/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.19280187]

>reading Neuromancer
>halfway through
>still have no idea what the fuck is going on

Is this what it's supposed to be like or am I just retarded?

[Anonymous No.19280198]

I would reread it

[Anonymous No.19280204]

>>19280187
It’s not well written. It’s popular because of its subject matter and because nerds couldn’t recognize good writing if their lives depended on it. Hemingway is my go to example of a good writer.

>inb4 Hemingway is a hack
I’m not saying he’s perfect, I’m saying that compared to Neuromancer, Hemingway is genius

[Anonymous No.19280206]

>>19280187
It's very poorly written; practically incomprehensible. You are not retarded, Gibson just had/has no self awareness.
Power through it if it matters to you.

[Anonymous No.19280207]

>Getting filtered by fucking Neuromancer
Jesus Christ anon, maybe reading isn't for you

[Anonymouṡ No.19280219]

>>19280187
It shouldn't be that hard. It's told in a straightforward linear style. There's not really any ambiguity about what's real. There's a few flashbacks but they're clearly described as such.

He does go in for a "cool", elliptical style and a lot of surface flash and dazzle, but under that, the story is not so hard. When you say you have no idea what's going on, how much no idea are we talking about? I can go through the basic story if you want anything clarified. Not sure if I have a physical copy anywhere about though.

[Anonymous No.19280229]

>>19280206
It's not well-written, that's for sure. But "practically incomprehensible"? You're a straight up dyslexic tard if you think Neuromancer is incomprehensible.

[Anonymous No.19280233]

>>19280219
>>19280207
I used to read voraciously as a kid, stopped completely for near a decade, and am picking it up again. Mind you, I'm only halfway in
>Case is a drug addict
>did a heist, double-crossed his employers
>they paralyze him as retaliation, he cannot hack into cyberspace anymore
>his gf dies
>he gets hired by this man Armitage to do some sort of heist
>they make a team and go different places
>Armitage might be an AI, Wintermute
I still have no idea *what* the heist is, and what is the significance of Armitage possibly being an AI is, unless this becomes clear later on

[Anonymous No.19280254]

>>19280233
>Haven't finished book
>I don't understand what is happening
You're definitely not the brighest

[Anonymous No.19280257]

>>19280254
A Clockwork Orange is also written in this kind of slang-heavy style, but you immediately understand what is going on like 10 pages in. I feel like my not understanding what exactly Case is even doing for Armitage, means I am completely lost

[Anonymous No.19280266]

>>19280229
>random peripheral sci fi bullshit that he never elaborates on just for the sake of aesthetics and "atmosphere"
>And the long pulse of Zion dub
It's garbage. It takes effort to slog through.

[Anonymous No.19280268]

>>19280257
Finish the book before making a thread about not understanding it

[Anonymous No.19280278]

>>19280266
>It takes effort to slog through
I found it effortless. It was a pretty easy read anon

[Anonymous No.19280279]

>>19280187
I still don't get how people struggle with Neuromancer. I'm not saying it's infinitely but hard to read isn't something I'd ascribe to it

[Anonymous No.19280282]

>>19280268
Okay, I will make another thread when I finish it. I assume this means I do understand what is going on so far and I am not as lost as I think

[Anonymouṡ No.19280303]

>>19280233
Sounds to me as though you know more-or-less everything you're supposed to know, if you're about half-way. I forget exactly when you learn what.

When Molly takes Case to that place free from surveillance ("as private as I can afford") she talks a bit about Armitage and says what she knows, which is that he has some big powerful figures behind him. So you know he's not really the "boss", he's working for someone or something.

The initial heist is just to get an AI version of this other great hacker, who can help them in the main heist. It's like busting someone out of jail to be part of your team for the main job.

Then they go and get the psycho bloke who can do psychic stuff. (The one who can create hallucinations.) That surely takes you up to half-way? Are you past that?

[Anonymous No.19280307]

>>19280206
>>19280229
It is well written, possibly, the only sf book you can read for its prose. Gibson drew from Burroughs, Pynchon, Hammett, British New-wavers and it shows. Book is very aware of its language and semiotics. He recreated whole world without ever sinking down into sludge called worldbuilding.

[Anonymous No.19280322]

>>19280303
Thank you. Yes, they are with the Zions now, not really sure what is going on there with the zero-G but it seems like I do understand the rest, more or less.

[Anonymous No.19280334]

>>19280307
How is it aware of its semiotics?

