Just in case you missed the May 28th issue of The Orange County Register (the what?), here's a mini-interview with William Gibson.
Stephen Lynch: Is your fiction cautionary?
Gibson: I think of that as being a very American question. One thing I noticed was that by and large -- until Virtual Light where I was deliberately trying to strike a comic note -- reviewers didn't realize that I was sometimes trying to be very funny. Which is not to say I'm not trying to be very serious at the same time. Whereas European reviewers said, "Neuromancer, oh wonderful black humor." Is it cautionary? Is it satrirical? I don't know. I think it changes from page to page.
Are you suprised that it has taken 15 years for one of your works to be made into a film?
There have been various Gibson projects which made it to the development shelf and stuck there. I had pretty much given up on it when Robert Longo turned up and we clicked. His initial concept was that this was a $1 million black-and-whit art film. We couldn't find anyone to fund it so someone advised Robert that he had to ask for much more money and then they would take him seriously.
What do you think of Keanu Reeves as Johnny?
He made the character coherent for me. One problem with casting Johnny, most readers would read it and say, "I just don't get this guy." And I'd say, "Actually, I don't either; he's kind of a cypher. I've never figured him out," and at that point, they'd leave. When Keanu showed up, he said pretty much the same thing, but said, "What if he's like this?" And I said, "Yeah," and really between the two of us we were able to figure out who he was. After he was on board I could adjust the script in any number of ways to bring out his interpretation of the character.
Is Johnny Mnemonic a parody of sci-fi films?
Well, sometimes we're setting ourselves up as being a little smarter-- knowing that you, the audience, is smarter.
Why do you like writing science fiction?
The beauty of writing this stuff -- if people are committed, as I am when I read this sort of book, of getting a real science fiction hit -- the reader's imagination takes over.
Why do you live in Canada?
One of the cool things about Canada is that I've never been able to figure out how to become Canadian. There's no melting pot. The official metaphor is the cultural mosaic, although it doesn't exactly spring to people's lips. You're not really expected to melt. You're suppose to come here, be polite and pay your taxes.
K.W. Jeter, Blade Runner 2: The Edge of Human. Bantam, 1995; 340 pp., $21.95
There are some projects that are just doomed from the outset. This sequel to the Blade Runner film is certainly one of them. One stands in awe at the sheer impudence of the idea. I was torn by an uncharitable desire to see Jeter fall on his face and a desperate hope that he might pull it off. BR2, you must understand, is not simply a continuation of the movie. It's a continuation of Phil Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. Actually it's suppose to resolve "the many discrepancies between the movie...and the novel upon which it was based." "Discrepancies" -- I love that! The two don't really overlap much. People argue about this still, I know. But, come on, beyond the bare bones of Phil's plot and the names of the characters how much of the book actually passed into the flick?
Jeter does roughly cram some of the novels odds and ends into his sequel. John Isadore makes an appearance to harangue poor Deckard about his ethics, a scene sure to confuse folks coming to this straight from the film. Decker is certainly confused by it. Me, too. It goes on forever and advances the plot not a whit. Other recognizable Dickian bits float in and out: opera, theological speculation, the space ship Salander 3. Phil's habit of advancing a plot by having his characters talk (and talk and talk) about what's going on is a major technique here. After awhile, though, Jeter drops any real attempt to reconcile the earlier novel with the film and just gets on with the new story. BR2 is a lot more like Jeter's own Death Arms than Do Androids Dream.
Just about everybody from the movie is back in the book. I know; you thought most of them were dead. Well, yes and no. It turns out that the replicants were all based on human individuals, called "templants". The Rachael templant, Sarah Tyrell, brings Deckard back to LA to hunt down the "sixth replicant". Who this could be is the MacGuffin of the book. There also seems to be a conspiracy to kill all the blade runners by forces unknown. Ray Batty returns (templant or replicant?) as does Pris (replicant or human?) and Sebastian has become a Dickian inc (Dr. Bloodmoney, Deus Irae -- go look it up). The most suprising return is that of the "other blade runner", Dave Holden. He was in the movie all of two minutes but he becomes a major player here. I don't want to give away too much of the plot though, truly, there isn't much of a plot. Essentially we get a series of chases/shoot-em-ups interrupted by long, plodding conversations. There is zero character development beyond the Dave Holden figure. There certainly are scenes in the novel that are visually arresting, such as the death train carrying defective replicants to the extermination camps. The retrofitted Los Angeles that made the movie such a pop cultural success is not much used here. Most of the tale unfolds in industrial wastelands and abandoned suburban ruins, familiar Jeter territories.
