William Ford Gibson (born March 17 1948(1948--), Conway, South Carolina) is an American-Canadian writer who has been called the father of the cyberpunk subgenre of science fiction, having coined the term cyberspace in 1982^[6][7] and popularizing it in his first novel, Neuromancer (1984), which has sold more than 6.5 million copies worldwide.^[8]

While his early writing took the form of short stories, later Gibson has written nine critically acclaimed novels (one in collaboration), contributed articles to several major publications, and has collaborated extensively with performance artists, filmmakers and musicians. His thought has been cited as an influence on science fiction authors, in academia, cyberculture, and technology.

Biography

William Ford Gibson was born in 1948 in the coastal city of Conway, South Carolina and spent most of his childhood in Wytheville, Virginia although his family moved around frequently due to his father's position as manager in a large construction company.^[8] When Gibson was six years old, his father choked to death in a restaurant while on a business trip. His mother was unable to bring the young boy the bad news and someone else informed him about his father's death.^[9] After this tragedy, Gibson's mother returned them to South Carolina, which he later described as "a place where modernity had arrived to some extent but was deeply distrusted" and credits the beginnings of his relationship with science fiction with the subsequent feeling of abrupt exile.^[10] At fifteen he was sent to a private boarding school in Tucson, Arizona by his then "chronically anxious and depressive" mother.^[10] Tom Maddox has commented that Gibson "grew up in an America as disturbing and surreal as anything J. G. Ballard ever dreamed."^[11]

In 1967, Gibson went to Canada "to avoid the Vietnam war draft",^[12] and "did literally evade the draft, as they never bothered drafting me."^[12] That year he appeared in a CBC newsreel item about hippie subculture in Yorkville, Toronto.^[13] After travelling to Europe, he and his future wife settled in Vancouver, British Columbia in 1972. Gibson earned "a desultory bachelor's degree in English"^[10] at the University of British Columbia. Through studying English literature, Gibson was exposed to a wider range of fiction than he would have read otherwise, something he credits with giving him ideas inaccessible from within the culture of science fiction, including an awareness of postmodernity.^[4] It was at UBC that he attended his first course on science fiction, at the end of which he was encouraged to write his first short story, "Fragments of a Hologram Rose".^[8] Thereafter, Gibson worked at various jobs, including a three-year stint as teaching assistant on a film history course of his alma mater, before resolving to write full-time.^[8] Although he retains U.S. citizenship,^[14] Gibson has spent most of his adult life in Canada, and still lives in the Vancouver area.

Literary career

…the street finds its own uses for things. "Burning Chrome" (1981)

Gibson's early writings are generally futuristic stories about the influences of cybernetics and cyberspace (computer-simulated reality) technology on the human race. His themes of hi-tech shantytowns, recorded or broadcast stimulus (later to be developed into the "sim-stim" package featured so heavily in Neuromancer), and dystopic intermingling of technology and humanity, are already evident in his first published short story, "Fragments of a Hologram Rose" (1977). The latter thematic obsession was described by Gibson's friend and fellow author, Bruce Sterling, in the introduction to Gibson's short story collection Burning Chrome, as "Gibson's classic one-two combination of lowlife and high tech."^[15]

In the 1980s, his fiction developed a film noir, bleak feel; short stories appearing in Omni began to develop the themes he eventually expanded into his first novel, Neuromancer. Neuromancer was the first novel to win all three major science fiction awards: the Nebula, the Hugo, and Philip K. Dick Award.^[15]

Although much of Gibson's reputation has remained rooted in Neuromancer, his work continued to evolve conceptually and stylistically.^[15] The subsequent novels which complete his first loose trilogy - commonly known as "the Sprawl trilogy" - are Count Zero (1986) and Mona Lisa Overdrive (1988).

Following the completion of the Sprawl trilogy, Gibson's next project was a departure from his cyberpunk roots; a collaboration with Bruce Sterling. The Difference Engine, an alternate history novel set in a technologically advanced Victorian era Britain, is often cited as a central steampunk novel,^[16] and was nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1991 and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award in 1992. Gibson's second series, "the Bridge trilogy" composed of Virtual Light (1993), Idoru (1996), and All Tomorrow's Parties (1999), centres on San Francisco in the near future and evinces Gibson's recurring themes of technological, physical, and spiritual transcendence in a more grounded, matter-of-fact style than his first trilogy. A common theme up to this point has been the use of characters with seemingly innate abilities in the technological world they inhabit.

