14 August 2008
Burning Chrome and Virtual Light
After reading Mona Lisa Overdrive I started searching for some more Gibson in hardback or oversized paperback to no avail. Amazon had few choices and results from the otherwise wonderful BookFinder would seldom specify whether the edition was trade paperback or mass-market. Blargh. So, I went to the Book Nook in Decatur for the first time in years. Alas, they only had the cheap-yet-expensive mass-market paperbacks:
(Rewatched Donnie Darko the other night; been paging through Watchmen as images from next year's movie are released; read Borges' "The Aleph" after looking up the word from its references in Mona Lisa Overdrive)
Burning Chrome had some very average sci-fi--where I assume Gibson was finding his way--along with iconic early cyberpunk. "Johnny Mnemonic," "New Rose Hotel," "The Winter Market," and "Burning Chrome" stand out. "Johnny Mnemonic" was difficult to read only because I kept visualizing that gay movie with Keanu Reeves, but then much of the imagery in cyberpunk novels would look idiotic on screen (I'm flying in cyberspace!!!). "Fragments of a Hologram Rose" could easily have been an inspiration for Strange Days.
I'm just finishing Virtual Light. Once I got to the reveal with the augmented reality goggles, I was immediately reminded of an article I'd read years ago (maybe "Lab Rat: Virtual light" from Red Herring, 18 April 2001?). You wear the glasses and they tag objects with information. Think of the neat little Wikipedia icons that you can display in Google Maps but live and floating over your field of vision.
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