Neuromancer - William Gibson BOOK REVIEW
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- čas přidán 11. 09. 2024
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![Neuromancer [Complete] - Unmade Masterpieces](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/GIr0rdohh84/mqdefault.jpg)
![William Gibson Reads Neuromancer [1 / 8]](/img/n.gif)
"The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel."
This book was fun. My favorite character was that dead cowboy hacker whose brain was stored on a ROM. That character, specifically, reminded of a game called SOMA, which also has a few characters who are nothing but memories stored on computer chips.
Dixie-flatline
You sold me on this one within the first minute.
And might I say, one thing I admire is that you care enough about your own work to pull it from streaming and completely redo it when you deem that it could be improved upon. Many create content. Your work, I consider art.
Thank you for your very kind words, hope you love it.
One of my favorite and less mentioned prescient elements of the book is the enormous overlap in Southeast Asian and American cultures. Absolutely nailed the way that's evolved into the 21st century
East Asian (NM focuses on Japan). As much as I love this book it didn't focus on Southeast Asia at all. Another cyberpunk story definitely could have though and I'd love to find one
Blade Runner had already presented these elements as well as some other works of fiction to be honest. At that time, the USA had a big fetish for Japanese culture, no matter how cheap and superficial it was, added to the fact that at that time Japan was still an economic power in addition to having great advances in technology, so many thought that by the 21st century Japan would have greatly expanded its sphere of influence and control.
@@somekindofhmm You should read The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi. It's more Biopunk but it takes place in Bangkok and explores a lot of similar themes to Neuromancer.
It was so strange reading this book after years of consuming the culture created or inspired by it. We are so used to these names and concepts that perhaps, for those unaware, it takes away some of the shine of the story. It's like reading Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. It is impossible for us to feel the same impact, to have the same notion of how revolutionary the book is, as we are living in a culture already influenced by it. Great review as always! Hugs from Brasil!
Glad to know I'm not the only one to drive around at night listening to Disorder and other Joy Division, watching the cityscape pass by. I recommend listening to Vangelis's Blade Runner soundtrack on a dreary rainy day or night, driving or not, for an equally transcendent experience. Ever read Mirrorshades edited by Bruce Sterling? It is THE Classic Cyberpunk Anthology. Highly recommend.
Yes. Buzz Rickson and also Acronym. Worth a look.
Excellent review of one of my favorite novels. And yes, read PKD. Ubik is an experience.
I read it last year and I agree that you just have to be along for the ride. I could barely remember sentences I had just read but every sentence was so bizarre and descriptive that it just made me want to read more even if I didn't understand anything that was going on.
This is by far my favorite review of yours. Hats down. Perfect in every way, especially that description of night driving!
You should read China Mieville. Either Perdido Street Station or The City & The City.
There is a version on CZcams with Gibson reading it. Really lets you hear it in a way that is special. Hightech and Low Life
It's funny what you said about listening to Joy Division at night. I remember years ago listening to Unknown Pleasures whilst riding a bus through the city at night. The lights, concrete and vibration of the bus heightened the music. It put me in a dream-like state. This is a better review than your old one. I've been thinking about rereading Neuromancer.
'Watch the world change, as you wrote a book' - that reminds me of Borges!
