William Gibson

A short companion to a short lecture

Trey Wilson / Garrett Pickering

Early Life

Born in Conway, South Carolina

March 17, 1948 – (60 years)

Gibson spent most of his earlier years in Wytheville, Virginia

Gibson describes Wytheville as sparking his interest in science fiction

The Beginning

Gibson left for Canada to avoid the Vietnam draft, but was never called upon

Attended the University of British Columbia and obtained a degree in English

Wrote short stories around this period, but stopped after obtaining his Master's.

In Canada, Gibson started attending a Science Fiction convention, which grew his interest in the subject

Friends

Gibson ended up meeting with Bruce Sterling, Lewis Shiner, and other authors to expand the cyberpunk theme

He was also influenced by Punk music, which led him to meet John Shirley – a punk musician and author

Many authors and friends credit Gibson's work as being “revolutionary.”

Literary Works(no particular order and not complete)

Notable short stories

The Burning Chrome

Fragments of a Hologram Rose

Johnny Mnemonic

The Difference Engine Books

Neuromancer

Spook Country

Pattern Recognition

Idoru

Count Zero

Gibson's titles have greatly influenced various types of artists, authors, and directors

Influence / Concepts

Heavily influenced the idea of Cyberpunk

Cyberpunk can be described as high tech, low life Drugs, ghettos, and the like, but lots of technology!

Cyberspace

Basically space within an electronic world, ala meta-verses The idea of exploring the “Matrix,” or the cyberworld.

Media

Some works spoke of information streams much like the Internet

Concepts such as the phenomenon of Lonelygirl15 Gibson supposedly predicted the popularity of “reality tv”

The End(and a depiction of the Sprawl or something)

Links to the Videos

http://www.vimeo.com/1481079http://www.vimeo.com/1480402