I don't think the book works but I sort of admire the attempt. At least the franchise owner, The Blade Runner Partnership, passed the project to an interesting writer. Jeter certainly wrestles with the material. For example, he tries to explain where the term blade runner comes from: "bleib ruhig", German for "stay quiet". Umm, it doesn't make much sense but at least he tried. A lesser writer would have just ignored the whole issue. A lesser writer would not have even tried to slip more Phil Dick back into his hijacked creation. I respect that, even if I think the try failed. Writing a sequel to the film was an impossible task. The movie is a straightjacket of conventions and images and attitudes that wont allow the free development of new ideas. Jeter can hardly say that the term blade runner has nothing to do with the story at all; it was just the whim of some script writer who thought that it sounded neat.
You might give BR2 a look for the bits and pieces (of Jeter and Phil) that dot the story. And because it was worth a try to see what would happen if there were ever a need for a sequel -- which there is not. And because Jeter is an interesting writer and deserves a chance. On the other hand, the dustjacket reveals that he is "working on the next Blade Runner book." I'm fairly sure that is inexcusable.
Cyborgs populate a cultural landscape in which the human body is increasingly the site of what might be called microplolitical power struggles between an information-rich, technocratic eliteand the information poor masses. Mark Dery
Obviously America has desperately embraced the cyber-boom as the only way out of its ongoing national decline - one area where they still lead the world. Jim McClellan
"There are lots of things that can destroy an artist. Alt.cyberpunk is No. 98." Bruce Sterling
"I would say that if commercial television is third grade heroin than the Net is capable of being third rate coke. It's exciting, but it's a third rate kind of excitement." Hakim Bey
So what's the future of the future? Will we look back with 20/20 hindsight in 2020 and realize that the word Internet is to the 90s what atomic was to the 50s? Probably. James Hannahan
This came off the Net some time ago and the author was inadvertedly deleted. (Note to author: contact CNS for future credit.)
1) NO "There's this big VIRTUAL REALITY thing... end of
story"
2) Gangs of hacker-thugs with cool street tech... end of
story"
3) A.I. , usually corrupt.... end of story"
4) An oppressive government... end of story"
5) Corporations run everything... end of story"
6) New GRIPE: Conspiracies; our hero knows who killed X or who
is planning to do irreperable harm to the human race.
7) Men in Black.
8) Long, pornographic descriptions of exactly how space
stations, etc. work including quantum calculations for gravity
control, ion scoops, etc...
9) Long dissertations on memes, media manipulation, any MONDO
rant transplanted as a big conversation in the middle of the
book.
10) A Molly/Linda Hamilton/Alien2 Hispanic Female bitch/killer
clone char.
11) BIGGEST GRIPE: A computer virus is inside your head.
12) The words cyber-, information superhighway, neurojacking,
jacking, infobahn, virtual reality, or anything else they do a
smarmy 15 minute piece on on the 6 o'clock news to look cool,
used inappropriately, to excess, etc.
13) The Japanese run everything.
NOTA BENE: This list of gripes is a list of things that piss me off if used as the ONE and ONLY foundation for a novel/story/book. Neuromancer was a human interest story that worked on several levels with assumed tech.
(Part 1 of this appeared in an issue of Interference on the Brain Screen. A combined and enhanced version is in development.)
1975
Microsoft founded
1977
Apple Computers founded (April)
Never Mind the Bullocks - Here's the Sex Pistols
released
1981
"The Gernsback Continuum " published in Universe 11
"True Names" published
1983
"Cyberpunk" by Bruce Bethke published in Amazing Science
Fiction Stories; this is, allegedly, the first use of the
term anywhere (Nov.)
1984
2600 begins publication
Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution published
VPL Research Inc. founded by Jason Lanier
Gardner Dozois, reviewing "hot new writers" for The Washington
Post, refers to a group called "cyberpunks". The name sticks
(Dec. 30)
1985
"Cyberpunk" panel convenes at the National SF Convention in
Austin. Panelists are Rudy Rucker, John Shirley, Bruce Sterling,
Lou Shiner, Pat Cadigan and Greg Bear
20 Minutes into the Future (aka Max Headroom) released
Donna Haraway's "A Cyborg Manifesto" published in Socialist
Review #80 (Apr.)
1986
Hardwired published
1988
In England, Max Dowhham's "Cyberpunk: the Final Solution"
published in Vague
Akira released
1989
Mondo 2000 begins publication
Neuromancer: The Graphic Novel published
The Cuckoo's Egg published
1990
Operation Sun Devil (May 7-9)
1991
U.S. intelligence agents reportedly cripple Iraqi air defense
computers with a virus during the Gulf War (Jan)
Storming the Reality Studio published
Synners published
Terminator 2 released
1992
The Hacker Crackdown published
Snow Crash published
Mondo 2000: A User's Guide to the New Edge published
Lawnmower Man released
Jaron Lanier loses his patents to his creditors (Nov)
1993
Wired begins publication
Virtual Light published
1995
Kevin Metnick arrested by the FBI for numerous computer crimes
(Feb. 15)
Johnny Mnemonic released (May 26)
K.W. Jetter publishes Blade Runner 2: The Edge of Human --
to the consternation of all (Oct.)