Later 21st–century incarnation

…I felt that I was trying to describe an unthinkable present and I actually feel that science fiction's best use today is the exploration of contemporary reality rather than any attempt to predict where we are going…The best thing you can do with science today is use it to explore the present. Earth is the alien planet now.

—William Gibson in an interview on CNN, August 26, 1997.

After All Tomorrow's Parties, Gibson began to adopt a more realistic style of writing, with continuous narratives — "speculative fiction of the very recent past."^[17] Critic John Clute has interpreted this approach by Gibson as the recognition that traditional science fiction is no longer possible "in a world lacking coherent 'nows' to continue from", characterizing it as "SF for the new century".^[18] Gibson's novels Pattern Recognition (2003), and Spook Country (2007), were both set in the same contemporary universe — "more or less the same one we live in now" ^[19] — and put Gibson's work onto mainstream bestseller lists for the first time.^[20] As well as the setting, the novels share some of the same characters, including Hubertus Bigend and Pamela Mainwaring - employees of the enigmatic marketing company Blue Ant.

Collaborations, adaptations and miscellanea

Literary collaborations

Three out of 10 Gibson's early stories later collected in Burning Chrome were written in collaboration; "The Belonging Kind" (1981) with John Shirley, "Dogfight" (1985) with Michael Swanwick and "Red Star, Winter Orbit" with friend and fellow founder of the cyberpunk movement Bruce Sterling. Gibson and Sterling co-wrote the Nebula Award-nominated alternate history novel The Difference Engine (1990), one of the founding texts of the steampunk sub-genre of speculative fiction.

Gibson, together with his friend Tom Maddox, wrote the X-Files episodes "Kill Switch" and "First Person Shooter". In 1998, Gibson wrote the introduction to the Art of the X-Files. Gibson also made a cameo appearance in the miniseries Wild Palms. Gibson also wrote the foreword to the novel City Come A-walkin' by fellow cyberpunk and occasional collaborator John Shirley.^[21] In 1993, Gibson contributed lyrics and featured as a guest vocalist on Yellow Magic Orchestra's Technodon album,^[21][22] and co-wrote lyrics to the track "Dog Star Girl" for Deborah Harry's Debravation.^[23]

Exhibitions and performance art

Gibson has contributed text to be integrated into a number of performance art pieces. In October 1989, Gibson wrote text for such a collaboration with future Johnny Mnemonic director Robert Longo entitled Dream Jumbo: Working the Absolutes, which was displayed in Royce Hall, University of California Los Angeles. Three years later, Gibson contributed original text to "Memory Palace", a performance show featuring the theatre group "La Fura dels Baus" at Art Futura, Barcelona, which featured images by Karl Sims, Rebecca Allen, Mark Pellington and music by Peter Gabriel and others.^[21] Gibson's latest contribution was in 1997, a collaboration with critically acclaimed Vancouver-based contemporary dance company Holy Body Tattoo.

In 1990, Gibson wrote an article about a decaying San Francisco, its Bay Bridge closed and taken over by the homeless (a theme later to form the setting of the Bridge trilogy) as part of a collaboration with the architects Ming Fung and Craig Hodgetts; this article subsequently became part of an exhibit at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art^[24] featuring the author on a monitor discussing the future and reading from "Skinner's Room", a short story prequel to the trilogy.^[21]

A particularly well-received work by Gibson was Agrippa (A Book of the Dead) (1992), a 300-line semi-autobiographical electronic poem that was his contribution to a collaborative project with artist Dennis Ashbaugh and publisher Kevin Begos, Jr.^[25] Gibson's text focused on the ethereal nature of memories (the title refers to a photo album) and was originally published on a 3.5" floppy disk embedded in the back of an artist's book containing etchings by Ashbaugh (these were supposed to fade from view once the book was opened and exposed to light — they never did). "Ashbaugh's design eventually included a supposedly self-devouring floppy-disk intended to display the text only once, then eat itself."^[26] Contrary to numerous colorful reports, the diskettes were never actually "hacked." Instead the poem was manually transcribed from a surreptitious videotape of its screen projection at a public showing in Manhattan in December 1992, and released on the MindVox BBS the next day; this is the text that still circulates widely on the Internet today.^[27]

