110 - William Gibson’s Neuromancer (feat. maia arson crimew)
Hacktivist/irl tiny kitten maia arson crimew (maia.crimew.gay) returns to discuss Neuromancer, the 1984 sci-fi novel that coined the term “cyberspace” and inspired a generation of hackers. Topics include breasting boobily up and down stairs, the parallels with 1995's Hackers, and how impressively William Gibson manages to capture the feeling of being perpetually on the run.
maia arson crimew (it/she): i am gay, mostly for girls, and i’m a tiny kitten :3. i know lot’s of things about cyber security, programming and far too little about music but i still try to do all those things at once. Twitter // Instagram // Tumblr // Bluesky
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Media Referenced in this Episode:
Neuromancer by William Gibson (Ace; First Edition, 1984). Goodreads // Bookshop.org
Hackers dir. Iain Softley (MGM/United Artists, 1995). Letterboxd // TMDB
“Europe’s Richest Royal Family Builds $300 Billion Finance Empire” by Benjamin Stupples. Bloomberg, September 29, 2023.
“’Trina’s Dorm” by icedCelery. Ao3.org
Commercial: “Case’s Dream” featuring Greg Foster as Case
Comments (18)
Amazing sound design during the holoshow excerpt, dropping the music for the bit then slamming it back on as Josh went back to the quote, just perfection.
Not sure if anyone's gonna see this, but Apple has apparently greenlit a Neuromancer TV show
It never really occured to me just how much of the lore from the Cyberpunk tabletop RPG and Cyberpunk 2077 game comes directly from Neuromancer.
Awesome! Gibson's *Pattern Recognition* would make another good episode about post 9/11 internet culture and early brand influencers
Y'all, I love you, I love this episode, and I love maia's enthusiasm every time you have her on, but also this episode made me feel one thousand years old, instead of a mere half century. As thanks, let me share with you the song that always pops into my head when I see or hear the word "icebreaker": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9g6XYQdQrs
Also Chiba City, which is just across the bay from Tokyo, has pretty nice weather most of the year! Just putting that out there. Futari Escape is a cute little story about cute little lesbians trying their very best – mostly successfully to avoid doing anything productive. So I don't really know what that first line was all about.
Surprisingly, this episode made me want to reread The Expanse series. A world not ruled by Americans, overwhelming corporate exploitation, Space Mormons, and descriptions of the incomprehensible.
Oh hey I know someone who consulted on a screenplay adaptation of MONA LISA OVERDRIVE. His contribution was inventing a mobile pop-up clean room people could use to work on chips
congrats on teaching brian how to read
I have a suggestion for another seminal piece of Sci-Fi that I want to hear your thoughts on: A Canticle for Leibowitz. It’s dystopian and full of Christianity and really interesting
it’s specifically extremely catholic, which I imagine should make a fun contrast with the usual evangelical fare
Not sure exactly what in this episode made me think of it (maybe just thinking about other notoriously confusing books and proto-cyberpunk) but a Thomas Pynchon episode would be really cool. It would be fascinating to hear your thoughts on the Crying of Lot 49
The audio editing on this one is so fucking good, you guys.
Just starting this episode, and I gotta say it's super refreshing hearing people discussing cyberpunk without absolutely shitty takes like "cyberpunk means reclaiming power with technology!" Or "Most cyberpunk media isn't very punk!" Because of course if a genre name has punk in it, then if course it must be inline with the very modern and very online usage of punk. Even if the origin of the word was some guy trying to think of a term to convey annoying kids and their computers.
All this is to say I should probably be on Xitter less, lol
I like the first 10 minutes or so of Johnny Mnemonic, before the action shifts to Newark. It's got a surprisingly cool tech-noir vibe with great analog tech, and Reeves portrays Johnny's businesslike competence very well. It really goes downhill from there.
Yaaay! More Maia is always a good thing!
I just finished reading this book, can't wait to listen !