Talk:William Gibson (novelist)

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Contents 1 Early messages 2 Agrippa 3 W. Gibson's education? 4 First Sentence 5 The Log of the Mustang Sally 6 William Gibson clip from 1967? 7 Coining the term "Cyberspace" 8 American vs Canadian writer 9 Article naming 10 Clarification 11 Gibson's Appearance in XFiles episodes 12 Satire 13 audiobook fan site? 14 Johny Mnemonic 15 Critical Reception

[edit] Early messages

Please see Talk:Gibson for a discussion of how to best disambiguate "Gibson". Thanks. --rbrwr^± 10:59, 17 Oct 2004 (UTC)

What´s with the picture? Is he buying a tie? I feel like we´re one step away from a picture of him stepping out of the shower. But i understand that it´s difficult to get non-copyrighted pics. --Handel 23:00, 30 Nov 2004 (UTC)

This is awfully thin, needs a major redraft. Looking for round tuits. Tim Bray 07:08, 25 Mar 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Agrippa

references to be added for the agrippa mention: http://www.williamgibsonbooks.com/source/source.asp (at bottom) http://www.williamgibsonbooks.com/source/agrippa.asp (full text) --Quiddity 07:59, 20 Jun 2005 (UTC)

[edit] W. Gibson's education?

There is no word about W. Gibson educaton.

It's not just his education that is missing from this bio - he's a person, so he has a whole life. Writing intriguing fantasy fiction can only be part of it. What's he about as a person? For instance, does he like to ski, or snowboard? Hike? Garden? Bike? Fish? Collect model trains or musical instruments? Does he have kids? Is he interested in the Vancouver-based Ballard Fuel Cell emerging technology? The article hasn't really made him seem like a three-dimensional person yet (which tends to be a weakness in "cyber-culture" versions of things). - M.C.

I kind of agree. The section on biography is more about his work (i.e., "Career") than his life as such. Is it not possible to dig up more about the guy? Usually a biography gets into that. Otherwise it's just an article concerned with his professional accomplishments and writerly imagination. If we were to learn more about him, we might then learn more about why has written the books that he has — not to mention what the stories must mean to him.

Most of the biographical information that might be of interest can be obtained from a reliable figure, namely Mr.Gibsson. (here: http://www.williamgibsonbooks.com/source/source.asp) --JollyRogerz 19:59, 23 October 2006 (UTC)

I recall reading that Wm Gibson attended but did not finish college in Arizona. I have it on good authority that he is now a writing instructor at UBC, so perhaps he finished his education in Canada.

A biography is typically more about a man's work than about his 'whole life'. Wm Gibson is known for _Neuromancer_ and being the leading light of the cyberpunk movement (but Vernor Vinge published the first recognized cyberpunk story, "True Names"). Wm Gibson is NOT world famous becasue he is a draft dodger or an instuctor at UBC.

[edit] First Sentence

If Gibson was born in 1968 and fled to Canada in 1972, he was only three or four years old when they fled. The sentence should be revised to show that (presumably) his family fled and took Gibson with them.

If you read from the top of the article, you'll see that he was born in 1948, fled to Canada in 1968 and settled in Vancouver in 1972.Shsilver 16:43, 19 August 2005 (UTC)

[edit] The Log of the Mustang Sally

This novel is mentioned a few places on the net [1] and is explained in Gibson's blog [2]

I actually did have a contract for this title, with Arbor House,
but shamelessly ducked out of it after a disagreement over the
dustjacket art for their hardcover of COUNT ZERO.

I see a lot of conflicting descriptions [3] so a clear explanation here would be very useful. Any takes by someone in the know?

[edit] William Gibson clip from 1967?

Can anyone confirm if the link to the video clip in the article has anything to do with Gibson? My computer can't play the clip. Mikkel 02:00, 6 November 2005 (UTC)

It is him, he admits to doing it for the cash. http://www.williamgibsonbooks.com/archive/2003_05_01_archive.asp#200226493

Jamesmorrison 10:31, 6 November 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Coining the term "Cyberspace"

I don't think William Gibson actually coined this term. I will hunt down the name of the person who did and if my suspisions are correct, I'll edit the page. Gibson Cowboy 18:25, 29 December 2005 (UTC)

Good luck with that. The earliest citation provided by the Oxford English Dictionary is the 1982 appearance of Gibson's "Burning Chrome" in Omni. Might you be thinking of "Cyberpunk", which is generally attributed to either Gardner Dozois or Bruce Bethke? Skyraider 05:09, 19 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] American vs Canadian writer

Surely he should be placed in either the American science fiction wirters category or the Canadian one, not both?

