How To Read Neuromancer (William Gibson)
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- Опубліковано 21 сер 2024
- Neuromancer, William Gibson's cyberpunk masterpiece can be a difficult read until you navigate the innovative vocabulary and ideas.
Here are a few ideas that helped me catch on quick and really enjoy the novel. I hope it can be helpful for you.
GLOSSARY:
BAMA or Sprawl - The Boston-Atlanta Metropolitan Axis, the Sprawl.
Coffin -cheap miniaturized hotel rooms in Japan due to lack of space
Cyberspace - The virtual world (not the internet)
see matrix
Dixie Flatline - The filed personality construct of the great hacker McCoy Pauley. Molly steals it with Case from the Sense/net archive.
Ice - Intrusion countermeasure electronics. Basically a security and virus protection countermeasure.
Lado-Acheson - The sun of Freeside, an artificial lightening system.
Lady 3Jane Marie-France Tessier-Ashpole - Member of the Ashpole dynasty, third clone in a series of 10 Janes
Ono-Sendai - a Hosaka Computer, a Console
Sense/Net - Corporate data library which files constructs of all important personalities
Tessier-Ashpole S.A. - Multinational corporation, a family which perpetuates incestuous cloning of its members through generations, owns Wintermute, Neuromancer and Villa Straylight
Villa Straylight - Basically the Ashpole compound, owned by TA, strictly private
Reading it is like being dropped into a new world and having to learn the slang through immersion. I really like that but I can see where people might have an issue with it. Also people like to read fast and in information dense prose one can miss out on vital details if one reads by skimming. Anyways, thanks for this!
Leo thanks for the comment. I love that about scifi and just remind myself that usually it all comes together and you just have to persevere through the hard or new language and ideas. Neuromamcer really really challenged me. Googling a lot of terms and re-reading helped me a lot.
Totally agree. I love stories with little to no explicit exposition, but I understand if it’s frustrating to some people. Luckily for us, this book influenced a lot of future work that we all grew up with so the terms and concepts aren’t hard as difficult to grasp as they might have been for people in the 80s. Honestly the most difficult thing for me in reading this book is imagining the visual representations of data in cyberspace.
Truly one of the most amazing pieces of science fiction literature ever written.
Maks, I've always said you have great taste!
@@FIT2BREAD that's true. You have said that.
@@maksgonopolsky8374 haha...always
@@maksgonopolsky8374 ps. Did you like Snow crash?
Just finished the book and glad I’m not alone in my confusion.
Did u enjoy, or the confusion was too much?
@@FIT2BREAD I very much enjoyed the book and plan on reading the novels in the trilogy. There were some parts that were confusing and I had to seek clarification but that didn’t take away from the reading experience.
@@kevinmorthorst521 Awesome, Kevin. I felt the same way. ps. Tomorrow I have a TOP 150 SCI FI Books video coming ok. subscribe to the channel and click the bell so you get the notification...see if we have many titles in common that we like...
Yeah, it's easy to get lost. I had to go back many times. Not a light read because it needs so much visualization because so much of this world is different from our own.
@@GizmoMaltese You can say that again.
Thanks for the advice man. Gave me the confidence to finish this book out.
Just finished it today and I loved it! Your video set me up well, I did a quick little "glossary" search before starting, and understanding that it's essentially a heist plot helped. Another thing I found helpful if I was ever confused was to ask myself "which state is Case in right now?". There are basically 3, right? He's either physically "in real life", he's jacked into cyberspace, or he's simstimmed with Molly. Once I got that figured, I found it easy to follow, fun, and exciting. I'm firmly in the LOVED this book aisle 🙂
nice. i wish I would have thought to include mention and distinction of the three states when I filmed this. thanks
Got to page 100, couldn’t understand it, so I put it down and proceeded to finish the entire Dune series, and then went back to Neuromancer and quickly burned through the whole trilogy. I fell deeply in love with Dune, and then Neuromancer ended up stealing my infatuation like some addictive drug
Can't articulate how much I love this comment...and how much I absolutely get you. Neuromancer also stole my infatuation!
Doing gods work here.
