Well kidz, once again we are in for a treat. There is a new William Gibson book, Spook Country, on the horizon and I can’t wait. Pattern Recognition was such a prescient look at media, I’m always curious to see what Gibson’s imagination conjures from the global pop ethers. For his new book, Gibson posted segments on his blog for feedback. Whereas Neuromancer was made on a typewriter, he is actually is now getting caught up with current technology and incorporating it into his process. (BTW, his initial inspiration for “cyberspace” was simple arcade video games of the early ’80s variety.)
digital digs: William Gibson’s Spook Country:
The promise of Spook Country as a kind of continutation of Pattern Recognition makes me happy as I thought his last novel was one of his best. It was a decided departure from the more speculative/futuristic content of his earlier work in that it is set in the present and, as Gibson says in the interview, explores the cultural changes in the U.S. since 9/11.
That said, it shares a common theme in exploring the intersection of technology and politics. As Gibson notes, technology is very rarely legislated into existence. That obviously shouldn’t be taken to mean technology emerges in apolitical spaces. However it does mean that technological development can disrupt political order, a very Marxian observation, I would think.
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