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...
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@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.
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@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.
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@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.
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@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.
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@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
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@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.
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@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.
