super painful. Switched to audiobook and quit quickly even then.

> I want a good story, not spectacle. Neuromancer was a spanking good story.

Agreed, but the prose are also so beautiful. This is not some garden variety pulp (not that there is anything wrong with pulp)

Re: Reading Neuromancer for the first time in 2025

#146

Post by throwup238 »

jfengel wrote: post #140
macleginn wrote: post #50

One thing that I found remarkable about Gibson is how a-technical he was at the time: "When I wrote Neuromancer, I didn't know that computers had disc drives. Until last Christmas, I'd never had a computer; I couldn't afford one. When people started talking about them, I'd go to sleep. Then I went out and bought an Apple II on sale, took it home, set it up, and it started making this horrible sound like a farting toa…

I find that very believable, since Neuromancer isn't at all about computers. The computers involved are little different from what you might have seen on Star Trek. They are story engines -- except for the ones that are really just people. This is not a negative. Sci fi is always about people.

> Sci fi is always about people.

I’ve heard it said (I’m sure someone can find the exact quote) that the best scifi is written when the author takes the world as it is, changes one thing, and extrapolates to the future.

Re: Reading Neuromancer for the first time in 2025

#147

Post by wpietri »

stevenwoo wrote: post #129
johngossman wrote: post #118

Somebody really should mention John Brunner. His "Stand on Zanzibar" and "The Sheep Look Up" predate Gibson and Sterling by a decade and both those authors have cited his influence on their works. I love Neuromancer but Zanzibar is also brilliant.

Zanzibar holds up as well or better than Neuromancer. I recently reread both and Molly having a clock in her eye inserts really dates that one bit in Neuromancer, the chyron like news updates in Zanzibar call to mind todays social media sound/video bites.

It has been a million years since I read Stand on Zanzibar, but that technique of giving a set of cultural snippets to paint a picture really stuck with me. These days I'll be reading news headlines or Reddit's front page and be struck by how easily I could compose one of those that would be perfect for a novel imagining our era.

And it turns out a lot of people apparently have these "curtains for Zoosha" moments:

https://infosec.exchange/@tychotithonus/114819416384262242

https://infosec.exchange/@cjust/114820379745453988

Re: Reading Neuromancer for the first time in 2025

#148

Post by isoprophlex »

KineticLensman wrote: post #102
isoprophlex wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I get where you are coming from but in my mind, when mutating into the dominant culture it loses vital, essential characteristics. Counterculture, modified by the relentless shameless drive to "make it", and the acceptance of operating within existing systems, is no longer a counterculture. My point being a question; did counterculture truly win or was it subsumed and perverted?

"And that, I think, was the handle - that sense of inevitable victory over the forces of old and evil. Not in any mean or military sense; we didn't need that. Our energy would simply prevail. We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave. So now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look west, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the…

Over the past ten-ish years I've often wondered what HST would make of our current society... not much good, I'm afraid.

Re: Reading Neuromancer for the first time in 2025

#149

Post by bradly »

jfengel wrote: post #140
macleginn wrote: post #50

One thing that I found remarkable about Gibson is how a-technical he was at the time: "When I wrote Neuromancer, I didn't know that computers had disc drives. Until last Christmas, I'd never had a computer; I couldn't afford one. When people started talking about them, I'd go to sleep. Then I went out and bought an Apple II on sale, took it home, set it up, and it started making this horrible sound like a farting toa…

I find that very believable, since Neuromancer isn't at all about computers. The computers involved are little different from what you might have seen on Star Trek. They are story engines -- except for the ones that are really just people. This is not a negative. Sci fi is always about people.

Similar situation with Abbott's Flatland fiction from the 1800's. No math/physics background, but a very interesting perspective on different dimensions from a humanistic point of view which helped others conceptualize these higher concepts in ways that at the time many felt impossible.
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