I'd argue for Canadian. He's lived most of his life in Canada, and holds Canadian citizenship IIRC. Seems to me that when a writer emigrates they become known for their country of residence. An example would be Salman Rushdie, who is described as an "Indian-born, ethnically Kashmiri, British writer". A quick perusal of a few other writers' pages would seem to bear this out as a standard.

I'm thinking I'll edit as necessary unless there are any objections in the nearish future...? - FlyingOrca 20:49, 26 May 2006 (UTC)

I agree. -Quiddity 20:54, 26 May 2006 (UTC)

I'm not convinced. I don't hear anyone referring to Arthur C. Clarke as a "Sri Lankan" writer. If Gibson genuinely did change his citizenship, ok, but I thik we need substantiation on that. . . Skyraider 04:46, 19 June 2006 (UTC)

I'm changing it to "American": I've found substantiation that he retains US citizenship. (here) Skyraider 00:00, 31 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Article naming

It seems very odd to me that the title of this article is "William Ford Gibson". He is never known by his middle name. Wouldn't something like "William Gibson (author)" be better? I'll await objections before making any change. Metamagician3000 14:33, 25 March 2006 (UTC)

If you check the history, you'll see Moe Epsilon moved this page from "William Gibson (novelist)" on march4 2006 without discussion or explanation (that i can find). I'm surprised this move wasn't questioned earlier. I would support a re-move back. (although, it does get him higher on the (alphabetical) disambig page William Gibson...)

Does anyone know "Bill" well enough to ask him personally what he'd prefer? ;) --Quiddity 19:20, 25 March 2006 (UTC)

Like a lot of people involved in science fiction, I know him well enough to ask him if I ever ran into him again - he's actually very approachable and friendly - but that's unlikely because he no longer attends science fiction conventions as far as I know. Unfortunately, I don't know him well enough to kind of track him down and sort of stalk him just to ask something like this. :D

(OTOH, I've still never heard anyone use "William Ford Gibson".) Metamagician3000 23:44, 25 March 2006 (UTC)

Moved --> "William Gibson (novelist)" in conformity to the old title (per Quiddity)) Metamagician3000 07:36, 26 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Clarification

There are two sentences in the article that are a bit vague. Could the original author, or some knowledgeable editor fix them up?

His novel Pattern Recognition, set in the present day, entered mainstream bestseller lists for the first time. I presume this means that PR was his first novel to enter the mainstream bestseller's list. However, I don't want to change it unless it is confirmed that that is what the sentence is trying to say.

Despite all this, Gibson never had a special relationship with computers. What is a 'special relationship with computers'. It would be good to get some concrete example here. I heard he wrote Neuromancer on a typewriter. This would be good info to include if true. Ashmoo 02:21, 27 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Gibson's Appearance in XFiles episodes

Bill just said he didn't in fact appear in the X-Files episodes mentioned in the article, can anyone check? I thought it was worth mentioning: http://www.williamgibsonbooks.com/blog/2006_08_01_archive.asp#115497439647148841

[edit] Satire

I've removed the satire section, as point #1 seems to be entirely Original Research, and point #2 is an irrelevant tangent. --Quiddity·(talk) 21:19, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] audiobook fan site?

I see a recent addition and subsequent removal of a link to sffaudio.com, which I understood to be a science fiction audiobook fan site and directory. Anyone know if a link to this site would actually constitute a "commercial" link? I've asked the IP address who removed it to re-think, but how does everyone else feel about this?  ◉ ghoti 01:07, 2 October 2006 (UTC)

It would be better as a Reference section link, than in the External links section. The difference being, it's not noteworthy as a site about Gibson. --Quiddity 01:14, 2 October 2006 (UTC)

Hmm, perhaps ... though in the five-minutes of research I just did, I couldn't find any other site whose focus was on audiobooks, and none that listed as many of Gibson's in one place. There are external links to pages at sffaudio.com used for at least a few other WP articles.  ◉ ghoti 11:26, 2 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Johny Mnemonic

why there's nothing about hic novel Johny Mnemonic? --134.147.117.102 19:05, 11 November 2006 (UTC)

There is, and a whole article. See the line beginning: "Two of his short stories have been turned into movies: 1995's Johnny Mnemonic, starring ..." --Quiddity 19:43, 11 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Critical Reception

I'd like to see a section about how his novels and shortstories were received. The article pages for his books don't have that information, I think, with the exception of Neuromancer. It would be nice to get more of an overall sense for his work. --4.159.11.135 17:55, 8 December 2006 (UTC)