Sonic Youth named their song 'The Sprawl' after this book, they were big Gibson fans x
What's great about your videos is, sometimes I'll see one about a book I haven't read yet and want to read, so I wait to watch it, but other times there's one about a book I don't plan to read until I watch the video, then I have to stop it because you've made me want to read it
You almost made me cry re: Diamond Dogs. How sweet is that. It's funny because sometimes I watch Lynch's Dune or Space Oddysey: 2001 with no sound on and just watch it to as many Bowie songs as my library has at random until the movie ends and it adds a lot of value to the scenes and it always works, the movie plots and atmospheres really like to bend for Bowie, so that totally resonates. I'm convinced that if this was ever possible to make into a film and do it justice it would reign supreme over all - potentially even Blade Runner, which I don't say lightly. Anyways, this was a real treat, so thank you very much. Did you ever see the 1990 documentary 'Cyberpunk' that's all about Gibson and Neuromancer starring him and Timothy Leary? I'm guessing you must have, but in the event that you have not, you must! It is such a trip to return to the future as we saw it in 1990. Pretty sad that the status quo has us longing for the dystopic utopia of the perceived techno future. Word up re: Tetsuo: The Iron Man! The soundtrack is every bit as good as the movie, in ways it's better. It's Japan's answer to Foetus in Richard Kern and David Wojnarowicz shorts with Lydia Lunch, Nick Zedd, etc Tetsuo is so No Wave it's ridiculous. No Wave, Cyberpunk for Lower East Side Kids who can't afford to be Cyber! Just like Neubauten, Cyberpunk for drunken West Berlin squatters living in tunnels who can't afford instruments so they play jackhammers (with a side of Australians). Re: Joy Division, I swear I am the only person I know who loves 'Isolation'. I always thought it was made to be played in the bar no one noticed in Total Recall underground where the mutants hang out and they play SWANS, The Cramps, DNA, The Flying Lizards, Suburban Lawns, The Fall, etc you know....Quatto is all about some Throbbing Gristle and Current 93 lol oh yeah, and they play Mars too, since they are on Mars. Duh~! czcams.com/video/ZsbMXYigewI/video.html
What a great idea to do a redo! It brings out really interesting comments. Cheers!
That is laughable in the sense that this video is probably the best I’ve seen of yours. Your previous are great but this, you really got into a flow. Which for a writer is like oxygen. Thanks Cliff. When are you going to venture on to a writing project of your own? I’d read it. Get that coffee…
Nice, I've often had a difficult time relating how Neuromancer isn't just good for a genre novel. It's really good writing by any measure. Reviews like yours will help get that across, thanks.
Hey Cliff, Gibson frequents the bookstore I shop at but I have yet to meet him. The owner of the store says the same thing about WG, he’s a very kind person.
Side note: I recently finished my first PKD novel, Valis. I highly recommend it. It’s not as sci-fi as some of his other books though. At times it reminded me of Pynchon with a heavy dose of Christian mysticism and philosophy.
Read this in Germany over a weekend when I first arrived there at Monteith Barracks as a fresh-faced GI, absolutely loved it so went to the PX and bought the next 2 books in the 'trilogy', have been an avid reader since then.
Thank you for revisiting this book, I remember you mentioned once that you would redo it, and im glad you did. I feel you on the night drives. I used to drive around Phoenix at night with the windows open and play weird EDM. What a vibe. We're all living in Gibson's world.
No Philip K. Dick? That's really surprising. If you don't like the first story you read of his, try another. And if you don't like that one, try another. I really liked VALIS. PKD has a bit more spirituality in his writing than some other comparable authors.
Hey, if you haven't read any Philip K. Dick yet I'd really recommend A Scanner Darkly. You don't even need to be a science fiction fan to enjoy it since it's semi-autobiographical with a bunch of sci fi thrown in since that was his audience.
All about his experiences as an addict sharing a house with other addicts.
PKD is the king of semi-utobiographical, there are so many writers who love to insert themselves into their books in such a rude and egocentric way, but PKD did this in such a different and fascinating way, playing with his crazy ideas and trying to reflect on himself.
Ubik is a great place to start with PK Dick. By the end you will be saying, "FUCK . . . .am I alive?" Might want to brush up on 'pataphysical narratives as well if you are going to read much more of him.
Burroughs, Ballard, Dick, Gibson.. what a great tech noir clusterfuck of ideas.. Great vid, Clifford. Salute o7.
Why would the Diamond Dogs analogy be disappointing? That's perfect!
I had a damn hard time with this book, but I have not given up on Gibson. Thank you for this one!
The cantina scene from Star Wars you mention, is straight out of Naked Lunch.
Loved the great vid!
A great review. Have to say this is one of my favourite books.
Just finished reading this. Great review.
Wonderful review as always Cliff!
Thank you very much!
Such a gem of a novel, one of my favourites.
Thoroughly enjoyed this review! You provide a very visceral, erudite, and humorous guided tour of the book. You also helped me feel less crazy and less stupid for not completely comprehending Gibson's wild narrative ride. I'm a therapist and I picked up on a little nihilistic penchant which I could certainly help you with. I think we all have to focus as much as we can on positive things like you mentioned getting enough sleep, exercise, ect. it's good to go into the darkness, but we can't linger.