Kinda swell that you made this, and your responses to challenging comments are great.
I really appreciate your ** reminding us ** to be open minded & that some books aren't for some people.
Thanks Walter...I was so newbie when I filmed this and am kind of tickled that people respond to it.
@@FIT2BREAD I could be wrong, but I think it showcases the center of your success : your honesty and intellect shining through.
@@waltera13 oh stop it Walter! Ha seriously tho...thank you
I just finished it . Very confusing parts for me at times but I loved the book. Hit me hard the last page. Sad to be done with the characters.
Jake, will you ever re read it do you think? It's such an experience the first time...a great one for me...on re read, it's definitely a book that, now that you're more grounded in it, reads more cleanly and clearly
@@FIT2BREAD I say I will ! One of other comments said it was like dropping into a new world and having to learn the slang and language on the fly which I thought was really cool and accurate. Definitely will give it another go down the line !
Thanks for the tips. I am currently reading this book and feel totally confused all the time. I am glad to know I am not the only one 😁
Litcharts is helping a lot, cheers!
If you go to my videos page, I did an update version of this with more of a glossary, its a little redundant but might also help. It's called "how to read neuromancer and snow crash"
@@FIT2BREAD Great. I'll check that out too. English is my second language so I'm sure it'll help me too. Thanks again man!
Thanks for this. I'm finishing up Solaris, which I confess is leaving me cold (I am finding it dull, for all that I'm fairly racing through it), and I have Neuromancer on deck. I tried it years ago and couldn't manage. My husband couldn't manage. But I'm determined to try again. After all, I have a tee-shirt so I'd better have read the book LOL! Love your channel, seriously.
Thanks. I'd love to see what shirt you have....also, I should have a Soalris review coming up soon. I recently filmed and just finished up a theme song for it too (radiohead inspired). Thanks again
My tee is just from Tee Public, I volunteer at a used book store and I like to wear literary tees when working. It's the pink/purple, virtual headset cover.
@@Tokayd13 oh nice. Love that...Brazilian cover I beleive
I read this book like 15 years ago for a college. Re-reading it now so I can read the two sequels. Have you read them? Count Zero and Mona Lisa Overdrive? You should also check out Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson!
Thanks Joey. I started Count Zero and then got distracted by something. I'll definitely get back to it. Snow Crash is on my shelf and I should have a review of that sometime this year. Today, I just finished Nnedi Okorafor's "Remote Control," Its a neat little novella, and I think after that I have to get to "Death's End," to finish out that trilogy (Three Body Problem, Dark Forest...)before too much time passes. Have you read 3BP?
@@FIT2BREAD I haven't yet, I just learned of it a couple months ago and I have a couple books in front of them, but they're on my list. How was remote control ?
@@joeyven0m I really liked it. I def could have been longer. Excited to review it. Three Body is good, but the reward is getting to Dark Forest which is excellent. Dark Forest
@@FIT2BREAD nice, looking forward to the reviews!
@@joeyven0m meant to tell you sooner...I put the Snow Crash review up a month or so ago
After the learning curve of Malazan, this was simple.
Maybe that can be a recommendation...read all of Malazan first and then read Neuromancer... ;)
a very nice video! helped me enjoying the book much more!
Awesome. Im glad it helped
For the audio, Im finding i can miss some details of this book while doing dishes. You sort of have to pay a little more attention to understand everything.
Yeah I think the key is to read the physical copy and followup and supplement with the audiobook. And I don't think it's needed for the full book, but maybe for three or four chapters, to get a good footing.
Nice beatiful video with a great background. I admire your fitness. I need some tips😅
Exactly what I needed, thanks ❤
Glad to hear that. Thanks
Great video, super helpful my man (:
Thanks!
Glad you liked.
thx you some much for the glossary !
Gunda, thanks... tell me about your Neuromancer reading experience
Other than Cyberspace, I saw Microsoft, which is a USB like interface and Deck, which is a PC probably.
Was wondering if Bil gates used Microsoft from this book, and Steam Deck is most probably derived from the same. Two more examples of popular culture using this book IMHO.
What is your opinion on this.
