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The writing is beautiful, but I think Neuromancer has failed to capture a modern audience due to some of the stylistic choices Gibson makes (I’m not necessarily
by nimithryn 5y ago
The writing is beautiful, but I think Neuromancer has failed to capture a modern audience due to some of the stylistic choices Gibson makes (I’m not necessarily arguing they are bad decisions - I personally enjoyed the style - although I think one could argue that).
For instance, Gibson frequently skips exposition, and he delivers the narrative with a disconnected, stream-of-consciousness feel that is meant to evoke the sense of disconnection when “channel-hopping” or digging through large amounts of information on the internet. Combined with the frenetic pace of the story it can be confusing if the reader isn’t paying close attention. I’ll add that this was also Gibson’s first novel.
Compare to Snow Crash, which has a pulpier writing style (it was original envisioned as a graphic novel) or even The Matrix, which has a tight narrative. Those are more accessible to a mainstream audience.
Edit: formatting
- bpiche 5y agoI have to disagree, Snow Crash is interminably long, like most of Stephenson's books. Neuromancer's whole Ocean's 11 Straylight run job is a very clean story. edit: A lot of Gibson's stream of consciousness writing style can be attributed to the effect of beat writers like Burroughs on him. It's unique but it's also an intentional stylistic decision. Not really an attempt to capture the aesthetics of logging into the net. And as you may know, Snow Crash may seem pulpier but Gibson grew up on pulp like Edgar Rice Burroughs and it affected his work a bit.
- nimithryn 5y agoTo each his own, but I don’t think the length of the book has anything to do with the clarity of the narrative. And I’m definitely not arguing that Stephenson writes novels that are less confusing than Gibson in general (I liked Anathem! But cmon) I’m just arguing that the style in Snow Crash spells out what’s going on more literally than in Neuromancer.
- bpiche 5y agoI'm not using this reply to agree or disagree, I just want to share this piece of internet archeology with you. If you're interested in comparing and contrasting great cyberpunk authors, the esteemed Rudy Rucker himself did this in an interview with punk-cyber legend R U Sirius (of R U A Cyberpunk? meme fame) on his blog back in the day https://www.acceler8or.com/2012/02/cyberpunk-sfmathematics-legend-rudy-ruckers-nested-scrolls-an-interview/ https://www.acceler8or.com/2012/02/cyberpunk-sfmathematics-l...
- nimithryn 5y agoThe comparison with the Beats is interesting (I know next to nothing about the Beats). Thanks for sharing!
- d13 5y agoYes, Gibson came out of 60’s counter culture and was his style is a kind of like a pop version of William Burroughs - a writer who, in the late 70s and early 80s had an enormous and overreaching influence on younger writers. As an interesting aside, There’s an old Canadian documentary film about Rochdale and the hippie scene in Toronto, shot around 1970, that, by pure chance, features a very young William Gibson well before he had published anything - I stumbled across this by chance in the York University film archives about 30 years ago - no idea if it’s available anywhere online and may no longer exist anymore.
- smiley1437 5y agoI remember having just read Neuromancer and in the same month happened to watch that exact documentary with Gibson a nobody wandering around in Toronto
- TheOtherHobbes 5y agoThe Peripheral is even more spare. I didn't struggle with his other books, but the minimalism started getting a little too much there. It allows him to disguise a literal plot device, which is a nice twist. But overall I thought it was heavy going compared to the Neuromancer trilogy.
- pmoriarty 5y agoI found Snow Crash to be really childish, and not even in the same league as Neuromancer. I read Neuromancer originally in 1984 and again a few years ago, and for me it still holds up. It's not the greatest book or anything, and I found Count Zero to be much better, but apart from those two books I've yet to read anything else cyberpunkish that comes even remotely close. Before someone mentions Greg Egan or Vernor Vinge, as they have elsewhere in the thread, I read a lot by these authors and didn't like them either. Way too dry, boring, and unimaginative for me. I know some people love them, but they're just not for me.
- walrus01 5y agoSnow Crash is in many places meant to be intentionally silly and absurdist as an extrapolated, exaggerated satire on contemporary American lifestyle at the time it was written, such as in the users manual for the "Reason" railgun
- jhbadger 5y agoAnd it is pretty obviously referring to 1992 current events. To modern readers L. Bob Rife is just a funny villain, but he was obviously a parody of 1992 outsider US Presidential Candidate H. Ross Perot.
- nonesuchluck 5y agoOh. To this modern reader, L. Bob Rife was just an obvious parody of L. Ron Hubbard. But he wasn't a Texan, so I suppose I see your angle. Interesting bit of flavor.
- urthor 5y agoSnow Crash is childish, that's why it's more successful. Snow Crash is built around an airport novel style narrative. Neuromancer has a far more literary tone, and is trickier to digest. That's the entire reason Snow Crash is cited. Airport novel readership is far more widespread.