Reading Neuromancer for the first time in 2025 • Hacker News Board

Re: Reading Neuromancer for the first time in 2025

#321

Post by jwrallie » Sun, Jul 13, 2025, 10:47 PM UTC

mindcrime wrote: post #42

Interesting article. As somebody who is an unapologetic, raging Neuromancer fan, it's always fun to read about someone experiencing the book for the first time. The one nitpick I have about the article is just this: But even by 1984, dead channels were a thing of the past: 24-hour news had been around since 1980, and MTV had been alive and kicking since 1981 OK, while cable and 24-hour news were indeed around by 1984…

Agreed, I was born in 1989 and remember it, so it was a thing even 10 years later. Dead channels only truly died after digital TV became the standard.

Re: Reading Neuromancer for the first time in 2025

#322

Post by throwaway328 » Sun, Jul 13, 2025, 10:49 PM UTC

archermarks wrote: post #178

throwaway328 wrote: post #167

I recently stumbled upon Michael Moorcock, by explicitly looking for fantasy authors with "anarchist" (in the original, European sense, not the crypto-bro sense) tendencies. Read an essay, watched a few interviews, will be reading a few books, basically I'm all the better for it. Seems very interesting. I might as well ask here - are there equivalents for sci-fi and/or for cyberpunk? I get that there's a pervading se…

Ursula K Leguin, 100%. The Dispossessed is about an anarchist society. Might also check out Kim Stanley Robinson and Kameron Hurley.

The Dispossessed was great! I wanted to read something by Ursula K. Le Guin for ages, and then happened to be staying in a friend's house where that book happened to be on a bookshelf. So I'd the happy experience of just giving it a go, knowing nothing. And it was very good.

Hadn't heard of either of the other two authors though - thank you for sharing!

Re: Reading Neuromancer for the first time in 2025

#323

Post by throwaway328 » Sun, Jul 13, 2025, 10:54 PM UTC

johngossman wrote: post #175

throwaway328 wrote: post #167

I recently stumbled upon Michael Moorcock, by explicitly looking for fantasy authors with "anarchist" (in the original, European sense, not the crypto-bro sense) tendencies. Read an essay, watched a few interviews, will be reading a few books, basically I'm all the better for it. Seems very interesting. I might as well ask here - are there equivalents for sci-fi and/or for cyberpunk? I get that there's a pervading se…

Alan Moore identifies as an anarchist (and is friends with Moorcock iirc). Warren Ellis also comes to mind. Yes, both work primarily in comics, but of the highest order.

I've read one or two of Moore's things. Only very recently saw Transmetropolitan described somewhere as the best depiction of neoliberalism anywhere. Will definitely try something from Ellis soon then, thanks!

Re: Reading Neuromancer for the first time in 2025

#324

Post by VladVladikoff » Sun, Jul 13, 2025, 10:56 PM UTC

daremon wrote: post #107

I had the opposite experience with Neuromancer. I read it too many times! Sorry for the long post (translated by GPT as it was originally in Greek). In September 1993, I started my final year of high school in Greece, aiming to study Computer Science. A girl I barely knew heard I was into computers and handed me Neuromancer, the 1989 Greek edition. I still have it. I already loved science fiction, though my reading h…

>I married the girl who gave me the book, we had kids

:)

>but eventually we divorced 29 years later.

:(

>Still friends.

:)

Re: Reading Neuromancer for the first time in 2025

#325

Post by totetsu » Sun, Jul 13, 2025, 11:00 PM UTC

ninetyninenine wrote: post #186

ecocentrik wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eh, that is a take but hetero normative sex still sells lots of porn subscriptions today and depictions of queer sex in media only feel novel because it was so heavily disallowed in the past. Whereas hetero normative sex hardly appears in movies or tv anymore because it's boring to watch actors pretending to have sex when you can see the real thing effortlessly.

The other factor both of you are failing to see is that the majority of males are hetero normative and don't like watching sword fighting. This is not an outdated take but factual reality. There is nothing wrong with the alternative, but depicting only "hetero-normative" stuff is the statistical norm back then and even now. It's absolutely the right thing to do to legitimize "non-hetero-normative" in the same way lef…

I didn’t even mean about sword fighting.. it’s just descriptions of women characters and the way the male characters talk about their lusty passions is soo boring.

Re: Reading Neuromancer for the first time in 2025

#326

Post by throwaway328 » Sun, Jul 13, 2025, 11:20 PM UTC

kenoath69 wrote: post #57

I want to recommend Vernor Vinge's books to anyone looking for some new sci-fi... I've read A Deepness in the Sky and A Fire upon the Deep. They were exemplary to the kind of logical structure of SciFi and made some relevant predictions which I won't spoil. The guy was a professor of computer science (RIP)

"True names and the opening of the cyberspace frontier" is a very nice edition with essays (Tim May's is very good) plus the novella of True Names, worth checking out!

Re: Reading Neuromancer for the first time in 2025

#327

Post by gm678 » Sun, Jul 13, 2025, 11:20 PM UTC

It's rather besides the point of the essay, but the comment about "ask[ing] a deliberately stupid question, one that might annoy [the subject] just enough to elicit an interesting response" made me realize I had never considered that difficulty of interviewing when reading transcripts, and reminds me to be a bit more charitable to interviewers.

Re: Reading Neuromancer for the first time in 2025

#328

Post by throwaway328 » Sun, Jul 13, 2025, 11:20 PM UTC

samsartor wrote: post #59

kenoath69 wrote: post #57

I want to recommend Vernor Vinge's books to anyone looking for some new sci-fi... I've read A Deepness in the Sky and A Fire upon the Deep. They were exemplary to the kind of logical structure of SciFi and made some relevant predictions which I won't spoil. The guy was a professor of computer science (RIP)

Deepness in the Sky is one of my favorite books of all time! Fire Upon the Deep is a serious let-down by comparison, but the wolves are a cool concept. As I've gotten older I've realized that I have very little in common with Vinge philosophically. But he was a person who thought very deeply, and it shows.

Any essays or articles in particular you're thinking of in relation to his philosophy?

Re: Reading Neuromancer for the first time in 2025

#329

Post by folkrav » Sun, Jul 13, 2025, 11:21 PM UTC

I should try and give that book another chance… I couldn’t get past the first couple of chapters, as I found the French (France) translation I had borrowed to be extremely annoying to read as a Quebec French speaker. I’d describe myself as fully bilingual, but I’m apparently still not good enough to really appreciate the nuances in writing style.

Re: Reading Neuromancer for the first time in 2025

#330

Post by mjevans » Sun, Jul 13, 2025, 11:35 PM UTC

nradov wrote: post #269

KineticLensman wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you try to extrapolate current tech 50 years into the future, you'll probably get it wrong and people reading your books during the time it's set in will think it quaint. I'm now rereading old SF that I first read 40-to-50 years ago. I don't think I've found a single example where an SF author actually got tech right.

The scene in Neuromancer involving a row of pay phones in the airport seems kind of hilarious today.

It would honestly be nice if airports had 'phone booths' like I've seen in high tech companies. Think 1 person sized meeting rooms in larger spaces. One door on the pod opens, there's a seat and a small desk inside. Enough to make a mostly private phone call.

In a public setting there should also be things like a panic / duress button. A simple lock (that only local security can bypass). Maybe an internal phone line of some sort. Possibly a wired connection to the net DMZ.

I hesitate to add a timer, because _sometimes_ people have real travel troubles while at the airport and need an extended duration to take care of that. Such nuances might not fit within the context of E.G. a 20 min max timer.