re: #56 William Lewis

I has an old feeling. I went “Oh hell yeah” and my son went “What’s that” I go “_NEUROMANCER_ dude. William f’in Gibson.” “You’re the only William I know. So what’s that?”

So I had to explain the origin of cyberpunk (he owns Cyberpunk 2077 ironically… ) in Gibson, Sterling & etc… TPB’d an audiobook of Neuromancer narrated by the man though for him so that’s a win.

Meanwhile he’s snarking on the 3rd largest megacorp making a media on cyberpunk… and there is a certain humor to that I have to admit 😈

When I moved to Austin in ‘89, Cyberpunk was in its formative years but increasing its acceleration. Gibson released Mirrorshades in ‘86, and Sterling released his anthology Burning Chrome. Neuromancer was released in ‘84, Count Zero in ‘86, and Mona Lisa Overdrive in ‘88. I bumped into Sterling not long after I got a job at bookstore where I was working while I was recovering from back surgery. He had just released a book, written with Gibson (The Difference Engine). I thought he was diffident, at first, but I got to realize he was on the spectrum, and I just needed some time to learn to accommodate his lack of social skills. We got there.

He dubbed me a member of the Curia of the Viridian Movement around 1996, and SWMBO and I were constant members of his SWXSW Tech parties at his house on Cedar Street, where SWMBO was a star at talking to Tech Geeks who would verbally clamp up at a lovely woman trying to make conversation.

Bruce said, “She’s GOOD at this. Thank you both for being here.”

We were like, “We love these geeks! They just need someone to talk to!”

We got to meet Max and Natasha-Vita More, who were living in Austin for a couple of years and who were leaders of the Trans-humanist Movement. Never heard of it? Here:

Max More & Natasha Vita-More on the History of Transhumanism w/ Luke Robert Mason

We got to meet a a lot of SF/F writers and fans until he left Austin and moved to
Pasadena and then Europe in 2013. He has come to town from time to time, but I miss him.

He’s a fascinating dude. Difficult, tough to get close to, prickly, but then he expounds on current shit and it’s “My Dog! He’s a fucking prophet!”

So, that’s it for tonight.

Sweet scaly dreams.