Description

This interview is for a book fellow interviewer Takayuki Tatsumi is writing, to be published in Japan. Tatsumi and McCaffrey are at the World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon) at the Hilton Anaheim hotel, California, on the telephone to Gibson in Vancouver. McCaffery says the interview will focus on Gibson’s book Idoru. Gibson discusses an “organic pattern that developed with the first three novels” in which it is not necessary to read earlier books, so Idoru is not a sequel to his book Virtual Light. Gibson and McCaffrey discuss the real Japanese idoru and the process of creating the book. Gibson says Idoru was harder to write than Virtual Light. Tatsumi talks about the last time they spoke. He anticipates writing the introduction to the Japanese translation of Idoru. They discuss the book Difference Engine and the Hyperart Thomasson phenomenon and its appearance in Gibson’s work, moving on to Gibson’s interview of the real idoru. Tatsumi wants to know about Gibson’s “tragic heroines,” and Gibson discusses this in terms of D. H. Lawrence and dualism. They discuss celebrity, Gibson’s thoughts on what Warhol might have done had he survived, and the work of Marcel Duchamp. Next they discuss otaku and their representation in publications. Last, Tatsumi wants to know about Gibson’s recent (1996) essay “The Net Is a Waste of Time,” published in the New York Times of July 14, 1996. Gibson answers with characters from his books and his own biography, and the two discuss current world urban populations. McCaffery asks about Gibson’s meaning when a character talks about the unreality of another character. Gibson says young people want cheaper monthly rates, more bandwidth, etc, but are not worrying about what McCaffery calls “the disappearance of the real.” What’s “scary about Neuromancer,” Gibson says, “is the end-stage capitalism with no brakes on, a world with no middle class.” Otherwise there are details that are “a neat conceit.” They discuss Timothy Leary’s death and remembrances of him. McCaffrey asks about celebrity, and Gibson says that his new book is about observations of celebrity rather than his own experience.