The Spot

I just visited William Gibson's blog for the first time, a move inspried by my ever-growing adoration for his books in general and Pattern Recognition in particular.

For those of you who are unaware, Gibson is my Woodstock. Well, something like that anyway. His novel, Neuromancer, was the first to win all three major sci-fi awards: the Hugo, the Nebula and the Philip K. Dick. It is also my favourite book of all time, bar none.

The best part about liking Gibson is that while I might genuinely believe that nothing will ever make me feel as charged and excited as I was when reading Neuromancer for the first time [a feeling only slightly diminished after the 20th reading], his other novels don't dissapoint. They live up to the hype, with various degrees of sucess.

Take Count Zero for instance. Jesse [McWaters] and I still quote random passages of that to each other. Entire paragraphs, even. A section of sky detached itself from the perfect bowl of the airport ceiling... [I think that's how it goes. I think I left my copy in Montreal, and have been hunting for a new one ever since].

I'm writing about all this because I think Gibson reveals a lot about me. I like reading / books / literature a lot. Why and how does he make such an impression?

I wonder if it has something to do with when the novel was published. I was just beginning to become aware in 1984, and I've notice that things (songs, images, even furniture) from that time evoke a disproportionately strong feeling of happiness. Edie Brickel and the New Bohemians make me happy, even when they're singing about junkies.

Anyway, all this adoration has led to some transference / attachment, of the variety usually reserved for music and video stars. I wonder if Gibson likes the Be Good Tanyas? I'll be he does, and if we ever met, he would like me too.
0 comments

Graphics and design by Ann Stretton ©2001