William Gibson's Latest: Spook Country

[save_the_bunni…]

What is your interest in the charater name "Bunny"?

Have you ever regretted dropping it from Spook Country?

How much are you influenced by reader feedback from online and advance copies?

[William_Gibson]

I never go back and re-read my own work, unless there's some pressing professional reason to. If "Bunny" is a repeating character-name, it's because I repeatedly forget having used it before. As to why "Bunny", I have no idea.

Actually I do sometimes re-read parts of The Difference Engine for fun, but that never feels as if I wrote it. Nor Sterling either. Author some spooky third party.

[save_the_bunni…]

Thanks for the reply. If no one else is around, I guess I'll have another go....

Why is Rydell from Knoxville?

Are there any plans to collect various unreleased articles/stories done for periodicals over the years?

Thanks for all the great books too!

[William_Gibson]

I may have been thinking of Cormac McCarthy's Suttree, which is set in Knoxville, and is a favorite novel of mine. I grew up not that far from Knoxville. I like the idea of a place like Knoxville in a near-future sf novel.

[fashionpolice]

In Pattern Recognition it appears that Pamela Mainwaring has been fired from Blue Ant. (Bigend says  that Pamela Mainwaring is "no longer with us" and Dorothea states "she was easy", i.e. providing Dorothea with information before she hooked up with Blue Ant)

Pamela's back in Spook Country - any story behind this or did Bigend just rehire her because of her particular skill set?

[fashionpolice]

Does Hubertus Bigend wear a watch? and if so which watch(es) does he wear?

One of the things I find fascinating about Hubertus Bigend is his choice of the items he buys, wears, and consumes - the Stetson hat, the H2, the Brabus, the maglev bed, etc. They're all on the very edge of being garish but yet remain in the area where they are still fascinating that you could be gravitated toward them without thinking you'd look like a Russian oligarch if you owned them yourself.

[William_Gibson]

Not to spoil the illusion, but there's no there, there. It isn't as though I know anything more about these characters other than what I reveal in their most recent adventures. I assumed PM was re-hired because Bigend liked her, for some unknown reason. I liked the tights she wore in PR, so maybe he did too. U2 used to have a "dedicated" travel agent who wore tights like that, and could instantly print you up any required air-ticket from a gizmo in her purse. Though now I think about it, that was before electronic ticketing, so PM's use of same may have constituted an anachronism in PR.

[William_Gibson]

He's wearing one the size of an ashtray, in Spook Country.

Perhaps it's an Anonimo:

http://www.anonimousa.com/who_s_wearing

[fashionpolice]

Thanks for the replies - (scuttles off to look for tartan print tights)

[AishaNumbers]

Hi again,

My favourite is Milgrim.
Is he named for the Milgram Experiment in obedience to authority, by any chance?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment

[nirhere]

Do you relate your writing to present politics ?

Are you interested in middle east politics (I felt a strong relation between ideas I found in pattern recognition to notions I have about the Israeli\Palestinian - at least it's coverage in the media) I find that the "conversation" between the political entities led itself to a lack of conversation - to a long monologue based on something that resembles an intelligence/official report, a state in which both sides reduct their hopes to dealing with an never ending present, quite a messy speech for here, but can you relate ?

Best.

[sentinel]

.

Message Edited by sentinel on 06-19-2008 02:22 PM

Message Edited by sentinel on 06-19-2008 02:22 PM

[sentinel]

Have you ever been (or are you now) interested in making THINGs? Obviously, books are also satisfying objects - but I mean using your hands and tools directly to sculpt or mend or assemble. A vase, or a bookcase or a model airplane or a pair of mittens?

[William_Gibson]

"Milgrim" is a non-uncommon name in the American south.

[William_Gibson]

I don't have that much in the way of an expressed political philosophy, and generally discount politically didactic fiction (narratives constructed exclusively to illustrate an expressed political philosophy).

[William_Gibson]

I've made all kinds of things, generally not very well. I've never learned to operate a sewing machine, but I can make a simple leather belt from scratch, build a rather bad but functional chair, use a graduated set of micro-mesh abrasive pads to polish a badly-worn acrylic watch crystal to transparency, build and paint a Bandai Gundam kit... So, generally, yeah. (I *love* MAKE magazine. "You don't really own anything until you've voided the warranty.")

[save_the_bunni…]

Is there any specific reason that you haven't been as outspoken about the current US election process as you were last time around?

[sentinel]

Thank you for all those replies. These two questions got overlooked from page two, so I'm reposting them here:



4Rchie
Hello Mr. Gibson,

With regard to new technology and applications, particularly when it comes to the Internet, do you tend to get more "Ah ha!" moments when the application is put to use in silly ways, or when it is used with world changing, altruistic goals in mind? For example, on youtube, Randy Pausch's Last Lecture has over 2.5 million views, while the "Leave Britney Alone" kid has over 6.5 million views.

P.S. Thanks for all the books and thanks, especially, for Rydell.
06-17-2008 12:36 PM


CoreyMaley
Greetings Mr. Gibson,

In interviews and in person, you speak about the process of writing as partially involving discovering characters, who seem to be rather autonomous. From there, it seems that the characters dictate what will happen, rather than you controlling the characters to get a particular narrative arc out of their actions.

Looking back (or perhaps looking forward), does it seem to you that these characters could have done something else, something other than what they did in their respective novels, perhaps resulting in a very different story arc? Or does it seem that their actions really were determined all along, just unbeknownst to you at the time?

Thanks very much, and it was good to see you in Princeton.

Corey
06-17-2008 01:49 PM

[William_Gibson]

Q: With regard to new technology and applications, particularly when it comes to the Internet, do you tend to get more "Ah ha!" moments when the application is put to use in silly ways, or when it is used with world changing, altruistic goals in mind? For example, on youtube, Randy Pausch's Last Lecture has over 2.5 million views, while the "Leave Britney Alone" kid has over 6.5 million views.

A: "Silly" ways. What I meant, years ago, by "the street finds its own uses for things".



Q: In interviews and in person, you speak about the process of writing as partially involving discovering characters, who seem to be rather autonomous. From there, it seems that the characters dictate what will happen, rather than you controlling the characters to get a particular narrative arc out of their actions.

Looking back (or perhaps looking forward), does it seem to you that these characters could have done something else, something other than what they did in their respective novels, perhaps resulting in a very different story arc? Or does it seem that their actions really were determined all along, just unbeknownst to you at the time?

A: I never think about what they might have done differently. To me, the book consists of what they did in the book. When I'm not actually writing about them, they aren't "around".

And with that, adios everyone, and thanks!