This was the type of review I've been hoping to hear. Some of the review vids I've come across seem kind of uninteresting. Good discussion. Two things though (at least for this reader): being a part of the trilogy, it's worth mentioning the other books (talk about prescient...the driving mystery of "Count Zero" is based on a theme so relevant to the now. Who's the maker of these artsy boxes? Can you guess?). Also, the Finn. A character that is integral to all the books really (Arthur Addison's reading of NM does the Finn justice. Perfect delivery of the character. Such a great audio version).
What's interesting is that much of Sonic Youth's "Daydream Nation" takes a lot of it's lyrics and imagery from Neuromancer---track title, "The Sprawl", and "Hey Joni", "in this broken town/ can you still jack in/ and know what to do?" There was also a song titled "Pattern Recognition" from the book WG wrote. The Dead Kennedy's had a track from "Bedtime for Democracy" called DMSO, which I think is an in universe drug in Neuromancer. It's mentioned in the riot that occurs when Molly and Case get the construct.
Curious about the series that's set to come out soon. Looks like it's gonna be an advert for those apple glasses. We'll see though (Har! Har!)
laughed out loud at the thumbnail description
I’m currently on my second reading of Neuromancer… the first time around, it wasn’t my favorite, to be honest… this time around, I’m appreciating the writing style more than before.
I’m reading it after having just read Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (third time), so my brain is constantly comparing the two… and there aren’t a ton of similarities, which is interesting in itself.
Genuine masterpiece.
The grand We is not so much evolving as diverging.
Diverging in what is required for survival.
The overhead on machine living and machine life is exceedingly high.
The cybernetic variant of our species will starve out much more quickly and easily than the analog variant.
The wall we are accelerating into is visible to many on the horizon. My doomscribing and pessimism comes from the unique time and place I was born into, 1964. The fear and depression of dead Kennedy's, nuclear brinkmanship and social decay. I sang along with Elvis, Bing Crosby and the Beatles. Then Hendrix, Zeppelin and Jefferson Airplane, then Foreigner, Bad Company and Boston. Cut my hair and turned on with the Cars and Blondie. Fell in love with Siouxsie & the Banshees, Gary Numan and the greatest album of Echo and the Bunnymen, Porcupine. Crashing from the psychedelic peaks into Soundgarden, Stone Temple Pilots and Alice in Chains. Old enough to remember AM yet being deeply affected by FM, and then the video revolution. BTW the hash from the eighties was great much further south of Toronto I can assure you. Likely one of the few things I miss from the 80's
*See Killing Joke "80's"
This is a book I need to read again.
I read Neuromancer so many years ago and I honestly felt disappointed, it was one of the few books that made me fall for the hype and failed to meet my expectations, even if there were some interesting parts and themes.
Since then I've read one or two books by Gibson and I don't think he's for me.
I prefer Philip K Dick even with his flaws. Even some of his lesser-known novels are interesting to read, during this month I read "Now Wait for Next Year" by PKD and the book surprised me, it was a very different experience from his best-known books.
Thank you for the video ! After a long sabbatical (almost two years), I continue my master's degree in literature and my subject is the question of spaces in Neuromancer. It is a hard read ... Watching your video felt like I was exchanging about my subject with a colleague and it was good for me. Thanks !
Thanks for the review BTF. Very fun.
Neuromancer is my favorite book. So many ways to explore it.
"if you look too hard to understand it you'll probably be disappointed"
"Neuromancer failures with plot"
I've found Neuromancer to be incredibly rewarding, especially in my efforts to "look too hard to understand it". Similar to my experience with the Dune series by Frank Herbert. Especially on a more philosophy, world building, futurology, plot, etc. driven vein.
"still don't understand the damn thing"
I've spent a lot of time reviewing the book. I've already posted my breakdown on one youtube review. Happy to share any takeaways I have if there is interest.
I even have a spreadsheet tab of questions to ask Gibson. But I doubt I will ever get around to that. And I will end up just building out my own answers. The biggest question is just giving more explanation for (from 3rd book) ***SPOILER*** "it's kinda hard to explain why the matrix split up into all those hoodoos 'n' sh*t, when it met this other one". Why did it split up? I have my own possible answers, but would prefer an official one. Another big question (again, from 3rd book) ***SPOILER*** is how the Aleph space relates to the where they are going for the Centauri Matrix, where are they going, etc.
