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The thing you find irritating is actually a strength of his writing, not a fault. Imagine if he had been more particular about the tech behind VR, how poorly w
by aniro 12y ago
The thing you find irritating is actually a strength of his writing, not a fault.
Imagine if he had been more particular about the tech behind VR, how poorly would the writing have aged then?
Instead he chose a set of workable metaphors to encapsulate the ideas and ran with it. In the end succeeded in transmitting those ideas so thoroughly that (arguably) the entire first round of VR (and thus the nascent 2nd) was largely inspired by his writing.
- johnchristopher 12y agoI disagree. In the sprawl trilogy, the big black character that gives the hero his mission he's using a fax machine embedded in the seat of the cab where they first met. A fax machine. That spit out paper with ink on it. It was already old tech and weird when I first read the book 4 years after the published date. In Dune, they are reading texts on ridulian crystal. When I read it in the 90's I thought "must be some kind of indestructible paper". Herbert didn't describe the item which incidentally allowed the 2000's SciFi series to show ridulian crystal as some kind of a very thin and intelligent screen reader. Ridulian crystal will never age but FAX machine, e-mail[0], etc will and they will pull you out of that suspension of disbelief state. With that said, and for what it's worth, I prefer Gibson to Herbert and I dislike made-up name such as `ridulian system`. [0] But let's not get into __that__ debate.
- aniro 12y agoI think Herbert is much better at this than Gibson. Gibson also uses proper names for everyday objects that severely date the material (ie: Porsche sunglasses ), which has the same effect. I guess we should be glad that he didn't give his characters Wireless Apple Newton's for all their communication and research and entertainment. ;)
- johnchristopher 12y agoPersonally I prefer Gibson's stories and writing style to Herbert but that's another story.
- jp 12y agoFax and email as services does not really age. They are simply integrated as servers, messaging applications and printers. A VCR is now Netflix minus the record button. Byproducts of the underlying network topography, storage options and short term legal agreements. A future without fax is a service restriction, not modernity.
- johnchristopher 12y agoYou are missing the point. The __words__ `FAX and email` in fiction (especially Sci-Fi) are at a much higher risk to age and disappear or seem anachronistic than `ridulian crystal` wich has zero chance of ever getting old since it's a made-up word that can refer to any imaginary artifacts or underlying tech. > A VCR is now Netflix minus the record button. And `ridulian crystal` can be FAX, e-mail, Netflix, kindle and VCR and the next tech whenever you read the book or see a screen adaptation and it won't get old. It's never going to put you back in the real world old where VCR and Faxes are basically dead and unknown by today's teenagers.
- vampirechicken 12y agoMy favorite Neuromancer Time/Tech signpost is when the narrator mentions that the protagonist Case has a couple of Megs of hot ram he's looking to fence. I absolutely love this, because it worked at the time, but it seems horribly antiquated now for those of us surfing on the wave of progress described by Moore's Law.
- vithlani 12y agoAntiquated? Nah...he forgot to mention it was L1 cache :)