I was in the Japanese bookshop the other day, looking for a couple of books for Lime’s friend who majored in Japanese lit. That was a pretty odd experience… the girls who helped me spoke very little English, and I ended up saying, “New? Woman or man? Award? Okay!” and getting two books that way.
While I was there, I checked out their extremely decent little SF-section, when I noted that there was no William Gibson in the SF section. I found myself surprised, but only for a moment. I guess a lot of the allure of his Nipponese sf-fantasies is probably lost on people living in the real, actual Japan.
But here I am in a Japanese airport, connecting to what we really do call cyberspace nowadays, and I can’t help but think of old William Gibson.
And whoops, I am a dingle-head; I ought to have gotten my friend Marvin some of those comic books while I was in the shop… but the manga section was outright bewildering and I didn’t seem able to get much help. Something I’ve learned is that shopping for Japanese stuff is much easier online than in person.
Anyway, the boarding call seems to have been made since all the impatient Koreans are lined up. Guess I should fold up this little machine and get ready to board.
I haven’t read too many of his books, but did read Neuromancer for a Can-lit class at uni…awesome book.
Yeah, actually, I’ll confess that all I’ve read is Neuromancer. Some say that’s all one really needs to read from him, but I’m not so sure… from my boxes in Canada, I brought back Mona Lisa Overdrive and Virtual Light, and I’ve got Pattern Recognition and The Difference Engine waiting for a free week, too. I’m much more into Bruce Sterling, and starting to get into Rudy Rucker, too, but Gibson is the seminal cyberpunk in my mind, and I think there’s probably a lot to enjoy in those books he wrote after Neuromancer, even if he did kind of do everything in one fell swoop in his first novel.
Ah well. Read any other cyberpunks, sumiyoshi[…]? I seriously recommend Bruce Sterling’s Schismatrix and almost anything else by the man, too, and Rucker’s “ware” books are quite delightful.