/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.3447064]

In this thread : roots and founding fathers.
Cyberpunk here.

[Anonymous No.3447077]

[Anonymous No.3447094]

>>3447077
Is this a good read? It's currently on my books to read list.

[Anonymous No.3447108]

>>3447094
Depends on what you're looking for and if you like the style. I think it's great, one of the most interesting works of philosophy I've ever read.

[Anonymous No.3447154]

But we've been over this!
Neuromancer is complete horse shit!

[Anonymous No.3447159]

>>3447154
Do you even read the OP? Quality has nothing to do with it.

[Anonymous No.3447173]

>>3447154
Why would you say that?

[Anonymous No.3447174]

>>3447159
This. Also Neuromancer wasn't shit, but maybe the fact that I read it in french changed something about the writing. (which, I must admit, was quite weird at times)

[Anonymous No.3447261]

>>3447094

Read this a few years ago and loved the world Gibson had created, but apart from that the novel doesn't linger in the memory.

Meh, read something else.

[Anonymous No.3447281]

>>3447261

[Anonymous No.3447361]

I remember Gibson writing in the afterword of the same book that it was greatly influenced by two other works; one being The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester, truly a very nice read in my opinion (complete horse shit), and the other a book or essay by Willy S. Burroughs but I can't recall which one.
I feel bad but I haven't really read any Philip K. Dick - how cyberpunky something like "Do androids dream of electric sheep?" is I don't know. Anyone have a couple cents on this?

Googling this I found an old, but recently brought to light, recording of Timothy Leary and William Gibson discussing Neuromancer and whatnot
http://www.theverge.com/2011/12/24658200/timothy-leary-william-gibs-neuromancer-mp3 might be interesting.

[Anonymous No.3447391]

>>3447361
Sorry 'bout that - here's a more direct link http://www.acceler8or.com/2011/12/bson-leary-audio-mondo-2000-histo-project/

[Anonymous No.3447400]

>>3447064
What about The Shockwave Rider? Gibson might have coined the term cyberpunk but the genre certainly predates him.

[Anonymous No.3447406]

Novels here.

[Anonymous No.3448979]

>>3447400
Youre right, but...
What about Coming Attraction by Fritz Leiber?
What about True Names by Vernor Vinge?
What about The Girl who was plugged in by James Tiptree jr.?
What about Dr. Adder by K.W. Jeter?
What about City comes a-walkin' by John Shirley?
What about the Ware Tetralogy by Rudy Rucker?

All of these (with the exception of Fritz Leiber's story which is from the 50s) were written after Shockwave Rider, but before Neuromancer.

[Anonymous No.3449021]

>>3447406
I imagine Rozinante to be more spindly.

More like a big greyhound than a horse.

[Anonymous No.3449028]

>>3448979
Well what about them? I mean could you maybe write a line or two about each of those, for us who haven't read them?

[Anonymous No.3449065]

>>3449028
They could all be considered cyberpunk avant la lettre to some degree.
Some of them (Coming Attraction, City comes a-walkin' don't have much in the way of cyber, but depic futuristic outsiders (amongst other things), like cyberpunk does).
True Names (although i don't like it as a story) was ahead of its time in depicting a virtual world. The Girl who was plugged in is the most cyberpunkish of the ones I mentioned, it shows a world of the future with synthetic popstars.
Shockwave Rider, that another anon mentioned is about a brillant hacker (book is from the 70s).
Fun fact: the term worm for a kind of virus first appears in that novel)
etc. etc.

[Anonymous No.3449237]

>>3449065
Thanks anon. Have a girl

[Anonymous No.3449255]

What would that make Philip K. Dick and Pynchon? Grandfathers?