***SPOILERS*** Just some quick edits. Linda is a living character in the real time events of the book. Neuromancer does not want to merge. The Wintermute that wants to merge is possibly (per 3Jane) just "a sort of subprogram" of the Wintermute AI. It is suspected by Case that the mother (Marie-France) built the compulsion into Wintermute that drives the thing to free itself and unite with Neuromancer. As an aside, I think the opposing philosophies (and their consequences) of the Tessier-Ashpool parents is one of the major underlying themes, plot, and event drivers of the book.
A wonderful video as always!
Raymond Chandler having a drink.... I love your sense of a humor!
If you want a good 16th century French novel to be ultimately bored with and that will definitely end any desire you ever had to read more of the classics maybe try Gargantua and Pantagruel someday.
"Pantagruelism", a form of stoicism, developed and applied throughout, is (among other things) "a certain gaiety of spirit confected in disdain for fortuitous things"
This book was my ticket into loving sci fi and cyberpunk esque alternate future societies. The closest I’ve found to it is wind up girl, which is biopunk.
Just so much to unpack in a single book.
Gibson’s Sprawl and Bridge trilogies always put me in a Velvet Underground frame of mind.
Just finished a re-read of this myself and your video popped up doing some research for my own review. Very Gibsonian.
Brings me back to freshman years. Matrix, baudrillard and neuromancer ❤
I was listening to Bad Brains a lot when I first read this. They are forever linked for me now.
Hope you also read Count Zero and Mona Lisa Overdrive! My favourite SF series with the Culture from Ian Banks.
I was working in the early days of the internet, and ever single company I worked for had a server called Wintermute. It was like a rule.
Your review is uncannily timely as I have just been resolving to finally read this. It’s funny you mentioned Gravity’s Rainbow because that’s what came to my mind hearing people saying this book is confusing. I’m hoping it’s a different flavor of confusion cause GR was not so pleasant for me.
You should give the book "Time Shelter" a shot. I think you would really enjoy it. Some solid post-Soviet Eastern European lit.
great book....I read the audiobook 3 times...well listened to it
Picking my copy up today !🎉
Can you review 2 or 3 books by David Foster Wallace? Infinite Jest is my favourite book of all time, so I was wondering about your opinion
A Scanner Darkly is a good PKD book.
cyberpunk let’s go baby!
Added to my to-read list. I would like to recommend The memoirs of Stockholm Sven - Nathaniel Ian Miller.
Is this review spoiler free?
would love a bluest eye or sula review - don’t think you have a toni review ✨
A second comment because I had more to add: have you read the sequels? Neuromancer is after all part of the Sprawl Trilogy, alongside Count Zero and Mona Lisa Overdrive. Also, Ubik is a hell of a book. Weirdly simple but also so terrifying, it almost feels like a film script.
Wow, look at you! Rolling around in the genre fiction gutter! 😉
Would you say this is better than snow crash?
I really didn't get into this, though I liked the start. Maybe I should give it another go. Everything I've read by PK Dick is fantastic.
Now that you reviewed neuromancer, watch as a big budget movie gets announced.
Finally!
I would love to see you review The Black Dahlia by James Ellroy. Have you not read him?
I’d love to see your review and thoughts on “The left hand of Darkness” by U.K LeGuin
Love ya Cliff, but come on. Read Ubik. Plenty of other PKD gems, too. That man is the pinnacle of great American sci-fi. Maybe of drugs too, but hey...they go well together.
Interesting that you mentioned Pynchon in this review, very similar to me in very peculiar way, makes you wonder if they were ever friends
9:54 - "The matrix in the book [Neuromancer] is not as sophisticated as the film [The Matrix, 1999] it's a little lower tech, it's more like a 1980s video game with all the lights and geometric shapes, plus, like, DMT... " Too funny!
One important detail missing: Neuromancer is the first book in a trilogy. Also, how can you say the aesthetic is better than Blade Runner, then admit you've never even red PKD?
