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“I don’t do ‘research’, I just walk around. This stuff’s
in everyone’s face today. It’s more a matter of not ignoring
it. Paying attention.
“Laney’s node-spotter function [from Idoru] is some
sort of metaphor for whatever it is that I actually do.
There are bits of the literal future right here, right now,
if you know how to look for them. Although I can’t tell
you how; it’s a non-rational process.”
On a similar note, how does Gibson keep his famous
‘edge’? He’s no spring chicken. Yet his characters,
especially the younger ones, are remarkably consistent
with current trends. How does he keep in touch with
the ‘street’?
“It’s the same non-rational process, really, but applied
to culture. I think Brian Eno’s right in defining culture
as everything we do that we don’t absolutely need to
do. I just walk around. I look at what people are doing
– particularly if they’re doing it passionately – that they
don’t really need to do.”
An image of Gibson wandering around South Central
at two in the morning clutching a notebook springs to
mind, but I decide not to voice it.
“I’ve always been fascinated by expressions of individual
style, particularly in the street sense. I suspect
that that’s one of the oddest things about me, at least
in terms of someone being marketed as some sort of
science fiction writer.”
But which sort, exactly? Gibson is known as the
BUY William Gibson books online from and
“Granddaddy of dystopian fiction”. Yet nearly all of his
work has an underlying optimism, even what might be
called happy endings.
“I really don’t think I’m dystopian at all. No more
than I’m utopian. The dichotomy is hopelessly oldfashioned,
really. What we have today is a combination
of the two, with all the knobs turned up to max.”
So it doesn’t bother him?
“No.”
What does he read himself? Does he follow the rise
of ‘upstarts’ such as Jeff Noon and Neal Stephenson?
“I read Iain Sinclair and Cormac McCarthy. But,” he
smiles, “I’m always on the lookout for a good upstart.”
Let’s move onto All Tomorrow’s Parties. Did Gibson
always visualise Virtual Light as the beginning of a
series?
“No. I always back into the trilogy thing. It’s embarrassing,
really. I swear I thought VL was going to be a
one-off. It’s an organic process for me, rather than one
of deliberation. The one text grows out of the other. It’s
as though the previous book becomes compost for the
next one.” Lovely image, cheers.
“I don’t work to any rationale; it’s a seat-of-the-pants
thing. And the extent to which I can feel that it’s not
rational, is exactly the extent to which I’m convinced
that I’m really doing my job.”
In ATP, the Idoru finally becomes a physical entity.
There’s surely a lot more he could do with that – will he?
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