Conversations with William Gibson

This book features insightful and thought-provoking interviews with one of the most celebrated science-fiction authors of the last 50 years. "After reading Neuromancer for the first time," literary scholar Larry McCaffery wrote, "I knew I had seen the future of [science fiction] (and maybe of literature in general), and its name was William Gibson." McCaffery was right. Gibson's 1984 debut is one of the most celebrated SF novels of the 50 years, and in a career spanning more than three decades, the science fiction writer and reluctant futurist responsible for introducing "cyber-space" into the lexicon has published nine other novels. This volume draws together 23 interviews from a variety of media and sources - print and online journals and fanzines, academic journals, newspapers, blogs, and podcasts. Myriad topics include Gibson's childhood in the American South and his early adulthood in Canada, with travel in Europe; his chafing against the traditional SF mould, the origins of "cyberspace," and the unintended consequences (for both the author and society) of changing the way we think about technology; the writing process and the reader's role in a new kind of fiction. Gibson takes on branding and fashion, celebrity culture, social networking, the post-9/11 world, future uses of technology, and the isolation and alienation engendered by new ways of solving old problems.