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A comment on The Influence of Neuromancer on Cyberpunk. Parent comment

Re:The Influence of Neuromancer on Cyberpunk by jrochkind1 on Tuesday April 05, 2022 @12:06PM (#30920751)
Curious if someone can find a URL for Gibson saying such things.

I've never seen Gibson describing Neuromancer as a critique of Reagonomics or having any particular political agenda. Interested to see it if so! I don't think of Gibson having nearly as much "political" agenda or grounding as some other early "cyberpunk" writer's like Bruce Sterling or Rudy Rucker.

(I don't think Gibson himself referred to his work "cyberpunk" or "punk" originally)

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Re:The Influence of Neuromancer on Cyberpunk by kemayo on Tuesday April 05, 2022 @12:34PM (#30921141)
I did a cursory search, and there's certainly "What I tried to do was give people a future that is the world of the Reagan ’80s carried five steps forward and the volume turned up 20 clicks" in an article[1] from 1994.

[1]: https://ew.com/article/1994/08/26/william-gibson-first-man-c...

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Re:The Influence of Neuromancer on Cyberpunk by pmoriarty on Tuesday April 05, 2022 @01:24PM (#30921943)
This sounds very hand-wavy, and I wish Gibson was more explicit in drawing the connections.

Slums and the dominance of megacorps and the ultra-rich I understand, but what do cyberspace and AI's (two of Neuromancer's more original and iconic themes) have to do with Reagan? Nothing, from what I can tell.

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Re:The Influence of Neuromancer on Cyberpunk by jrochkind1 on Tuesday April 05, 2022 @02:42PM (#30923116)
Based on other stuff I've read him say, I feel like he might actually indeed be implying that things like slums and the dominance of megacorps and the ultra-rich are to him more central/significant themes/aspects of Neuromancer than AI's or cyberspace! Or at least that they are more central/significant than people focused only on the cyberspace thing recognize.

Gibson had of course famously never used the internet when he wrote Neuromancer (on a typewriter).

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Re:The Influence of Neuromancer on Cyberpunk by jdkee on Wednesday April 06, 2022 @12:24AM (#30928468)
In the year of Neuromancer's publication, 1984, very few people on earth had used the internet.

See https://www.census.gov/library/publications/1988/demo/p23-15...

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Re:The Influence of Neuromancer on Cyberpunk by NoraCodes on Tuesday April 05, 2022 @12:17PM (#30920916)
Have you read much of Gibson's other work? He's very clear about his attitude towards sci-fi as a way to examine the present day in many of his essays.
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Re:The Influence of Neuromancer on Cyberpunk by jrochkind1 on Tuesday April 05, 2022 @01:23PM (#30921925)
Yep! Oh for sure, as a way to examine the present! Just his political commitments or agenda, if any, aren't as obvious as some peers. i'm curious for places he's revealed them in interviews!
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