Patti Mnemonic

[ingria (Robert J Ingria)]

This past weekend I was at Readercon, a science fiction and general
imaginative literature con.  The writer Guest of Honor was supposed to
be William Gibson.  Unfortunately, owing to a death in the family, he
could not attend.  However, as was appropriate for the man who coined
the term ``cyberspace'', he did have a ``virtual presence'': con-goers
could Fax him questions and he would Fax back answers in return.  (He
also participated on one panel via Fax.)

Now the relevance of this to babel-list lies in Gibson's answer to the
following question, which I submitted, under one of my personae:

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Was Molly Millions at all influenced by Mary from _Naked
Lunch_?  (Mary claimed to have learned "supersonic judo from
a lesbian Zen monk in Chicago".  Supersonic Judo sounds an
awful [lot] like Molly's style.)

---Vovi

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Dear Vovi:

Molly Millions was most directly
inspired by Patti Smith, circa
HORSES, and Chrissy Hynde's photo
on the very first Pretenders
album.  But WSB is in there
somewhere.

WM

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For those of you who don't know Gibson's work, Molly Millions is a
character who appears in several of his stories: in the short story
(but not the film version) ``Johnny Mnemonic'', and in the novels
_Neuromancer_ and _Mona Lisa Overdrive_.  She is a bodyguard and a
fighter and has had herself jacked up with various cyber implants
(including embedded mirror shades).  It's interesting to picture her
as looking like Patti.

-30-
Bob Ingria