Film adaptations and screenplays

Two of Gibson's short stories, both set in the Sprawl trilogy universe, have been loosely adapted as films: 1995 Johnny Mnemonic with screenplay by Gibson and starring Keanu Reeves, and 1998 New Rose Hotel, starring Christopher Walken, Willem Dafoe, and Asia Argento. In late 1980s Gibson wrote an early treatment of Alien³, few elements of which found their way into the film. A film adaptation of Pattern Recognition by director Peter Weir was in development, but according to Gibson, Weir is no longer attached to the project.^[28] An anime adaptation of Gibson's Idoru was announced as in development in 2006.^[29] Neuromancer, after a long stay in development hell, is in the process of adaptation as of 2007.^[30]

Gibson was the focus of a 1999 documentary film by Mark Neale called No Maps for These Territories, which followed Gibson across North America discussing various aspects of his life, literary career and cultural interpretations. It features interviews with Jack Womack and Bruce Sterling, as well as recitations from Neuromancer by Bono and The Edge.^[12]

Journalism

Gibson is a sporadic contributor to Wired, and has written for The Observer, Addicted to Noise, New York Times Magazine and Rolling Stone.^[31] He commenced writing a blog in January 2003, which remains active, with one major hiatus (September 2003 – October 2004) as of October 2007. During the process of writing Spook Country, Gibson frequently posted short nonsequential excerpts from the novel to the blog.^[32]

Influence

Hailed by the Literary Encyclopedia as "one of North America's most highly acclaimed science fiction writers",^[8] Gibson first achieved critical recognition with his debut novel, Neuromancer, which won three major science fiction awards – the Nebula Award, the Philip K. Dick Award, and the Hugo Award; by the last installment of the Sprawl trilogy his work had attracted an audience from outside the genre, as an "evocation of life in the late 1980's".^[34] His work, which has received international attention,^[8] is often situated by critics within the context of postindustrialism as a construction of "a mirror of existing large-scale techno-social relations",^[35] and as a narrative version of postmodern consumer culture.^[36] It is praised by critics for its depictions of late capitalism^[35] and its "rewriting of subjectivity, human consciousness and behaviour made newly problematic by technology."^[36]

Cultural influence

In his early short fiction, Gibson is credited by the Literary Encyclopedia as effectively renovating science fiction, a genre at that time considered widely "insignificant."^[8] Gibson's work has influenced several popular musicians; references to his stories appear in the music of Stuart Hamm,^[I] Billy Idol,^[II] Warren Zevon,^[III] Deltron 3030, Straylight Run^[37] and Sonic Youth. U2 at one point planned to scroll the text of Neuromancer above them on a concert tour, but ended up not doing it. Members of the band did, however, provide background music for the audiobook version of Neuromancer as well as appearing in Gibson's biographical documentary, No Maps for These Territories.^[38] Gibson returned the favour, writing "U2's City of Blinding Lights" about U2 on tour for Wired.

The Matrix is arguably the ultimate “cyberpunk” artifact.

—William Gibson on his blog, 2003^[38]

In the landmark cyberpunk film The Matrix (1999), the title itself and some of the characters were inspired by the novel; Neo and Trinity in The Matrix show similarities to Case and Molly in Neuromancer.^[39] Hackers (1995) is another film, which although not drawing direct influence from Gibson, pays homage to him—the computer which the hackers break into toward the end of the film is called "the Gibson."^[40]

Visionary influence

The future is already here — it's just not evenly distributed.

—William Gibson, quoted in The Economist, December 4 2003^[41]

Gibson coined the term cyberspace^[7] and in Neuromancer first used the term '' to refer to the visualised Internet,^[42] predicting a worldwide communications network eleven years before the origin of the World Wide Web.^[15] He predicted the rise of Reality television, the Internet and many of the subcultural aspects of the latter, e.g. the hacker's subculture in Neuromancer.^[4]

Gibson's vision, generated by the monopolising appearance of the terminal image and presented in his creation of the cyberspace matrix, came to him when he saw teenagers playing in video arcades. The physical intensity of their postures, and the realistic interpretation of the terminal spaces projected by these games — as if there were a real space behind the screen — made apparent the manipulation of the real by its own representation.

