Anyone read this? Is it as trash as it sounds?

I remember really enjoying it. Back in the day everyone read it.

I loved it.
The idea of two artificial intelligences trying to merge into an infinite intelligence was fantastic, and it had a great plot line set within an imaginative universe.
The matrix totally ripped it off.

I had this on my ipod and when my friend borrowed it he said my playlist is shit, and that book is dumb.

It's okay with a side of cringe. Gibson got better really soon after. He's a little embarrassed of it himself.

This book was everything my edgy 24 year old self wanted it to be. I read it for the first time last year, and immediately read it again because it can be fucking hard to follow. The style puts images into words to immerse the reader. To me this is a perfectly legitimate form. He portrays an atmosphere which only he can visualize, even if not always in complete sentences.

As this dude said,
Personally, I feel that this novel is emblematic of 80's science fiction, when the wired was foreseen as being, literally speaking, the way of the future.

Hell, even a sex scene is treated in the context of this shared network. As in the following,
>his orgasm flaring blue in a timeless space, a vastness like the matrix, where the faces were shredded and blown away down hurricane corridors, and her inner thighs were strong and wet against his hips

Yeah you like that? In another example, the opening line referenced by this user,
is far more exciting than simply writing that the sky was blue. I'm not sure if this can properly be described as word-painting.

Gibson will describes the most squalid environs in rococo detail, then within a few chapters describe the panic of a crowd or the experience of bone fracture in such primal simplicity that you almost feel it yourself.

Here's a song called Teen Age Riot which captures the feel of the book. For me, anyway.

youtube.com/watch?v=x9r0renJWuY

In the present day, we seem to treat the internet as an interface which is intended to connect us, or at least to facilitate interaction. It seems also to have the opposite effect. For many of us, it's a thing to obvious to waste time talking about. Gibson's characters are intricately connected to this sea of information, this "shared, consensual hallucination", it is an extension of their selves. Though his protagonist is hardly a reliable point of view, because he's not a typical example, it is made very clear to us that he is one of many who will not be remembered. Disparity in status and wealth is very much still a thing in Gibson's dystopia. And the street finds it's own uses for things.

We can't call Gibson prophetic. At least not yet. I would love to see how this novel holds up in 20-30 years as the technology advances. We have no idea yet and I have mixed feelings about that. Pardon the rant, just fucking read it user.

I really enjoyed the book. Little over indulgent in its setting, but hell that's the staple of the cyberpunk genre.
Armitage's resolution was way off the mark for me. That was probably just me.

>here's the most famous song from one of the most influential bands from an entire decade
>l i t e r a l l y took lines from Gibson in their songs
"""yeah, i think this song really captures the feel of what their taking lines from""""
shut the FUCK up user

Does fuck you sound simple enough???

good stuff
REMOVE space rasta though

it's a 'genre defining cornerstone', user
i preferred Count Zero though, for some reason
Gibson's short stories are also fucking cool
as is Pattern Recognition
and the Alien 3 script

nice contribution to the thread fucking retard

I have a class on AUGMENTED REALITIES next quarter and we're reading Gibson's book, The Periphery. Any thoughts on it? It is pretty new.

Never read it but Sonic Youth based their best song on it so it can't be bad

>best

Yes user, The Sprawl is their best song

It's very good... but I dunno, I don't want to say it is their best.

Takes a while to get going but it’s my favorite Gibson