tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2513019539869706574.post1849089893358603216..comments2024-03-29T06:16:21.012+08:00Comments on Monsters and Manuals: The Seaside Town that They Forgot to Bomb: On Psychic Distance and Victims of the NewUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2513019539869706574.post-35114780199515862902016-02-21T09:45:39.370+08:002016-02-21T09:45:39.370+08:00I live in Akron. We bleed rust here. Flint Michig...I live in Akron. We bleed rust here. Flint Michigan or Manchester, England, the rust belt is the rust belt. There is a dissolute sort of decaying civilization you either get or do not. We are the modern luddites, not wwite grasping why the world has passes us by. However, we will rage against the change. Gort's Friendhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08684913847135419951noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2513019539869706574.post-80191784807497424332016-02-19T06:43:55.004+08:002016-02-19T06:43:55.004+08:00True. The Black Cyber-pearl is not a story I'...True. <i>The Black Cyber-pearl</i> is not a story I'm dying to read. ;ptrollsmythhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01895349218958093151noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2513019539869706574.post-40911700863539383132016-02-18T20:21:34.259+08:002016-02-18T20:21:34.259+08:00A friend of mine is working on exactly this kind o...A friend of mine is working on exactly this kind of setting - working title is "Rural Impressionist Hard/Soft Cyberpunk Transhuman Outlaws": http://www.thecbg.org/index.php?PHPSESSID=801f7e264ad2361a8a1ac6193fa786ba&topic=210282.0Bearded-Devilhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16415023478845579936noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2513019539869706574.post-32276116570352671842016-02-18T04:31:21.680+08:002016-02-18T04:31:21.680+08:00Red Star, Winter Orbit feels fairly cyberpunk to m...Red Star, Winter Orbit feels fairly cyberpunk to me. The military space complex adapted into something strange and new by people on the fringes of society... Richard Balmerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11859724233379453584noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2513019539869706574.post-54923211191637199592016-02-17T21:24:36.519+08:002016-02-17T21:24:36.519+08:00Neat insights about psychic distance here.
I hav...Neat insights about psychic distance here. <br /><br />I have to contest that Gibson's brand of cyberpunk was just as concerned with big cities, though; the genre didn't shift into an urban focus, it started there. The Sprawl Trilogy was set in, well, the Sprawl: the Boston-Atlanta Metropolitan Axis, a vision of big-city expansion that left no room for small towns all across the eastern United States.<br /><br />I agree that exploring the left-behind rural areas outside the megacities in a cyberpunk setting could be fascinating. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2513019539869706574.post-10814100957385160562016-02-17T20:49:39.664+08:002016-02-17T20:49:39.664+08:00"I'd love to read a William Gibson-penned..."I'd love to read a William Gibson-penned space opera."<br /><br />Try Blake's 7. (And it certainly seems strange for an American to recommend that to an Englishman.)Jay Duggerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10181402451119462976noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2513019539869706574.post-40793549510817319302016-02-17T20:21:31.819+08:002016-02-17T20:21:31.819+08:00Yes, "The Winter Market" is also great -...Yes, "The Winter Market" is also great - and really disturbing in its own way. Almost like body horror. <br /><br />It's funny, thinking about it, how many of the stories in that collection aren't really cyberpunk at all. "Red Star, Winter Orbit" and "Hinterlands" are straight SF, "The Belonging Kind" is sort of playful SF-fantasy, and "The Gernsback Continuum" is kind of a postmodern take on the SF genre. I'd love to read a William Gibson-penned space opera. noismshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09933436762608669966noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2513019539869706574.post-55013639980905696762016-02-17T19:20:25.296+08:002016-02-17T19:20:25.296+08:00Hinterlands really, really wowed me when I read it...Hinterlands really, really wowed me when I read it back in the late 90s. And I agree, it's not really a cyberpunk tale, it's straight-up SF. To me, it fulfils something Philip K Dick wrote about good SF being about 'conceptual shock' - there's a real awe and (better than) Lovecraftian terror in that story. My other favourite from that collection is 'The Winter Market', which is much more cyberpunk. It contains a similar 'artificial consciousness is inherently terrifying' vibe as 'Neuromancer', but in much more condensed form, and also really carries that cyberpunk 'farewell to the flesh' vibe.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01624102953631910102noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2513019539869706574.post-3440485394199044582016-02-17T17:53:30.672+08:002016-02-17T17:53:30.672+08:00Yeah, Dogfight is a brilliant story. My personal f...Yeah, Dogfight is a brilliant story. My personal favourite is Hinterlands, although it's by no means really a cyberpunk story.<br /><br />A friend of mine has an obsession with the Byker Wall. The project seems a bit hare-brained to me, like a lot of what went on in architecture in the 60s and 70s. Part of the reason why so many Northern towns and cities are so bleak is that they look bloody awful. noismshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09933436762608669966noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2513019539869706574.post-30863976333759626352016-02-17T17:41:37.327+08:002016-02-17T17:41:37.327+08:00Well, I think he was specifically talking about th...Well, I think he was specifically talking about the stories in Burning Chrome, but I take your point - the characters are more like what I mention in this post: the anti-heroes of the new. People who refuse to be victims. Which is the stuff of interesting fiction.noismshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09933436762608669966noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2513019539869706574.post-56406902470992426282016-02-17T13:26:56.678+08:002016-02-17T13:26:56.678+08:00This made me remember a South Bank show about The ...This made me remember a South Bank show about The Smiths that showed Manchester in the 80s that described The city as still being post-war, at best mid 70's, rather than what the media would have us believe the 80s was like.'Dogfight' is my favourite Gibson story, so I agree about Burning Chrome. When there's nothing out there for you, it comes down to grasping at little hollow victories to make some mark on the world, scrawling your name on a bus shelter. <br /> At one point, living in the Byker Wall was as futuristic as life in the North East could be. I got as far as Teesside Poly.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2513019539869706574.post-74934463359576356662016-02-17T12:11:04.700+08:002016-02-17T12:11:04.700+08:00The older I get, the more I realize I will end up ...The older I get, the more I realize I will end up as one of the victims of the new. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2513019539869706574.post-68796307599110652016-02-17T10:37:25.480+08:002016-02-17T10:37:25.480+08:00Full props to Sterling, a loony with amazing insig...Full props to Sterling, a loony with amazing insights, but I always disagreed with his "victims of the new" thing. Johnny Mnemonic, Count Zero, and Case aren't left behind by "the New." They're just small fish trying to swim among the sharks. But they're not the sort who've been left behind by the changes around them. They're doing their best to game the system for themselves, and they've embraced the vibe of the times. But the times are harsh like "the old days, the bad days, the all-or-nothing days" and those who strive for the big score are likely to end up missing the brass ring and falling into a pit of active chainsaws for their trouble. :Ptrollsmythhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01895349218958093151noreply@blogger.com