Correction: The Sprawl is not located in Tokyo, it's actually a contiguous urban area that lies between New Jersey and Baltimore. What you meant by a "space between monolitihic skyscrapers and industrial plants" is not accurate when talking about The Sprawl, as it's not analogous to Chiba City. There are no "clinics" in The Sprawl, no big corporate HQ and its industrial plants are mostly abandoned. Sorry for nitpicking, but this is important as Neuromancer's 2 sequels take place in The Sprawl for the most part.
Oh excuse me, you’re right - two separate places; Chiba has the clinics. Thank you for catching that.
i think you can solve a mystery for us - how did gibson pronounce the title in his talk? when it came out i thought it to be neu-RO-mancer, but lately i hear booktubers say NEURO-mancer, while here you seem to cut it down the middle, which is fine, but i wonder how he pronounces it? gracias - 🤖
From Gibson I've only read Pattern recognition, which from memory I didn't connect to at all.
I agree the everyday reality of the internet itself does appear banal, but when you layer exponential AI advances on top of that and other infrastructure? I wouldn't be suprised if this will be looked back on as being a turning point as signficant as the Gutenberg printing press.
Count Zero is even better. Gibson with more experience + tighter narrative. The book reads like a stream of consciousness fever dream in the age of Unix.
I am an absolute admirer of your channel and reviews, so when I say this, I'm saying it out of appreciation for you as somebody who has given me so many great literature recommendations that I wouldn't have known otherwise...
*DO NOT* sponsor BetterHelp anymore. They *DO NOT* deserve your attention if you do care about mental health in general. If you're confused; _good._ That means you aren't in the know and should check and research them because... they are FLAWED in the least and absolutely MONSTROUS at worst.
Hi! Have you ever thought about reviewing"road to mecca" by Muhammad Asad? (He changed his name from Leopold Weiss to Muhammad Asad)
For PKD, the most comparable to Neuromancer is probably Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, and it is quite good. But you have to sample some of his wilder books to get a sense of his Protean imagination. Others mentioned Ubik. Perhaps the most psychedelic is The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch. Martian Time Slip or Eye in the Sky are two other trippy ones. Most decorated book is Man in the High Castle but that is relatively boring (the adaptation on the other hand is very good). Clans of the Alphane Moon is a lot of fun with tribes of different mental illnesses and an intelligent telepathic slime mold! …anyway I look forward to your review of Ubik!
Fan of Burroughs? I'm in.
It's nice that people like the first two but Gibson didn't really find his "voice" until the third book. From then on they are all masterpieces. Except Agency. I have difficulty believing Gibson actually wrote that, it reads like fan fic.
as you know artists do lie - all the time and in person...
Another good one! How could you have not read Phillip K. Dick?!
Do you read these?
Hope you will review Knausgard's "Night School". Fantastic read.
do a William Burroughs review now!
Remark op clive Barker they are 10
Movies 1 remake whoman as pinhead and nr 2 under way
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I blame anime for people's inability to pronounce Armitage.
This is my all time favorite science fiction novel. It blew my heart out of my ass
Col. 3
Neuromancer is the only book I've ever read that when I finished reading it I had no clue what the plot had been. Felt like just a bunch of fetch quests. I found the characters rather flat as well. Not my cup of tea, personally, although I can kinda see why people dig it.
I had just watched one of your videos, surprised to see you here.
I want to read Neuromancer again, I read it many years ago and the book was a disappointment for me, I would say it was the worst sci-fi book I've ever read, and I've read a lot of sci-fi.
@@AnonymousAnonposter I've debated rereading it myself, but I can't help but feel that it would still have the same shortcomings to me. Maybe one day I will though. :)
You review William Gibson's book as if you've forgotten the face of your father! I know how you got to this predicament. You have read 1000 books within a span of 2 months. According to the rulaplakatos in chapter 25 it states that whoever reads 2000 books within 4 months will forget the face of their mother and father, given the edict of Volposter, you will also become a derelict of the initialized group of 50 men and thus turn into the 12th son of the 7th son.
I don't like this book, I find the narrative not very enticing or well developed, I only like Gibson's prose.
I didn't get on too well with Neuromancer, for some reason!
attempt number 3 of asking you to read the iliad, you dilettante
Vote Republican or pay for a therapist. Like tears in rain.