/lit/ - Literature

I can understand that. Plus the cyberspace is never properly introduced and the postmodern style is a bit hectic.

I personally had no trouble, but many of my friends have complained it to be a difficult read.

>>1118356

i definitely wish they had explored the whole cyberspace concept a bit more, but i'm rereading it now and it's hard concentrating on the story when i have all these words that are never explained. how'd you get around that?

>>1118362

You should find a complete working glossary at www.justfuckinggoogleit.com

Most William Gibson books are better on the second read, I think. They're definitely tough to follow at times.

>>1118362
Context. When someone enters the cyberspace he "jacks in". When someone takes drugs, he uses a "derm" (derm itself meaning skin). When the perspective changes from Case to Molly, it's called "flipping".

The Japanese terms shouldn't be too hard either. "Sarariman" = salaryman, etc.

You should be able to pick up words fast enough.

Speaking of Gibson, anyone read the more recent novels (Pattern recognition and the sequel)?

How are they?

>>1118356

"Difficult to read" is an understatement. I found it incoherent, either through pretentiousness or plain old schizophrenia, I can't tell which. After my trudging through 50-ish pages, it's gathering dust on my bookshelf, despite the fact that it's the most commonly-read thing on my Facebook friends' book lists.

Pic related.

>>1118396
Hah, you should try the Difference Engine (co-authored by Gibson). It's even more postmodern. The ending goes...


Dying to be born.
The light is strong,
The light is clear;
The Eye must at least see itself
Myself
I see:
I see,
I see
I
!


Verbatim.

>>1118402
I got about halfway through that last month and put it down. I kind of enjoyed it, I just feel no urge whatsoever to finish it.

>>1118406
It's a lovely read, yes, but fuck, the last few pages of the book fell suddenly into weird surrealism and finally those cryptic lyrics. It was like finding an olive at the bottom of your ice cream bowl. I like olives and the ice cream was good, but why the fuck is the olive in there?

>>1118402

See, now that just makes me want to kill him. Either I'm tarded or that makes no sense, and I don't think I'm tarded (but, really, do ANY tards think they're tarded?)

Pic related.

I liked, and understood the book, but I also liked and understood the sound and the fury...

Speed read the last quarter of Neuromancer, I liked it, but it wasn't as engaging as I hope it would be.

>>1118414
You're tarded. "the eye must at least see itself" is a reference to self-awareness (i.e., the mind, seeing itself). which leads us to "myself", having an awareness of yourself as a being. you see, these lines describe the computer achieving self-awareness, being born.

Yeah this book is tough to follow. There's an academic article about William Gibson where they discuss the lack of exposition at the start. They say it's intentionally done to kind of disorient the reader. Re-read the first chapter, its basically jibberish. Names and slang thrown at you. Lonny Zone and Case, Derms, Graftees, Joeboys.
Still, great book.

I, for one, rank Neuromancer among the best books I've read.

>>1118616
Same. Anyone know of any others like it?

>>1118616
Me too. The slight disorientation is to be expected when you're thrown into that wonderful crazy world.

Hahaha, sci-fi.

Enjoy your intellectual inferiority.

>>1118631
I see you didn't even finish your troll studies.

>>1118340

Your inability to comprehend the book is of no alarm, it only means that you are still sane.

When you read Gibson, it is abundantly clear that this someone who is just silly. The names are silly, the plot is silly.

The supporting characters are silly. It gets recognition because it really brought punk counter culture to the elitism of science fiction in the 80's.

Just as hipsters today find it really great to be "Ironic" about everything. Hipsters in the 80's wanted everything to be "real" or "street" and this book is most definitely a dilluted street, mixed with sci-fi terms

Since most of you grew up being told it was brilliant, you read it and thought it was brilliant, that it really invented all this lingo, and totally blew everyones mind away when it was released in the stone age society of the 80's.

This is also silly.

the first one (or maybe two) times you read it, yeah it's a pain to follow everything

but once it gels in your brain, boy howdy does it ever gel


>does anyone like his new stuff I think the Bigend books are fucking great

>>1118633
Troll Studies is the toughest academic division in all of the major universities you know. The job market isn't too bad though

I just finished this book, 5 minutes ago.
I really enjoyed it but I was extremely dissatisfied by the ending. I didn't find it difficult to follow, but I did have to read a few things a couple times.
I liked it,
I did not like the ending.

What a horrible last line of a book.