– Tatiani G. Rapatzikou

In Pattern Recognition, an important plotline revolves around snippets of film footage posted anonymously at various locations on the Internet. Characters in the novel speculate about the filmmaker's identity, motives, methods and inspirations on several websites, anticipating the 2006 Lonelygirl15 internet phenomenon. However, Gibson refuted the notion that he predicted Lonelygirl15 or YouTube stating: "Wow, the legend grows and grows! You could probably make a case that I predicted Lonelygirl in Pattern Recognition. But I don't think the people who did were thinking, 'This sounds like a riff from a William Gibson novel!'"^[45]

Gibson has never had a special relationship with computers. Neuromancer was in fact written on a manual typewriter (he eventually upgraded to a Macintosh SE/30). In 2007 he said:

Bibliography

Novels

• Sprawl trilogy:
• Neuromancer (1984)
• Count Zero (1986)
• Mona Lisa Overdrive (1988)
• The Difference Engine (1990; with Bruce Sterling)
• Bridge trilogy:
• Virtual Light (1993)
• Idoru (1996)
• All Tomorrow's Parties (1999)
• Pattern Recognition (2003)
• Spook Country (2007)

Short fiction

Collected Burning Chrome (1986, Preface by Bruce Sterling) which includes: "Fragments of a Hologram Rose" (1977, UnEarth 3) "Johnny Mnemonic" (1981, Omni) "The Gernsback Continuum" (1981, Universe II) "Hinterlands" (1981, Omni) "New Rose Hotel" (1981, Omni) "The Belonging Kind", with John Shirley (1981, Shadows 4) "Burning Chrome" (1982, Omni) "Red Star, Winter Orbit", with Bruce Sterling (1983, Omni) "The Winter Market" (Nov 1985, Vancouver) "Dogfight", with Michael Swanwick (1985, Omni)

Uncollected "Tokyo Collage" in SF Eye, August 1988.[23] "Hippy Hat Brain Parasite" in Rucker, Rudy (1989). SemiotextE Sf. Brooklyn: Autonomedia, 109-122. ISBN 0936756438.Autonomedia&rft.place=Brooklyn&rft.pages=109-122&rft.isbn=0936756438">  "The Nazi Lawn Dwarf Murders" (unpublished)[46] "Doing Television" in Dorsey, Candas Jane (1989). Tesseracts 3. Victoria: Porcépic, 392-394. ISBN 9780888782908.  "Darwin" in Spin, April 1990, 21-23.[23][21] "Skinner's Room" in Polledri, Paolo (1990). Visionary San Francisco. Munich: Prestal, 153-65. ISBN 3791310607.  "Academy Leader" in Benedikt, Michael (1991). Cyberspace. Cambridge: MIT Press, 27-29. ISBN 0262521776.  "Cyber-Claus" in Hartwell, David (1992). Christmas Stars. New York: Tor Books. ISBN 0812522869.  "Where the Holograms Go" in Trilling, Roger (1993). Wild Palms Reader. City: St Martins Pr, 122-23. ISBN 0312090838.  "Thirteen Views of a Cardboard City" in Aldiss, Brian (1997). New Worlds. Clarkston: White Wolf Pub, 338-349. ISBN 1565041909.

Articles

Emergent technology is, by its very nature, out of control, and leads to unpredictable outcomes. Gibson's address at the Directors Guild of America Digital Day, Los Angeles, May 17, 2003

• Rocket Radio (1989), Rolling Stone, June 15, 1989
• Disneyland With The Death Penalty (1993), Wired, 1.04
• The Net Is a Waste of Time…and That's Exactly What's Right About It (1996), New York Times Magazine 1996-07-14: 31.
• "'Virtual Lit': A Discussion" (1996) Biblion: The Bulletin of The New York Public Library, Fall 1996: 33-51.^[23]
• Dead Man Sings (1998) Forbes ASAP, 30 November, 1998 supp.: 177.
• My Obsession (1999), Wired, 7.01
• William Gibson's Filmless Festival (1999), Wired, 7.10
• My Own Private Tokyo (2001), Wired, 9.09
• Blasted Dreams in Mr. Buk's Window (2001), National Post, 2001-09-20
• The Road to Oceania (2003), The New York Times, 2003-06-25
• God's Little Toys (2005), Wired, 13.7
• U2's City of Blinding Lights (2005), Wired, 13.8

