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[felis_ultharus]

I finished Neuromancer. It's a little like reading Shakespeare or watching Casablanca for the first time -- it takes a moment to remember that the reason it seems so clichéd is because it invented the clichés.

It really astonishing how it's become a genre. I hear they're finally making a movie of it, although movies from Ghost in the Shell to The Matrix can already claim to be its parents, and Akira, Neon Genesis Evangelion, and Serial Experiments Lain can at least claim it as an aunt or uncle.

Ghost in the Shell is the most faithful adaptation, though. It really does have all the necessary elements.

It was a marvellous novel. It's easy to forget how primitive computing was in 1983, and you factor in that Gibson was a draft-dodging hippie with and arts degree and no background in science. The man who coined the term "cyberspace" didn't even have an internet connection until the last few years.

While we're on the topic of science-fiction, here's a great list of quotes found in the game Alpha Centauri.

Some are real-world quotes, but many of the ones invented for the game so perfectly encapsulate the viewpoints of the six ideologies fighting for control of the world in that game (Green Democracy, Secular Humanism, Christian Fundamentalism, Laissez-Faire Capitalism, Spartan Militarism, and Fascism) that they put some of the best real-world politicial punditry to shame.

Comments

[metawidget]

I remember reading Neuromancer and finding it very clichéd until I realized that it happened first, too :)

[felis-ultharus.livejournal.com]

I've only ever had that sense before with Casablanca and Shakespeare :)

It's astonishing how fast Gibson invented a genre, though probably not as astonishing as the speed with which the technology at the core of his books has gone from being unthinkable to indispensible.

[jenjoou.livejournal.com]

I still need to finish neuromancer. I started it and then got too busy to finish it and haven't gotten back to it yet. I really should.

Alpha Centauri is probably my favorite computer game. I've played through it so many times (usually as the Gaians mainly because I like the philosophy but also because I like attacking my enemies with hordes of mind worms ^_^).

[felis-ultharus.livejournal.com]

It's worthwhile -- though I would've have liked a little more exposition before the end. Some things were confusing, and -- while cleared up -- it actually did take away a little of the enjoyment from the book.

But that's a small caveat in a very big recommendation.

The Gaians are my prefered ones, too. I kept trying to picture their cities, tried to draw them too but I have no visual-arts skills. The idea of an organic, grown city is appealing, and the pictures of the trees-with-fungus buildings are intriguing.