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summer reading
Alex C:
My problem with Gibson is that he can't really write characters who are ignorant or who even just wear their hearts on their sleeve very well. His detached tone and penchant for grabbing random details to fixate on works fine for a Case or a Turner, guys who are knowledgeable about the world they live in and who seem well-equipped to deal with any problem but their own internal issues. Maybe they're not the most interesting characters, but they're rarely jarring.
But when he has to lighten things up and write for the Chevettes and the Bobby Newmarks of his books, I find myself cringing a bit because it comes off as a li'l condescending a lot of the time. I have the same issue with Neal Stephenson.
scarred:
I haven't read much Stephenson, apart from Snow Crash, and that was ages ago. Though I remember enjoying it rather thoroughly.
Alex C:
Both Gibson and Stephenson rub me the wrong way sometimes. It's inevitable, I suppose; hypothetical cultures are their stock and trade, so I guess that some characterizations (and especially phrases) won't ring true for everyone.
KharBevNor:
Gibson is pure cyberpunk, the original indeed, thus much of his prose is dehumanising. You'll notice that, apart from describing implants, most characters in the Neuromancer get more time dedicated to describing their cigarette lighters than their faces. I like that sort of style quite a lot. I think Gibson helped introduce a certain vicerality into sci-fi literature that has born much good fruit. There's also something inherently sexy (in a fetishistic way) about the way he describes things.
Stephenson is just Gibson turned up to 11.
Lines:
It wasn't so much the prose itself or the characters/landscape that bothered me, it was the actual dialogue between characters. And sometimes certain bits of action were underdeveloped, such as Linda Lee's death. Some of the descriptions of Chiba were pretty awesome, but the dialogue brought it down for me. I guess I just don't like cyberpunk lingo.
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