Miscellaneous other work

• Count Zero shortened and bowdlerised^[48] serialization illustrated by J. K. Potter, Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, January, February, March 1986 issues
• Agrippa (A Book of the Dead) (1992) — an artist's book
• Narration of Neuromancer for Time Warner Audio Books on 4 audio cassettes (1994)
• Gibson, William (1995). Johnny Mnemonic: the Screenplay and the Story. New York: Ace Books. ISBN 978-0-44100234-4. 
• Introduction to Carter, Chris (1998). The Art of the X Files. New York: HarperPrism. ISBN 978-0-06105037-4. 
• Screenplay for two episodes of The X-Files (1998, 2000).
• Introduction to Borges, Jorge (2007). Labyrinths: Selected Stories & Other Writings. New York: New Directions. ISBN 978-0-81121699-9.Labyrinths%3A%20Selected%20Stories%20%26%20Other%20Writings&rft.aulast=Borges&rft.aufirst=Jorge&rft.date=2007&rft.pub=New%20Directions&rft.place=New%20York&rft.isbn=978-0-81121699-9"> 
• Foreword to Girard, Greg (2007). Phantom Shanghai. Magenta Foundation. ISBN 978-0-97397391-4. 

Further reading

• Olsen, Lance (1992). William Gibson. San Bernardino: Borgo Press. ISBN 1557421986. 
• Cavallaro, Dani (2000). Cyberpunk and Cyberculture. London: Athlone Press. ISBN 9780485006070. 
• Tatsumi, Takayuki (2006). Full Metal Apache: Transactions between Cyberpunk Japan and Avant-Pop America. Durham: Duke University Press. ISBN 9780822337744. 

Footnotes

References

External links

• http://www.WilliamGibsonbooks.com – personal website
• Archive index for William Gibson's weblog

References

• William Gibson at the Internet Movie Database
• William Gibson at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• Project Cyberpunk's biography and links

Notable fan sites

• William Gibson Aleph An extensive fan site
• Synaptic Response Formerly neuromancer.ca
• William Gibson at BookTour.com
• Node Magazine fansite in the world of Spook Country

Interviews

Chronological order of publication (oldest first)

• CBC video interview with Gibson - Yorkville, a hippie haven (14 minutes): broadcast September 4, 1967; a 19-year-old Gibson conducts CBC TV on a tour of the village; can be seen in first and last 3 minute segments.
• Spike Magazine interview from August 1999.
• Audio interview at CBC Bookclub - Pattern Recognition from 2003: 4 parts of 16, 9, 17 and 9 minutes.
• Streaming audio interview (20 minutes) from 2003.
• Tech Nation interview (20 minutes) from February 2004 (Mp3 format).
• Radio interview from This Week in Science (September 12, 2006 broadcast).
• Sci-Fi Icon Becomes Prophet of the Present - interview by T. Virgil Parker for College Crier from Summer 2007.
• The Bat Segundo Show #133 (54 minutes) podcast interview from 2007.
• Audio interview at CBC Bookclub - Spook Country - (30 minutes) from 2007: part one runs 13 minutes; part two runs 17 minutes.

•  • [ e] Gibsonian
Novels: The Sprawl trilogy: Neuromancer, Count Zero, Mona Lisa Overdrive • The Difference Engine (with Bruce Sterling) • The Bridge trilogy: Virtual Light, Idoru, All Tomorrow's Parties • Pattern Recognition, Spook Country
Short stories: Burning Chrome collection: "Johnny Mnemonic", "The Gernsback Continuum", "Fragments of a Hologram Rose", "The Belonging Kind", "Hinterlands", "Red Star, Winter Orbit", "New Rose Hotel", "The Winter Market", "Dogfight", "Burning Chrome" • uncollected: "Skinner's Room"
Miscellanea: Neuromancer videogame • Agrippa (A Book of the Dead) • Johnny Mnemonic • New Rose Hotel • No Maps for These Territories • two The X-Files episodes
Story elements: Neural Attenuation Syndrome • Molly Millions • Cyberspace • Megacorporation • Screaming Fist • Tessier-Ashpool • Intrusion Countermeasures Electronics • Ono Sendai • Turing Police • The Sprawl • Raygun Gothic • Gender-bait • Hubertus Bigend

Persondata
NAME	Gibson, William
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Speculative fiction author, cyberpunk pioneer
DATE OF BIRTH	March 17, 1948
PLACE OF BIRTH	Conway, South Carolina
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH