Daniel Robert Epstein: William Gibson

O_O
An interview with THEE Gibson?! Neromancer is my favorite bnook of all time... GAAAHH!

*faints*

i just wanna say thank you for this interview.
Gibson is my favorite author. I discovered Neuromancer when i was about 14 and i read it over and over and over. I now own every novel he's written that i know about (except for this new one) and i love that i can still read all of them over and over. I can't pick a favorite because the stories all get intertwined. every one has it's own unique story to tell, but also gives you a better understanding of what was going on in the others.
I read a lot, and i'll read just about anything i can get my hands on, but i always find my way back to Gibson. The story line always stays fresh and exciting no matter how many times i've read the books because there's so much going on in there. i catch something new every time.
actually, i just got out of the bathtub where i was reading the last chapter of "All Tomorrow's Parties". I signed on to SG, and there was Gibson. this has totally made my day. Thank you thank you thank you.

DRE: Great job! Quite a coup! Yeah, I have mirrored shades on my dresser.

holy shit. an interview with gibson on SG?? that just made my day. i looveee gibson. i just got the new book, and i haven't put it down since. i was going to go to his book tour in DC, but the DC signing was canceled because of the stupid snow.

My favorite fact about "Neuromancer" is that when Gibson wrote it, he knew next to nothing about computers. He wrote the novel on an old manual typewriter. I remember reading him saying once that after Neuromancer sold, he bought his first computer, and wasn't sure what to do with the floppy discs.

I'm kind of excited about a "Neuromancer" movie, because I love the book so much, but I'm afraid at this point, people who aren't as familiar with the book will see it and say "Eh, it's a ripoff of The Matrix." When it's probably closer to the opposite (though I love the Matrix too, but I wonder how much of that has to do with the fact that Carrie-Anne Moss runs around in black latex for so much of it.)

William Gibson is like... some kind of God... or something!

I've been hearing good things about this book, but this interview really makes me want to read it.

Link broken?

Respect. You got an interview with William Gibson. People are always surprised that he's this skinny, delicate looking fellow who doesn't actually know much about computers and the internet on any level deeper than everyday use. And that he had never been to Chiba prefecture before he turned it into the centre for black market cybernetic and wetware surgical enhancements.

And HE'S always surprised that they thought all this of him.

Now do some research and get us an interview with THE Robert Anton Wilson. Pretty please!

Yup big fan of his work, but unlike Idoru (no disrespect, this is purely a personal opinion and I still enjoy reading him) while I enjoy all the new concepts and gadgets he introduces in every story, I find that his actual characters are usually very similar in every story. Same stereotypes, same mission or goal and always some sort of violation of personal memory or cognition and always challenging human traits we think belong to just us humans by implanting them in machines and software.

Again, please interview Robert Anton Wilson!!!

great interview, gibson is an amazing storyteller, one of my favorite authors. i'm psyched to read the new book, now. and i second the call for a wilson interview!

Great interview. I wish he had gotten into a bit more of the talks about the Neuromancer movie. When I talked to him 7 years ago(or whenever Idoru came out), he seemed pretty pissed about the whole subject, and brushed me off. Looks like he did the same to DRE. Too bad.

excellent choice for an interview. he's in my home town tomorrow to do a reading and book signing.... i'm so excited! gibson rules

william gibson is cool.
i discovered him as he was a direct influence on u2/zoo t.v./zooropa/etc...

Awe-some
I'm ever suprised by how cool this cite is.
Gibson the master
Damn!
Lives in my home town.
Hah!

gibson (along with a few others) set me on the way i'm following to this day. much respect to him as a visionary, to DRE for the interview, and to SG for publishing this interview.

you guys made my day.

Neuromancer is one of my fave reads of all time, and you guys just keep affirming how damn NECESSARY SG is in our lives

Way to surprise me SG! I just finished the book, and couldn't
believe this interview was here. Is it an SG exclusive, or does
it live somewhere else as well?

As for the book, it was definitely good, his best since Virtual
Light, in my opinion. It seems to recycle some elements, but
the present setting gives it a unique feel.

Keep surprising me SG. Thanks for the stories, Mr. Gibson.

jimbabweta

Excellent article/interview. Gibson has long been one of my favorite authors -- Neuromancer, Burning Chrome, and Count Zero are still in the stack of books that I pick up and read chapters from on a regular basis.

When you interview William Gibson on a "porn" site, you really make a statement about the intelligence and artistry with which sexuality can (and should) be approached. Not that your interview with the legendary Mr. Gibson had anything to do with sex, of course, but my point stands.

Regarding Vastad's comments on the similarities in characterization from one Gibson novel to the next, I think you'll find that many writers who use fiction as a springboard for the exploration of abstract concepts (read: most pure science fiction writers) will exhibit similar repetitions. For example, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, widely considered one of the greatest novellists of all time, was quite well known for the similarities between characters in his various novels. Thing is, if your "goal" is to navigate and analyze the ramifications of a concept (in Gibson's case, this concept is the effect of the modern world upon our cognition, whether through the information age, advertising, or artificial humanity ), then it behooves you to make use of a number of characters who will approach your problem in archetypal ways. Hence, many characters will exhibit vast similarities to other characters who fulfilled the same role in one of your other books. Generally speaking, science fiction involves experimentation with a theory in a controlled (i.e., made-up) environment. In the language of scientific theory, the similar cast of characters from one novel to another constitutes a kind of control group for these thought experiments.

Of course, I don't mean to speak for Gibson here, but I've always been quick to forgive a certain shallowness of characterization in "hard" science fiction, if only because it seems not to be the point of the work. It would be like criticizing an impressionist landscape painter for the lack of detail in the faces and clothing of a picnicking couple that happen to inhabit a pastoral scene he paints.

Anyway, forgive my rant. I'm quitting smoking

And suicidegirls, thanks for this interview.

I appreciate the time and effort taken by twilightjack to defend Gibson's characters. I'm not THAT harsh on dear Gibson, I still love his books. I actually hold his short story collection (the one that included the orginal Johnny Mnemonic story) above Neuromancer. Hmmm....now that I think about it, probably because the format of the short story changes how a character will be created....

No...if I'm harsh on any particular author(s) for bland, annoying and unchanging stereotypes there's one - actually - TWO that come to mind. David Eddings and any fantasy novel which he works on with his wife Leigh. The characters that come out are really fucking annoying and their inter-character 'gender politics' chatter makes you want to shove nails in your ears.

read this interview a few days ago, bought the book, just finshed yesterday, beautiful.
thank you

Good job. I was always fascinated with Gibson's mind. I took a writing seminar with Joe Haldeman, and he talked about him a bit. It blows my mind that he wrote Neuromancer on a typewriter, knowing next to nothing about computers. I wonder if he managed to reverse cause and effect, somehow, defining aspects of human-technological systems that are only now beginning to emerge. Either way, thanks. Does Gibson hang out here, you think?

just finished my second reading of "the bridge/idoru trilogy"

i like the way gibson's writing style has evolved

a classic series

right up there with the dune books,

the first gibson "cyberspace/sprawl trilogy"

and the lord of the rings








[Edited on Jan 18, 2005 by zenhell]