William Gibson

William Gibson
Portrait of Gibson in Paris during an interview on his 60th birthday, March 17, 2008
Born	March 17, 1948 (1948-03-17) Conway, South Carolina
Occupation	Novelist
Citizenship	United States, Canada
Period	1977–
Genres	speculative fiction
Literary movement	cyberpunk, steampunk, postcyberpunk
Notable work(s)	Neuromancer (novel, 1984)
Notable award(s)	Nebula, Hugo, Philip K. Dick, Ditmar, Seiun, Prix Aurora
Influences Alfred Bester, Jorge Luis Borges, William S. Burroughs, Joseph Cornell, David Cronenberg, Samuel R. Delany, Thomas M. Disch, Manny Farber, Dashiell Hammett, Howard Hawks, Ursula K. Le Guin, Sogo Ishii, Thomas Pynchon, Lou Reed, Joanna Russ, Robert Stone
Influenced Lewis Call, Cory Doctorow, Richard K. Morgan, Linda Nagata, Neal Stephenson, Charles Stross, John MacLachlan Gray, Scott Westerfeld
williamgibsonbooks.com

William Gibson (born March 17, 1948) writes science fiction. He is one of the most important people in the part of science fiction called Cyberpunk. His most famous book is Neuromancer.

Early life

Childhood, moving around, and adolescence

William Ford Gibson was born in Conway, South Carolina on the Atlantic coast. He spent most of his childhood in Wytheville, Virginia. Whytheville is a small town in the Appalachians. His parents had been born and raised there.

Gibson was shy and awkward as a teenager. He grew up in a place and time where most people thought and acted alike. This was a problem for him. He chose not to believe in religion. He read science fiction and writers such as William S. Burroughs and Henry Miller. Gibson was not doing well in school and his mother was frustrated. She threatened to send him to a boarding school. She was very surprised when he liked this idea very much.

Avoiding the military, leaving home, and counterculture

Gibson's mother died when he was eighteen years old. He left school and did not graduate. He traveled a lot. He became very interested in the counterculture. He left the United States and moved to Canada during the Vietnam War draft.

After graduation, early writing, and the beginning of cyberpunk

Gibson finished a graduate degree about science fiction. He stopped writing for one year. He did not like the trends he saw in SF. He was more interested in punk rock. He met other writers such as Bruce Sterling, Lewis Shiner, and Rudy Rucker. These writers became the important members of the cyberpunk movement in SF.

Literary career

Early short fiction

Gibson's first published short story was "Fragments of a Hologram Rose" (1977). He wrote other short stories for magazines such as Omni. He was often compared to J. G. Ballard. Some of the characters and places in his short stories are also in his Sprawl novels.

Neuromancer

The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.

--the first sentence of Neuromancer (1984)

Terry Carr asked Gibson to write Neuromancer for the third series of Ace Science Fiction Specials. The purpose of the series was to give attention to first-time novelists.

The Sprawl trilogy, The Difference Engine, and the Bridge trilogy

Neuromancer was a success and Gibson kept writing SF. The Sprawl trilogy continued the story of Neuromancer, even though Gibson did not plan to write any sequels. Then he explored other ideas. The Difference Engine was alternat history. In The Bridge trilogy, Gibson wrote about new problems. He paid less attention to large corporations or artificial intelligence. He wrote more about mass media and celebrity.

Later novels

Gibson's later books are more realistic. They include Pattern Recognition, Spook Country, and Zero History.

Other kinds of writing

Working with other writers

He has written short stories and novels with others, especially other cyberpunk authors John Shirley and Bruce Sterling.

Film

There have been many attempts to make films based on Gibson's writing. Most of these have never been completed.

Shows, poetry, music, and performance art

Gibson has written poems too. He has also worked with artists, architects, and musicians.

In 1990, Gibson was part of an exhibit at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art called "Visionary San Francisco". He wrote a short story, "Skinner's Room", that took place in San Francisco. In the story, the San Francisco – Oakland Bay Bridge was closed and became a community for homeless people. Architects Ming Fung and Craig Hodgetts were interested in the story and imagined a future San Francisco. Their idea of the future showed rich people living in high-tech towers above a city that was falling apart. Gibson was part of the architects' exhibit. Visitors could watch a video of him discussing the future and reading from the story "Skinner's Room". Another version of the short story appeared a year later in Omni magazine.

In 1993, Gibson wrote some lyrics for the album Technodon by the Japanese group Yellow Magic Orchestra. He was the vocalist on the track "Hi-Tech Hippies". He wrote lyrics to the track "Dog Star Girl" on Deborah Harry's Debravation.

Essays and short nonfiction

Gibson sometimes writes nonfiction for newspapers or magazines. He has written essays, opinion-editorials, and commentary for publications such as: Wired, The New York Times, The Observer, Addicted to Noise, New York Times Magazine, Rolling Stone, and Details Magazine.

Influence and recognition

Ideas about cities

In his fiction and non-fiction, Gibson often writes about cities. He thinks many cities are losing variety. One way of describing this is "Disneylanding".

Importance in the culture

Many writers believe that Gibson helped science fiction become cool.

Important ideas and seeing the future

His work seemed did not just predict the future of technology such as the World Wide Web. The ideas in his books were important to the people who created Internet technology.

Some writing by Gibson

Novels Sprawl trilogy: Neuromancer (1984) Count Zero (1986) Mona Lisa Overdrive (1988) The Difference Engine (1990; with Bruce Sterling) Bridge trilogy: Virtual Light (1993) Idoru (1996) All Tomorrow's Parties (1999) Bigend trilogy: Pattern Recognition (2003) Spook Country (2007) Zero History (2010)

Short stories Burning Chrome (1986, preface by Bruce Sterling), collects Gibson's early short fiction, listed by original publication date: "Fragments of a Hologram Rose" (1977, UnEarth 3) "Johnny Mnemonic" (1981, Omni) "The Gernsback Continuum" (1981, Universe 11) "Hinterlands" (1981, Omni) "New Rose Hotel" (1981, Omni) "The Belonging Kind", with John Shirley (1981, Shadows 4) "Burning Chrome" (1982, Omni) "Red Star, Winter Orbit", with Bruce Sterling (1983, Omni) "The Winter Market" (Nov 1985, Vancouver) "Dogfight", with Michael Swanwick (1985, Omni) "Skinner's Room" (Nov 1991, Omni)

Nonfiction

Agrippa (a book of the dead) (1992) – a poem and artist's book

"Disneyland with the Death Penalty" – a 1993 Wired article

Other websites

• William Gibson official website
• William Gibson on Twitter