In message <[log in to unmask]>, Tsachi Krendel
<[log in to unmask]> writes
>Nir Yaniv wrote:
>>
>> Liz Holliday wrote:
>>
>> > > I had really high hopes when I began reading "Neuromancer", alas, I
>> > >was severely disappointed. Gibson merely took several well known
>> > >ingredients and mixed them in a not-too-unique a way. I really fail
>> > >to see the big change, as to my opinion both PKD and John Brunner did
>> > >the same thing, somewhat better, more than twenty years ago.
>> > And let's not forget Delany and Tiptree and Cordwainer Smith...
>> And Bester and...
>> I actually discussed that with Brian Aldiss today (he's visiting
>> Israel, we're trying to establish an Israeli SF&F Society here, just
>> had our first conference and he was the guest of honor). He agreed
>> with me that all those authors we mentioned did the thing before
>> Gibson (he actually had to remind me of Bester, for which I'm
>> eternally ashamed), but claimed that still Gibson put all these
>> ingredients together in a rather original and unique way. I thought
>> otherwise and gleefully argued until it was time to say goodbye...
>> I'd call it a draw. What do you (people) out there think?
>>
>> Nir Yaniv [log in to unmask]
>> Murphy's Law Enforcement Dept.
>
>I read Neuromancer several times, including the following books "Count Zero" &
>"Mona Lisa over drive" I have to say this out right, i realy realy enjoyed them.
>As for who was the first...who cares? I think Gibson built a unique world in
>which
>his characters stroggle to survive, it's a twisted world, true...But none the
>less
>it's an interesting one. I belive that Gibson's way with details realy helps the
>reader to "enter" the story and take part. It's allso true that there are better
>SF&F
>writers but Gibson is one of the few worth paying attention to.
Just for the record, I'd like to point out that I only wrote the line in
the above message about Tiptree and Delany and Smith.
As for why we should care about who was first, or who was first: we
should care if we care about the history of our field. We should care
if it bothers us that early work is being forgotten about. We should
care, in Tiptree's case, if we care that fine work by women is sometimes
passed over in favour of work by men. We should care if we are trying
to become writers ourselves, because we can learn a lot from this piece
of history about the way ideas circulate and mutate and recombine. And
we should care if we have pretensions to becoming great writers because
here we have a warning about what time may do to even the greatest
writers, the greatest writing.
Liz Holliday
----------------------
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Q: What do you get if you cross Star Trek with Dune?
A: Spice, the final frontier
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