Trivia / Neuromancer

• Magnum Opus Dissonance: Because it was so influential, it's Gibson's most famous and acclaimed work. But in terms of literary merit, Gibson considers it one of his weakest. To be fair, it was the guy's first novel. His later novels would have more focus on plot and characterization.
• Technology Marches On:
  • Gibson wrote most of his early works on a typewriter. A copy of Neuromancer printed in 1994 includes an afterword by the author on that subject. Included in the afterword is a reminder to his modern readers that the typewriter was the high-tech whizbang of the day. In 1981, the hottest computer on the mass market was the Apple II (not even the IIe, yet), and that cost a bundle.
  • Case starts out trying to sell "three megabytes of hot RAM" in a world where Brain Computer Interfaces are commonplace. At the time the novel was written, the Apple II came with 64 kilobytes of RAM. It is possible that it was the contents of the RAM that was really important, but this possibility isn't even suggested until much later in the book, and even then would only make slightly more sense to a modern audience.
  • The book famously begins by likening the colour of the sky to that of a television tuned to a dead station. This originally conveyed a gray, dreary day, the colour of analogue static. Before long, most televisions by the 90s would show a blue screen, while screens in the later 2000's on show a black screen, something that would change how the line is read by modern readers.
  • One scene takes place in an arcade, which have gone the way of the dodo with the rise of home video game consoles. However in Japan, where the scene in Chiba is located, video arcades are still common.
  • VoIP apparently doesn't exist, and the only way to call someone from an airport is a bank of pay phones. More recent editions include an introduction by Gibson apologizing for his failure to foresee the rise in cellular technology.
  • Ironically, as Augmented Reality becomes closer to fruition, the less likely it is that it will look anything like Gibson's vision of cyberspace. Most computers are also much smaller and lighter than Case's Hosaka (although possibly not more powerful yet).
• What Could Have Been: The IP has been bouncing around Hollywood for an adaptation since the 90s, with Chris Cunningham, Tim Miller and others linked to the project at one point or another.

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