[Anonymous No.19280352]

>>19280307
>It is well written, possibly, the only sf book you can read for its prose
LOL

[Anonymous No.19280419]

Gomen nasai mina
Can I talk about outdated magazines on /lit/?

[Anonymous No.19280617]

>>19280206
>>19280187
This. I got in expecting real cyberpunk. About the corrosive influence of monopolistic capitalism, advances in technology but no advancement in morality, the increasing alienation of individuals as the world grows bigger and more computerised.

Instead I got a story where everyone was either a drug addict, a fetishist or a retard. And that's about as deep as it gets.

[Anonymous No.19280630]

>>19280617
You're really pretentious

[Anonymous No.19280686]

>>19280617
>Instead I got a story where everyone was either a drug addict, a fetishist or a retard. And that's about as deep as it gets.
Yes, the future is now.

[Anonymous No.19280808]

>>19280334
For example, futuristic technologies are not imagined as in the usual sf works, but presented as a cultural and sub-cultural presences. They are developed and shown through language of its users, both formal, as scientific, technical jargon, but also as a street language, where makeshift, autodidactic, 'cool' aspects prevail. Just by 'listening' to dialogue and metaphors used by the protagonists, you can place them in adequate social strata and have some understanding how prominent that specific piece of technology in that world is. He exchanged exposition dumps and gave us imagined future presented as thing-in-itself, already domesticated culturally and symbolically, but we have to make an effort to get into it.
>>19280352
yes

[Anonymous No.19280841]

>>19280257
> I feel like my not understanding what exactly Case is even doing for Armitage, means I am completely lost
Case doesn't understand what he's doing for Armitage either.

[Anonymous No.19281264]

>>19280187
there exists audiobook version read by author and with sound garmenting from Bono. That is pure KINO. TFW ethernal dreamlike state with inescapeable misery. Lots of feels.

[Anonymous No.19281273]

For what it's worth, I didn't find it hard to follow. Possible you're looking at it through a cyberpunk lens expecting it to fit those tropes and not paying attention to what's really there.

[Anonymous No.19281317]

>>19280617
>This. I got in expecting real cyberpunk.
cyberpunk might not be for you
might i suggest pic related instead

[Anonymous No.19281569]

>>19280808
>yes
ok, post a paragraph from it that you think would make someone well-read go "i don't normally care about sf but i have to read this"

[Anonymous No.19281709]

>>19280307
Came here to post this. Thank you.
Neuromancer is very well written. It's atmospheric. Everything clicks if you understand the underlying themes in this sub genre.

[Anonymous No.19281761]

>>19280617
>orrosive influence of monopolistic capitalism, advances in technology but no advancement in morality, the increasing alienation of individuals as the world grows bigger and more computerised.

all of that is in Gibson's early works but you're incapable of realizing it because you have the reading comprehension of a modern fried brain that needs to be explicitly fed every theme and plot point.

[Anonymous No.19281766]

>>19280233
>>Armitage might be an AI, Wintermute
No

[Anonymous No.19281791]

If you're getting a bit mixed up with the names and technical jargon, you can check these chapter summaries to see if there's anything you missed: https://www.shmoop.com/study-guides/literature/neuromancer/summary/chapter-1

FYI Snow Crash is a lot more straightforward / an easier read, if you find yourself wanting more cyberpunk/virtual reality adventures after finishing NM.

[Anonymous No.19281814]

>>19281791
after reading snow crash, return to Gibson with virtual light and you can start seeing where Stephenson was taking crib notes

[Anonymous No.19281979]

>>19280204
This is an autistic post.

[Anonymous No.19282143]

>>19280187
yeah it made a lot more sense to me the second time through when i knew the main plot and could make sense of the details. unfortunately, the last like third is way harder to make sense of than the rest so if you're having issues already, buckle up

[Anonymous No.19282176]

>>19280233
yeah you've pretty much got it, things are intentionally murky because case/the reader are kept in the dark about what's really going on and case unravels it as the book goes on. the main heist doesn't happen until like the last quarter of the book, everything before that is just preparing for it (there's at least one heist early one where its just stealing some shit they need for the real heist)

[Anonymous No.19282195]

>>19280617
>About the corrosive influence of monopolistic capitalism, advances in technology but no advancement in morality, the increasing alienation of individuals as the world grows bigger and more computerised.
the main story isn't necessaryily "about" this stuff, but the setting certainly reflects it. did you just skip the first bit where he's in Chiba with all of the lowlife who deal with implants and shit and about low lonely everyone is? that's pretty much exactly what you described

[Anonymous No.19282330]

>>19280686
Yeah that was extremely prescient