I've been reading all of Williams Gibson's novels back to back and the thing that surprises me the most is that this guy...
-
@jenesuispasgoth @futurebird I remember like Snow Crash … the next time he passed my awareness was … Diamond Age which I disliked intensely and after that I don’t touch his books with a ten foot pole.
@GoblinQuester I need to re-read Diamond Age, but I really liked it at the time. I know at the time my grasp of English was not as good as now, so there was definitely some misinterpretations on my part.
I re-read the beginning a few years ago, and still liked it, but got distracted and never finished again.
I understand his books are not for everyone though, but as @futurebird said, the style has changed a lot since, so maybe you'll like his other books better.
-
@GoblinQuester I need to re-read Diamond Age, but I really liked it at the time. I know at the time my grasp of English was not as good as now, so there was definitely some misinterpretations on my part.
I re-read the beginning a few years ago, and still liked it, but got distracted and never finished again.
I understand his books are not for everyone though, but as @futurebird said, the style has changed a lot since, so maybe you'll like his other books better.
@futurebird @jenesuispasgoth I remember I found the beginning interesting but the story disjointed and then an completely unnecessary rape scene (that felt tucked on just to be edgy) completely dissociated me from the book.
-
@futurebird @jenesuispasgoth I remember I found the beginning interesting but the story disjointed and then an completely unnecessary rape scene (that felt tucked on just to be edgy) completely dissociated me from the book.
@GoblinQuester @jenesuispasgoth
There was a scene in Seveneves where he was describing how this sexy Russian engineer lady was sleeping in a transparent bubble mostly naked, and on the surface it was supposed to be something about "how fragile is humankind in the cold of space?" but it felt more like soft core porn... like leering... but in a way that was trying to excuse itself and pretend not to be... leering.
Like I don't have a problem? just leer and be honest about it. Creeped me out.
-
@GoblinQuester @jenesuispasgoth
There was a scene in Seveneves where he was describing how this sexy Russian engineer lady was sleeping in a transparent bubble mostly naked, and on the surface it was supposed to be something about "how fragile is humankind in the cold of space?" but it felt more like soft core porn... like leering... but in a way that was trying to excuse itself and pretend not to be... leering.
Like I don't have a problem? just leer and be honest about it. Creeped me out.
@jenesuispasgoth @futurebird Yeah, there is so many authors out there that I could throw my money at, instead of another creepy dude. There is a reason my preference these days is for woman authors.
-
With Stephenson I always feel like he's trying to get me to join a church or donate to his Kickstarter for some dubious self improvement method about 1/2 through all of his books... which is why I've not finished reading any of them.
He can write a good hook, though. He gets me invested, then starts getting on my nerves more and more until I just put the book down.
@futurebird
That's spot on!
I never made that connection.
And I think it's fair to say now he was doing that in every book. -
With Stephenson I always feel like he's trying to get me to join a church or donate to his Kickstarter for some dubious self improvement method about 1/2 through all of his books... which is why I've not finished reading any of them.
He can write a good hook, though. He gets me invested, then starts getting on my nerves more and more until I just put the book down.
This reminds me of @matociquala on "author points". Clearly, Stephenson didn't get that many author points in the beginning
Author points
One of the most useful analogies I’ve come up with over the course of my career is something that arose out of an epiphany I had approximately 20 years ago,...
(buttondown.com)
-
@futurebird
That's spot on!
I never made that connection.
And I think it's fair to say now he was doing that in every book.I wonder if all books do that to some degree, but it's just that what Stephenson wants to say is so tiresome it stands out?
hmm
-
@jenesuispasgoth @futurebird Yeah, there is so many authors out there that I could throw my money at, instead of another creepy dude. There is a reason my preference these days is for woman authors.
@GoblinQuester @jenesuispasgoth
I could have tolerated it from Niven since I don't really expect him to have any self control that way. But also Niven would have never made it so pretentious when it was just ... some guys sexy notion.
-
@GoblinQuester @jenesuispasgoth
I could have tolerated it from Niven since I don't really expect him to have any self control that way. But also Niven would have never made it so pretentious when it was just ... some guys sexy notion.
@futurebird @jenesuispasgoth I only remember reading one book of Niven - Footfall - found it having interesting ideas but not a fantastic execution. But it was translated and that can always be an issue. Anyway, the only sex related thing I recall from that one is when the aliens try to understand a pornography … which back then I thought was funny, but now dismiss as crude and a stupid joke.
-
@futurebird @jenesuispasgoth I only remember reading one book of Niven - Footfall - found it having interesting ideas but not a fantastic execution. But it was translated and that can always be an issue. Anyway, the only sex related thing I recall from that one is when the aliens try to understand a pornography … which back then I thought was funny, but now dismiss as crude and a stupid joke.
@GoblinQuester @jenesuispasgoth
He could be very crude, but also funny. And now a lot of if it just very dated.
-
@futurebird hehehe. I read SC twice, and did the same for Cryptonomicon. In both cases, the ending left me saying "That's it?!" aloud, even the second time.
@jenesuispasgoth @futurebird he wasted all his ending skills on his first, pretty terrible, book, and hasn't ever recovered. Good midgame though.
-
@jenesuispasgoth @futurebird he wasted all his ending skills on his first, pretty terrible, book, and hasn't ever recovered. Good midgame though.
@smellsofbikes @jenesuispasgoth
I am terrified to think that "ending making skill" might be a finite resource... I really hope it won't work that way.
-
@GoblinQuester @jenesuispasgoth
He could be very crude, but also funny. And now a lot of if it just very dated.
@jenesuispasgoth @futurebird yes, when I go back and read stuff from that millennia
I often have to set my mind to read it in the context of that time. So much has happened since then. I found reading Ursula Le Guins complete Earthsea with her comments very interesting as it spans such a long time frame. -
With Stephenson I always feel like he's trying to get me to join a church or donate to his Kickstarter for some dubious self improvement method about 1/2 through all of his books... which is why I've not finished reading any of them.
He can write a good hook, though. He gets me invested, then starts getting on my nerves more and more until I just put the book down.
@futurebird @jenesuispasgoth oh no, now I'm going to dig up the Stephenson Thread from my old account. I hope you're happy
-
@futurebird @jenesuispasgoth oh no, now I'm going to dig up the Stephenson Thread from my old account. I hope you're happy
@futurebird @jenesuispasgoth FOUND IT
https://tech.lgbt/@xelle/110231067087431367
(TL;DR: go read Akira) -
Doing that does make it feel like the story is over. That's important. Can't just... trail off. But endings are hard.
Among the sci-fi and cyber punk... who does endings well do you think?
2/2
@futurebird when I was young I really liked CJ Cherryh's endings, because for me, they felt like a nice compromise between resolving enough things to make it feel like a story, but leaving enough things unresolved as to feel realistic; to me, in the real world, hardly anything is ever resolved the way it is in fiction. I felt most other writers resolved so many things so neatly as to seem too unreal. Now I'm not sure.
-
@futurebird @jenesuispasgoth FOUND IT
https://tech.lgbt/@xelle/110231067087431367
(TL;DR: go read Akira)@futurebird @jenesuispasgoth I wrote the original thread after watching the Folding Ideas doc on Decentraland, which brings up Snow Crash a couple times. And I'd just finished reading Akira.
I'll now add Paprika to the recommendations, because *holy shit* that's a good (& relevant) movie. It doesn't have most of the aesthetic flourishes associated with cyberpunk but... watch it, and I think you'll see.
