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egypturnashIt's eleven. Getting late.
I could dye my hair - it's faded nastily - but I'm a little greasy feeling. I should probably take a shower first. I can't decide.
Pattern Recognition is an interesting book. Although Gibson reveals his technological disconnectedness in subtle, but glaring ways now and then. I have to wonder if anyone has been inspired by his descriptions of The Footage.
Tangents with his previous work: The lead character is named Cayce. Pronounced "Case". Yes, like the down-on-his luck console cowboy. She's on a quest to find the anonymous creator of a mysterious sequence of art, like Marly in Count Zero. Said artist is almost, but not quite, as inhuman as the shadowbox-maker was. An offhand reference to Cornell appears, too. I wasn't looking for these tangents at all; they leapt out at me. There are other parallels I can draw off the top of my head; more would surely leap out if I went back and re-read his older work. Is he repeating himself? I haven't quite decided.
Gibson's writing is much sparer in this than he previous work. He's stepped out from under the shadow of Chandler now. Some passages are haiku-like in their careful, tiny crafting. It's not the "packed prose" favored by the Movement, back before "cyberpunk" was coined - that was hammered together with great effort, staying together only under pressure; the sentences in this book are assembled from exquisitely-cut parts, fitting together like the expensive watches Gibson loves. And I think that with that sentence, I have lost the lingering sense of his authorial voice.
I should dye my hair. And decide precisely what question I will ask the cards later on.
I could dye my hair - it's faded nastily - but I'm a little greasy feeling. I should probably take a shower first. I can't decide.
Pattern Recognition is an interesting book. Although Gibson reveals his technological disconnectedness in subtle, but glaring ways now and then. I have to wonder if anyone has been inspired by his descriptions of The Footage.
Tangents with his previous work: The lead character is named Cayce. Pronounced "Case". Yes, like the down-on-his luck console cowboy. She's on a quest to find the anonymous creator of a mysterious sequence of art, like Marly in Count Zero. Said artist is almost, but not quite, as inhuman as the shadowbox-maker was. An offhand reference to Cornell appears, too. I wasn't looking for these tangents at all; they leapt out at me. There are other parallels I can draw off the top of my head; more would surely leap out if I went back and re-read his older work. Is he repeating himself? I haven't quite decided.
Gibson's writing is much sparer in this than he previous work. He's stepped out from under the shadow of Chandler now. Some passages are haiku-like in their careful, tiny crafting. It's not the "packed prose" favored by the Movement, back before "cyberpunk" was coined - that was hammered together with great effort, staying together only under pressure; the sentences in this book are assembled from exquisitely-cut parts, fitting together like the expensive watches Gibson loves. And I think that with that sentence, I have lost the lingering sense of his authorial voice.
I should dye my hair. And decide precisely what question I will ask the cards later on.
no subject
Date: 2003-06-08 11:00 am (UTC)I haven't bought the book yet since I've only seen it in hardcover. I was mildly disappointed with All Tomorrow's Parties which was a fun read but didn't really get anywhere as far as I was concerned. It had a 'middle book' feel...like it was setting things up for a third book finale. So anyway, I wasn't feeling like blowing money on a Gibson hardcover after that.
I reread Johnny Mnemonic and then watched the movie again with Minakawa last weekend. Gods, the movie is so bad it's good. The sad part is that Hollywood probably wrote off Gibson stories as poor movie material due to how poorly JM was received...without even considering it was the movie itself that sucked rather than the source material. But for MSTie material the movie is priceless. :D
no subject
Date: 2003-06-08 11:17 am (UTC)From what I've read on his blog (there's a livejournal feed of it), it seems like the Johnny Mnemonic movie was smothered in the cradle - the movie you saw was a fraction of what was written and even filmed. Important crazed rants by key characters were cut; as always, executives thought they wanted "edgy", but decided they didn't, and watered it way the hell down.
Re:
Date: 2003-06-08 12:01 pm (UTC)Edgy & Hollywood
Date: 2003-06-09 12:03 pm (UTC)Yes, they want "Edgy", but they also want what's guaranteed to sell. Same reason mainstream fantasy is "Elves, Dwarves, etc" and Christian fiction has so much "just add a lot of Bible verses to a watered-down trend".
About a year and a half ago, one friend of mine acquired an actual "pitch sheet" that pros use to pitch their "edgy" story/series/movie "High Concepts" to each other. (Or should I say "eDgY hIgH cOnCePtS?)
First impression? THEY WERE COMPLETE SHIT! I COULDN'T MAKE UP PARODIES LIKE THAT IF I TRIED! I'VE HAD FURRY-FANBOY MASTURBATIONS INFLICTED ON ME AT CONS THAT WAS BETTER STORYTELLING!
And then my fried brain had this H*I*G*H C*O*N*C*E*P*T idea for a game show of the same name (hell, couldn't be worse than "Human Autopsy" or "Pimp House"):
Make these "edgy", "High Concept" pitches to a studio audience and common-rabble contestants as part of a game show (instead of Their Betters in The Industry). Have the contestants vote which High Concept of the pitches they want to see on the air, with special awards for "HAVE YOU GONE STUPID?" (the worst/dumbest/dumberest of the lot) and "THIS IS A FAKE, RIGHT?" (one of the pitches is fake and they have to guess which one).