The Future Is Dead - and so is Cyberpunk, and Sci-Fi
not really - but it looks cool as a title.
I was sitting here, reading William Gibson's rarely updated blog (I remembered he had one only because I was looking for his tour schedule) and a post caught my attention.
And it explained to me exactly why I didn't like Pattern Recognition the first time around (understanding this I will probably like it on the second time around). It's set in the wrong time.
His blog post poins out what a Whole Bunch of people I know (all of us alt.cyberpunk verterans of the 90s and beyond) know - Science Fiction is about the present, set in the future.
Cyberpunk Novels: especially those written from 1980-1990 are about the 1980s, that they're set in the future is almost a matter of narrative accident. But this applies to most any Sci-Fi, especially any Sci-Fi making a comment on society. 1984 was not about the future, it was about the escalating Cold War. McCarthy was Big Brother made flesh - the fucker.
Pattern Recognition is set in 2002 specifically - which is not a future for it, actually a year in the past from publication. And there in I disconnected a little bit because I invariable missed the fucking point. Even if I knew what the point was it went sailing past.... airhorn blaring and signal flares shooting off.
Took me long enough to figure it the fuck out. I got stuck in the whole "but in the present..." because I knew it was set in 2002 and I had lived in 2002 and I knew what was up... I was paying entirely too much attention to myself. I have the hardback sitting around, I think I even bought PR on the US release date. I remember being excited, almost giddy.
And then I remember falling asleep. There were two problems: I failed to connect with the main character (marketing research bores the shit out of me) and I failed to understand why 2002 was important and relevant to the future of cyberpunk. Actually, 2002 wasn't important to much of anything except it helped get us from 2001 to 2003. It's important because PR is as much about the first decade of the 2000s as Neuromancer was about the 1980s. Neuromancer just had the fortune of being set in the 2030s and it made up a few things. PR should be able to make shit up too - it's Fiction.
cyberpunk has fuck all to do with the future, even the near future. and that's why I lost interest in it, because it become about the near-future (and guns, god help us with the guns...)
Inception is one of the single most Cyberpunk movies ever put to film. And it is set in the present, with one interesting little hitch to change it to Fiction.
I just have to remember to suspend reality more often. It's not that important to anything.
I was sitting here, reading William Gibson's rarely updated blog (I remembered he had one only because I was looking for his tour schedule) and a post caught my attention.
And it explained to me exactly why I didn't like Pattern Recognition the first time around (understanding this I will probably like it on the second time around). It's set in the wrong time.
His blog post poins out what a Whole Bunch of people I know (all of us alt.cyberpunk verterans of the 90s and beyond) know - Science Fiction is about the present, set in the future.
Cyberpunk Novels: especially those written from 1980-1990 are about the 1980s, that they're set in the future is almost a matter of narrative accident. But this applies to most any Sci-Fi, especially any Sci-Fi making a comment on society. 1984 was not about the future, it was about the escalating Cold War. McCarthy was Big Brother made flesh - the fucker.
Pattern Recognition is set in 2002 specifically - which is not a future for it, actually a year in the past from publication. And there in I disconnected a little bit because I invariable missed the fucking point. Even if I knew what the point was it went sailing past.... airhorn blaring and signal flares shooting off.
Took me long enough to figure it the fuck out. I got stuck in the whole "but in the present..." because I knew it was set in 2002 and I had lived in 2002 and I knew what was up... I was paying entirely too much attention to myself. I have the hardback sitting around, I think I even bought PR on the US release date. I remember being excited, almost giddy.
And then I remember falling asleep. There were two problems: I failed to connect with the main character (marketing research bores the shit out of me) and I failed to understand why 2002 was important and relevant to the future of cyberpunk. Actually, 2002 wasn't important to much of anything except it helped get us from 2001 to 2003. It's important because PR is as much about the first decade of the 2000s as Neuromancer was about the 1980s. Neuromancer just had the fortune of being set in the 2030s and it made up a few things. PR should be able to make shit up too - it's Fiction.
cyberpunk has fuck all to do with the future, even the near future. and that's why I lost interest in it, because it become about the near-future (and guns, god help us with the guns...)
Inception is one of the single most Cyberpunk movies ever put to film. And it is set in the present, with one interesting little hitch to change it to Fiction.
I just have to remember to suspend reality more often. It's not that important to anything.