William Gibson's Latest: Spook Country

[Maria_H]

Tito is in his early twenties. Born in Cuba, he speaks fluent Russian, lives in one room in a NoLita warehouse, and does delicate jobs involving information transfer.

Hollis Henry is an investigative journalist, on assignment from a magazine called Node. Node doesn't exist yet, which is fine; she's used to that. But it seems to be actively blocking the kind of buzz that magazines normally cultivate before they start up. Really actively blocking it. It's odd, even a little scary, if Hollis lets herself think about it much. Which she doesn't; she can't afford to.

Milgrim is a junkie. A high-end junkie, hooked on prescription antianxiety drugs. Milgrim figures he wouldn't survive twenty-four hours if Brown, the mystery man who saved him from a misunderstanding with his dealer, ever stopped supplying those little bubble packs. What exactly Brown is up to Milgrim can't say, but it seems to be military in nature. At least, Milgrim's very nuanced Russian would seem to be a big part of it, as would breaking into locked rooms.

Bobby Chombo is a "producer," and an enigma. In his day job, Bobby is a troubleshooter for manufacturers of military navigation equipment. He refuses to sleep in the same place twice. He meets no one. Hollis Henry has been told to find him.

Reply to this message to discuss Spook Country, and to ask William about the book.

[William_Gibson]

Hi. I'm three days from finishing the paperback tour for Spook Country, so until Tuesday night I won't actually have all that much internet access (or time), but I'll be happy to try to answer some questions anyway. I'll be able to answer more when I'm back in Vancouver on Wednesday.

[melaniejackson]

I'm reading Spook Country now and enjoying it very much. Many of your stories read like blank verse poetry and I find myself reading them that way-- which is to say, slowly and savoring not just what is said but HOW it's said. That is a compliment :-).... will there be other stories with the characters from Spook Country? 

[William_Gibson]

Discussing work in progress isn't good for my process.

That said, I never think of a book with characters from a previous book as a sequel, in the ordinary sense. I think of it as "set in the same world". But I want a reader who hasn't read Pattern Recognition to be able to enjoy Spook Country. I don't plan narrative arcs over the course of multiple books, but then I don't plan narrative arcs, period. I try to find them as I write, which is something else entirely.

[fashionpolice]

Hi!

I'm wondering which books you are reading right now.

Or more specifically, is it even possible to read anything when you're in a different city every day while on your paperback tour?

Which books are waiting for you on your nightstand when you return home?

[mimesis]

Hi!
Since i finished reading Spook Country one of the things that stayed with me and i found myself thinking about was Titos music. I imagine it as a mix between Burial (Untrue) and fennesz and Ryuichi Sakamotos cendre.

My question is, did you think of and listen to any particular artists music when you wrote Tito, and is music important to you when you write?
//m

[William_Gibson]

Just started The Yiddish Policeman's Union by Michael Chabon. Most of tour I read Julian Cope's Japrocksampler and July issue of Forteam Times (which has a fine article on Jack Womack and his work).

Before that, Junot Diaz' super-fine The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.

The stuff on my bedside table is chosen for soporific value.

[William_Gibson]

I wound up with a much clearer idea of the Curfew's business history than of their music. More than I used in the book, I mean. In my experience, when you talk to a musician about a band you were in, that's what they remember, and tell you (if they're being honest).

Music is important to me, though I suspect I regard it as a species of narrative, and don't want to listen to one narrative while I try to write another. I also suspect I think of prose fiction as a species of music.

[konrads]

Hi,

In Your books You have always created heroes, who's actions appear to be small on grand scale of things, but actually tip those scales. Where did the prototypes came from? If You could pick a time, place and skill-set, would You still write books?

[relaxing]

I enjoyed the return of Afro-Carribean spirituality in Spook Country. In Count Zero it was implied that a deity such as Papa Legba, god of the crossroads, might be an artificial intelligence.

Can we infer the same of Tito's use of religion in his systema -- that 'Eleggua' could be an imaginative name for some technological means of navigating the crossroads?

[fashionpolice]

Thank you for your very speedy reply.

[Stephanie]

William,

Would love to hear about the tour - what is a typical book signing like for you? 

[William_Gibson]

I've just never been much taken with the capital-H heroic. Basic human-scale efforts mounted by characters who are themselves actually frightened is what convinces me. Just based on basic life-experience and my reading of history.

[William_Gibson]

I wanted to leave it as ambiguous as possible, as to whether or not Tito's gods are anything more than experientially real. The important thing for me was that his family be a different kind of "faith-based initiative".

[William_Gibson]

Arrive early, sign stock, read from book, invite questions, sign people's books. Return to hotel, eat room-service sandwich, avoid coffee, phone home, get up early and go to airport.

[sentinel]

Artists and the artistic process figure a lot in your books. Why are you drawn to this?

[arkangl]

Why does the French character in 'Spook Country' (Odile) have a French accent, while none of the French people in Count Zero did?

Ever since your first novel, you have used accents with what appears to be a significant amount of glee. Care to elaborate on that?

[UberDog]

Are you Melanie Jackson the lit agent?

[justy]

One strand that has appeared in your fiction since "The Winter Market" is the notion of celebrity and artistic fame. (this sort of picks up on sentinel's question, but diverges). You've created from whole cloth Lo/Rez and The Curfew, and I'm curious to what extent your own encounters with celebrities had an effect on those representations? Since you've gotten the chance to cover, for example, a U2 tour for Wired, do you still get tongue tied as a fan (in much the same way *we* might)?

[UberDog]

I was thinking about Justy's post and it occurred to me that therein is unlined a basic question that I have always had in the back of my mind with regards to your work.

Do you believe in the self?

As an inherent, a priori sort of proposition? Or would you lean more toward the Sartrean idea of there not being any sort of persisting self but instead a series of choices, a "radical freedom?"

I remember you once said something about people becoming a kind of chemical pathology (this was in No Maps) and it struck me that man as a chemical entity would, to me, preclude the existence of a genuine self.

With so many of your characters caught up in that which is bigger than they, patterns and systems which some can observe (Bigend, Laney, Cayce) and other's are merely buoyed along with (Rydell, Chevette)I wonder if you think we as human beings have actual intentionality or whether this is merely, "a benign user illusion."

In lieu of the above question (which is quite likely a headache for the tour weary non-self)can you tell me what you might do if you were just starting out as writer and trying to find representation?

Any "Gibsonesque" ideas for marketing one's self before publication in the age of cyberspace?

-Chris