Disneyland with the Death Penalty…

However, he also has interests in other social aspects that aren't totally negative. There is a very famous text by him where he travels to Singapore, and it's called "Disneyland with the Death Penalty", where you can really taste an example of modernity mixed with nature and simplicity. Singapore (just in case you don't know it) is famous for being one of the cleanest cities in the world, and also has a campaign every year related to recycling and politeness, organized by the government. In this text you can read things like these…

"There is no slack in Singapore. Imagine an Asian version of Zurich operating as an offshore capsule at the foot of Malaysia; an affluent microcosm whose citizens inhabit something that feels like, well, Disneyland. Disneyland with the death penalty."

I also enjoy particularly his vivid descriptions and wonderful simplicity when commenting particularly complicated and diverse locations…

"The sensation of trying to connect psychically with the old Singapore is rather painful, as though Disneyland's New Orleans Square had been erected on the site of the actual French Quarter, obliterating it in the process but leaving in its place a glassy simulacrum. The facades of the remaining Victorian shop-houses recall Covent Garden on some impossibly bright London day. I took several solitary, jet-lagged walks at dawn, when a city's ghosts tend to be most visible, but there was very little to be seen of previous realities: Joss stick smouldering in an old brass holder on the white-painted column of a shop-house; a mirror positioned above the door of a supplier of electrical goods, set to snare and deflect the evil that travels in a straight line; a rusty trishaw, chained to a freshly painted iron railing. The physical past, here, has almost entirely vanished."

If you would like to read the entire article… I've been able to find it here… I hope you enjoy it very much!

http://www.voidspace.org.uk/cyberpunk/gibson_disney.shtml

When asked also for influences in a similar interview he said this…

shem32: Neuromancer seemed to come from nowhere, but it can't have been that weird... who or what were your influences? And what drove you to write it? And - by the way - do you get annoyed at still being called a cyberpunk?? Thanks a lot, really like the books
WG: Burroughs, Ballard, Pynchon... Desperation. It seems a rather tired phrase today.

This wouldn't be particularly interesting, if it weren't for the fact that this comment comes from a very interesting interview. The special thing about this interview is the fact that it's students and people in general that registered in the webpage particularly to be able to ask him questions, though his answers are relatively short (due to shortage of time of course), his ideas are concise and interesting, check it out here…

http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/sciencefiction/story/0,6000,150658,00.html

One of his fans described his latest novel with these words:

"We are in, lets say, England, and then Tokyo, and then more England, and then Moscow, and then France. With fences and attaches of all sorts and street runners of antique computers the pace never cuts out."

Read reviews of Pattern Recognition here…

http://www.authoretica.com/authors/w_gibson.php

You can also read a very good review of the book here (by T.M. Wagner)…

http://www.sfreviews.net/patternrec.html

Here you have another Online conference I was able to find, I was particularly pleased of finding this… It's an online conference with William Gibson related to Johnny Mnemonic. This is the description: "William Gibson hangs out online to talk about his work and the new movie and CD-ROM game based on his 1980 short story, "Johnny Mnemonic." Gibson wrote the screenplay to the movie, out in May, and worked with director Robert Longo to make the project a reality. Check out the Wired article on the movie, the game, and a piece by Gibson himself in the June (3.06) issue."

http://artlung.com/smorgasborg/aol_gibson.shtml

To finish with this section one could probably talk about his characters. Gregory Benford writes that "Gibson has labored mightily on his style and uses it to carry scenes which could have worked better if he had a better understanding of both character and situation."Frederick Pohl adds that "I have yet to find a character in any cyberpunk story that I can care about or indeed believe.". Brian Aldiss claims that what makes Neuromancer "a remarkable debut, rather than a remarkable novel, is Gibson's style." Gibson's protagonist, he continues, "lacks those qualities of character we need to engage us wholly in his fate, and surface colourings, however beautifully achieved, can only titillate, not satisfy."

But such assertions fail to take Gibson's work on its own terms. Moreover, they display an ignorance both of postmodern characterization and literary-historical context. By this point in time, it has become a commonplace to observe that postmodern fiction (and much science fiction as well) often subverts the idea of fully-rounded character by presenting entities that are flat, insubstantial, and unstable. We can thank Lance Olsen for such and insight in these quotes, and for finding them of course. However there are more things to say about his characters. If you ever want to find them all, and I mean all… check them out here, you'll find a small description (depending on the importance of the characters of course).

http://www.antonraubenweiss.com/gibson/gibson0.html

I would like to remember this author as the Godfather of Cyberspace. Cyberspace is the LSD of the '90s and many of us can't seem to kick the habit. We luckily have authors like William Gibson who are helping us to stand the suffering and enjoy books that talk about our fears and problems, thank you Mr. Gibson.