Thats an interesting one. I know Microsoft comes from software and micro (perhaps microcomputer). But pretty sure not because of the novel. Still very interesting
Thanks
A lot of it for me is his weird way of explaining stuff. "He consigned the cobra to a dump canister..." is an odd way of saying "he threw the cobra in the trash" lmfao
Fair enough :)
@@FIT2BREAD Amazing video though. Much appreciated!
Wow! This was so helpful 🤠 Thank you. I’m gonna re-read it. It’s a cult classic so I’m probably missing something.
Yeah, again, I think for people that loved Neuromancer, it has more to do with that vibe of getting lost into that noir type world than the actually plot. I get what you said earlier tho aboit emotional reading, and I admit I didn't really feel super connected to these characters, but they also weren't flat
Yeah, 80% done and have still zero idea. I don't know what they are doing, are they hacking? Who are these people? What's a Finn? What does flipping mean? What is their mission and who are they doing it for? I'm almost done with the book and I know less than a movie would tell me in the first 10 minutes.
They are trying to hack into the "server" at via straylight where Neuromancer, the other AI is contained. Wintermute is the AI that is running things and pulling the strings. He recruited Armitage to put the team together.
If you stripped everything away to a base story it is really thin and not very interesting. A recruits B. B recruites C,D and E. They go on a mission to break in to get Z. What is beautiful about the story is how Gibson piles in so much wild tech and then creates a very intense visual of the world these characters are portraying. Its not for everyone, and that not a bad thing. What I mean by that, is , that a valid criticism is that Gibson doesn't give us deep clues as to what the visuals are and there's no reason we should be imagining this interesting world. Thats fair. I do think he is purposely just scattering undeveloped clues and cues to make us do the work of creating the visual for this world. I think its on purpose, and for me, I totally connect and buy in. I think if someone doesn't like it, it doesn't mean they don't get it, it may just mean its not a good match. Not sure thats helpful...
@@FIT2BREAD thanks for the reply. I love scifi movies, but this is scifi if someone had never seen or heard of scifi before and is just making up concepts. I think the genre was "finished" and fleshed out in the later decades
@@latuman i think thats fair. I read some very popular Arthur c Clarke stuff, that when it was written, was so novel and imaginative, and since then similar things have expanded on the ideas and rendered some of it uninteresting to me. Others still love it. Neuromancer, to me, is just such a connection and a story that I "feel." Its not as mind expanding as stuff I love from Asimov, or beautiful prose like Bradbury, or mystical like Okorafor. I dont defend Neuromancer to anyone, because I get all the criticisms you are leveling. I am reading something wicked this way comes right now, and it is pulling at every emotional string in my body. I can only partly explain why...its just my connection to what I'm visualizing and interpreting it. Some hate it and some just merely really like it...it just vibes with me on a more visceral level...
@@latuman try this one and tell me what you think:
ua-cam.com/video/InRm-G0ANro/v-deo.html
Imagine reading chapters then having to read meanings for those chapters haha double handling
amazing love it
what is the meaning of joeboy?
It's like a henchman
@@FIT2BREAD thanks
30% through and I literally don't have a clue what's going on lol idk if I like this or not but I can't put it down.
Thats how I felt the first time inread it. ...yet every minute was enjoyable. A unique reading experience
It's not even adult reading what's so difficult?
Phaze, thanks for the question. I like, I beleive, many others found it difficult to get a solid footing at first. Gibson introduces a lot of new terms and concepts many of us haven't heard before. Also he uses terms like cyberspace, which mean something a bit different than what we actually know it to mean today. That can be a bit confusing. Also some of the new terms he uses are for something (hosaka, deck, etc.) And refers to the same thing three different ways. Also because Case and Molly and others are sometime in the real world and sometimes in virtual reality, those of us who struggle a bit with attention deficits, may, at first miss some of the cues to initially center us into the correct space. Does that make sense?
What’s the point of saying this honestly ? Do you have self-confidence issues, trying to put others down ?
@@noetakeuchi8284 I like your response, even if i decided to pretend it was a real question.... I think most would acknowledge Neuromancer is not childish reading... not that there's anything wrong with childish reading either...right