
William Gibson Writes the Future - Thevet
http://www.gq.com/entertainment/books/201411/william-gibson
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stinkytaco
Gibson is an enigma for me and I don't necessarily look forward to his return
to sci-fi. He's a good writer and _Neuromancer_ is definitely a groundbreaking
work, but it doesn't age well. It reads like someone read a book about hacking
and then made a story of it. Gibson himself has admitted to being a bit of
technophobe and it shows in his work that he really doesn't understand
computer technology. It warrants comparison to Jules Verne.

It wouldn't be so bad if technology wasn't so central to his 80s and 90s sci-
fi titles. I feel like I'm in the minority here, but I like Gibson's worlds,
characters and stories, I just can't abide the details.

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aniro
The thing you find irritating is actually a strength of his writing, not a
fault.

Imagine if he had been more particular about the tech behind VR, how poorly
would the writing have aged then?

Instead he chose a set of workable metaphors to encapsulate the ideas and ran
with it. In the end succeeded in transmitting those ideas so thoroughly that
(arguably) the entire first round of VR (and thus the nascent 2nd) was largely
inspired by his writing.

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johnchristopher
I disagree.

In the sprawl trilogy, the big black character that gives the hero his mission
he's using a fax machine embedded in the seat of the cab where they first met.
A fax machine. That spit out paper with ink on it. It was already old tech and
weird when I first read the book 4 years after the published date.

In Dune, they are reading texts on ridulian crystal. When I read it in the
90's I thought "must be some kind of indestructible paper". Herbert didn't
describe the item which incidentally allowed the 2000's SciFi series to show
ridulian crystal as some kind of a very thin and intelligent screen reader.

Ridulian crystal will never age but FAX machine, e-mail[0], etc will and they
will pull you out of that suspension of disbelief state.

With that said, and for what it's worth, I prefer Gibson to Herbert and I
dislike made-up name such as `ridulian system`.

[0] But let's not get into __that__ debate.

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aniro
I think Herbert is much better at this than Gibson.

Gibson also uses proper names for everyday objects that severely date the
material (ie: Porsche sunglasses ), which has the same effect.

I guess we should be glad that he didn't give his characters Wireless Apple
Newton's for all their communication and research and entertainment. ;)

~~~
johnchristopher
Personally I prefer Gibson's stories and writing style to Herbert but that's
another story.

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chiph
Actually, I'm getting tired of the dystopian future that I see everywhere in
popular media. The only one that has even a hint of positivism is _The Hunger
Games_.

Why can't we have movies with the joy of discovery? The thrill of exploration
and invention? The future doesn't have to be bleak.

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ggreer
First, it's harder to write a compelling story in a utopia. The late Ian
Banks's Culture series does a good job of it, though most of the books deal
with the Culture's interaction with less-enlightened societies. After all,
that's where the action is.

Second, I'm not sure if media really is much bleaker than it was during say,
the cold war. The threat of nuclear annihilation permeates many stories from
that time. Moreover, many stories from the past (even rather optimistic ones)
contain blatant sexism and racism.

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MichaelGG
I'm half way through the Culture series, and it really is one of the most
uplifting things I've ever read. So much of everything he describes is just so
spot-on. It is not often I find science fiction that just sounds so plausible
and so _right_. Especially when it has been written more than a decade ago.
There's usually things that seem slightly out-of-date or plot-driven. Or
worse, grabs onto a current trend or fad. But Culture seems to nail it and
just makes you want to live there, no reservations. In fact, it's hard to stop
and realize we still have so many problems to solve.

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chiph
I've read the Culture series (Ian will be missed), and it certainly is very
utopia-like. But at the same time, you have to wonder if the Minds are
actually the ones in control. While most of the ships are on the up-and-up,
the ones that are members of Special Circumstances seem to be much more
pragmatic about achieving their desired results.

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personlurking
IMO, the last well-done dystopian films I saw, and I've seen a lot, were The
book of Eli and The Road. I think we need more big questions being looked at
in this space rather than pure entertainment pushes.

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l33tbro
Check out the South Korean/Western co-production 'Snowpiercer' \- a real gem.

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spiritplumber
If you like it, hop over to any abandonware site and play the game
Transarctica/Arctic Baron, which is essentially a RTS in the same setting.
Very clever mechanics, too.

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l33tbro
Very cool

