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So I'm re-reading all the Gibson novels... I sort of petered out last time, and although I kept buying them I stopped reading them around about "Virtual Light". So this time I'm plowing through.
And I'm getting a LOT more out of them. First of all, it's DISTURBING to see just how right he was about the direction of technology. I mean REALLY right in an unsettling kind of way. With a lot of science fiction, when you read it 20 years later you have to chuckle and force yourself to ignore the fact that we're already past that - Asimov writes about the year 2010 and people being unreachable because they're not near a phone... *ahem*
But not Gibson. He just plain got it RIGHT. Transdermal delivery of drugs (legal and illegal), pervasive cell phone use, bioengineering, the ridiculous rise of corporate power - and the increasing helplessness of government to curtail it - the staggering change in morals and attitudes that comes with rampant increases in technology.
What staggers me is the increasing sense of identification that I have with some of the characters. They look at a young, hotshot cyber cowboy and say "can you even read?" There's just this phenomenal disconnect between the learned and the masses, that is growing every year. How many 18 year olds can give you even the most rudimentary idea of how a cell phone works? Or a computer? Or, heaven help us, a television? The growing disconnect between the people that make technology happen and the people that use it... is a fascinating, if somewhat frustrating, topic.
And Gibson just GETS it. Or rather, GOT it - since the first few of his books were written in the early 80's! In much science-fiction, you have a hard time separating the science... from the fiction. In Gibson's world, you immediately identify with the characters. They aren't biochemical engineers. They aren't software designers. They're average people living in an increasingly technological, dirty, unfriendly world.
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Not to mention, the man INVENTED cyberspace.
Ok, rant mode off. Just thought I'd share.
And I'm getting a LOT more out of them. First of all, it's DISTURBING to see just how right he was about the direction of technology. I mean REALLY right in an unsettling kind of way. With a lot of science fiction, when you read it 20 years later you have to chuckle and force yourself to ignore the fact that we're already past that - Asimov writes about the year 2010 and people being unreachable because they're not near a phone... *ahem*
But not Gibson. He just plain got it RIGHT. Transdermal delivery of drugs (legal and illegal), pervasive cell phone use, bioengineering, the ridiculous rise of corporate power - and the increasing helplessness of government to curtail it - the staggering change in morals and attitudes that comes with rampant increases in technology.
What staggers me is the increasing sense of identification that I have with some of the characters. They look at a young, hotshot cyber cowboy and say "can you even read?" There's just this phenomenal disconnect between the learned and the masses, that is growing every year. How many 18 year olds can give you even the most rudimentary idea of how a cell phone works? Or a computer? Or, heaven help us, a television? The growing disconnect between the people that make technology happen and the people that use it... is a fascinating, if somewhat frustrating, topic.
And Gibson just GETS it. Or rather, GOT it - since the first few of his books were written in the early 80's! In much science-fiction, you have a hard time separating the science... from the fiction. In Gibson's world, you immediately identify with the characters. They aren't biochemical engineers. They aren't software designers. They're average people living in an increasingly technological, dirty, unfriendly world.
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Not to mention, the man INVENTED cyberspace.
Ok, rant mode off. Just thought I'd share.
Thanks Gurmie for reminding me...
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