William Gibson on archiving Froggy
The Washington Post has a nice interview with William Gibson. It's pleasant to read, partly because the interviewer has actually read Gibson's stuff (notice the long Count Zero quote).
There's also this discussion of the web as archiving platform, something which we've noted elsewhere in terms of YouTube, podcasts, etc:
"One of the things I've been doing in the eBay era -- I've become a really keen observer of the rationalization of the world's attic. Every class of human artifact is being sorted and rationalized by this economically driven machine that constantly turns it over and brings it to a higher level of searchability. . . . The tentacles of that operation extend into every flea market and thrift shop and basement and attic in the world. . . .
"Every hair is being numbered -- eBay has every grain of sand. EBay is serving this very, very powerful function which nobody ever intended for it. EBay in the hands of humanity is sorting every last Dick Tracy wrist radio cereal premium sticker that ever existed. It's like some sort of vast unconscious curatorial movement.
And Gibson connects it with web 2.0:
"It's curious. When I published 'Pattern Recognition' " -- his previous book, which was also set in the recent past and achieved mainstream success -- "within a few months there was someone who started a Web site. People were compiling Googled references to every term and every place in the book. It has photographs of just about every locale in the book -- a massive site that was compiled by volunteer effort. But it took a couple of years to come together. With 'Spook Country,' the same thing was up on the Web before the book was published." Somebody got an advance reader copy, and instantly put up a site for his fictional Node magazine.
(via Bruce Sterling)
You didn't think that the interviewer asking Gibson's friends what he should ask Gibson was kind of lazy?
Posted by: Glen | September 07, 2007 at 09:36
I'm a Gibson fan but I felt that Pattern Recognition rehashed old themes in a new and frankly less interesting setting. It will also be Neuromancer, Count Zero and Mona Lisa Overdrive for me :D
Posted by: Urbanist | September 08, 2007 at 00:34
My favorite part of the interview was Gibson's take on books: fair, insightful, and unexpected (though if I knew his work better I might have anticipated it).
Posted by: Gardner | September 12, 2007 at 07:52
I thought it was funny, Glen. Especially since it was Sterling's blog post which led me to the interview. :)
Neuromancer's at a different level, Urbanist. That's always the great one for me.
Which ones have you read, Gardner?
Posted by: Bryan Alexander | September 13, 2007 at 08:22
Just parts of Neuromancer, parts of Pattern Recognition, and Johnny Mnemonic (down on the killing floor, quoth Jimi).
Posted by: Gardner | September 13, 2007 at 22:31
Gibson's always referencing extensively and quietly, Gardner. A mix of books, paintings, designers, music.
Posted by: Bryan Alexander | September 17, 2007 at 10:50