I thought it might be useful to have a specific topic for discussing Gibson's posts in his blog. So here it is.

I'll return with more specific thots.

Eileen

Eileen Gunn

The Infinite Matrix
http://www.infinitematrix.net/

quote:

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Originally posted by Eileen Gunn:
Gibson's thoughts on termite art vs. slab art strike me as a useful way of disconnecting the fear that many arts and writers feel when beginning a work.

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I don't know if I could ever really trust an artist who wasn't constantly afraid, especially not a writer. In fact, I think art works best as an expression of terror.

I guess that's why all the great stories remain unwritten: the authors are too afraid to commit them to paper.

Sure, if fear is your prime mover. And to say something like 'the great stories will never be written.' I mean, really. That's a non-statement. Art is, basically, an expression of emotion. To color everything in shades of scared is to limit your work, me boy.

No flame intended. It just struck me as something with which I didn't agree. Ya know.

[This message was edited by Shadoth on January 08, 2003 at 02:07 PM.]

Okay, another writer here, and I have to agree with cmoore on this one. (i pray your last name isn't buttz, btw)

For me, the struggle with fear was mainly a fear of failure. So much expectation had been built up by my teachers, classmates, and fellow writers, that to produce anything other than an opus would have been failure. So I dived into a mundane world of not writing, and not living, and just being comfortable with not being happy. It is only now, having passed my 30th birthday, that I am able to even try to write anything worth reading, without the voice of fear over my shoulder.

Anyway, enough prattling. I understand now what Gage was trying to say, and I agree with him, too. Gosh, aren't we all just so chummy!

Today's Blog amuses me, mainly because I'm one of those poor fools whose life was heavily influenced by brother gibson's work. I'm planning on going to the Oak Park signing at the end of February, and I've already started my meditative stances to keep from making a fool of myself. I probably will still fumble, so Mr. Gibson, if you read this, I'm the guy who will fall and bang my forehead on the table, and then through blood and tears tell you all about how you changed my life and got me kicked out of college. So, thanks and stuff. heh.

Was there something in the weather yesterday? My idiot dog ate a chocolate cake, and I spent yesterday afternoon pouring hydrogen peroxide down his gullet. (An 80 pounds dog can have up to a pint!)

Thankfully, we avoided the vet as he urped up the whole mess.

Oh, I started writing at 13, wrote my first novel at 14, and have been publishing stuff since I was 20. For me, 30 holds a psychological significance (i think i posted somewhere about how i have now officially wasted my life) rather than any kind of experiential critical mass.

However, I don't think I was capable of writing the material I am currently writing ten years ago. Bad sentence. Anyway, I'm certain that people need time to settle down, to steep in their own creative juices, before they are able to do their greatest work. If I remember correctly, gibson was around 34 or 35 when neuromancer was published.

Okay, I have to go eat breakfast now. Quickly, to the eggmobile!

shad

> I think the point Gibson was trying to make was that drugs more often than not just get in the
> way of being able to do anything useful with that knowledge once the barriers are opened.

I don't have much use for "more often than not" statements. "More often than not" a bestselling book is not very substantive. "More often than not" the most successful hitters in Major League Baseball fail. "More often than not" a student of music composition does not become the next Mozart.

I like to consider the "not" cases, in which humans transcend perceived limits or go beyond normal behavior, and that was one point I tried to make in my post.

> but I think you get to a point where you realize someone like Leary (who, granted, does
> have some interesting things to say) is a false prophet.

I don't share that opinion (perhaps I will in the future), but thanks for your input.

Schizophrenia can be, and has been, cured by a gunshot wound to the brain. More often than not, that doesn't work.

An extreme example, I know, I know. Look, there was a whole generation of people who believed that drug use could change the world. It would change the way their minds worked, it could change the very fabric of our society. It was a generation long experiment in enlightenment. It failed. Today is not the tomorrow they were expecting.

I've made my speech about the crutch of drug use before, so I won't bore you with repitition. To summarize, it's a crutch. Free yourself, and your mind will follow. Heh.

I'd like to see:

navigation between entries (prev and next links), and pinging weblogs.com when new entries are posted.

http://newhome.weblogs.com/pingSiteForm

Doing it once and saving the results page as a bookmark makes it a bit more convenient.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by mr_fang:
This was part of yesterday's blog entry:
<snip>
"Though I could possibly agree with this statement if "visionary aspects" were interpreted as being a reference to visual hallucinations only, I think Mr. Gibson is making a broader statement which ignores some important issues.
<snip>

In my twenties I was a user of several psychadelics and thought that they were unlocking my mind. I listened to people like Leary. But as I got older and wiser I realized that things did not add up. I seemed more creative when I was altered but in reality I wasn't. When I was sober I had more control and could be even more creative. Upon this realization I gave up on drugs and have never looked back. I do not regret doing drugs. But I realize now that it was more of a detour than anything. In the end people like Leary were indeed false prophets and were profiting on other's insecurities.

The funny thing is that the above realization is shared by many many artists. It is almost like a rite of passage. But once you get past it you realzie how misinformed and close minded you actually were. never once considering that maybe drugs are not what they claim to be.

-u

I've noticed that. My theory is that it simply takes less to impress you when you're messed up. Therefore, the ideas you have seem truly mind blowing, when they're not.

oh, the ever present audience. i've heard writing teachers say that you need to know your audience. as a writer, i've alwasy been anxious about that audience, becasue i DID know them. they're my peers, parents, people i respect. if they don't like my work, what then? i agree with the comment that there needs to be a selective turning off of this 'voice.' without the ability to turn the judging voices off, i'd never write.

--this is still just a sig

Snake Plissken as inspiration ? Oh say it isn't so... Though the soundtrack was awesome (as I recall at the time).

main title (real audio)

quote:

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Originally posted by The Bear:

quote:

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Originally posted by Shadoth:
**Snip**

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Didn't Gibson cite Escape From New York as one of his main cinematic influences? I read that somewhere years ago in a discussion regarding the whole Bladerunner/Neuromancer conjunction.

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... yup, the Dutch people are on average the tallest people in the world. Must be something in the air.

I'm 6'2" myself (187 cm), and looking at my circle of friends and family that's about average height here.

I wonder how tall WG is himself. Over six feet, at least.

Cheers,
- Adamus

---------------------------
"But I have dreamed a dreary dream
Beyond the Isle of Skye;
I saw a dead man win a fight
And I think that man was I."
---------------------------

I have this friend. We'll call him Mr. E. (And not just because it makes a nice pun, because his last name really does start with an 'E'.)

He is one of the foremost short story writers in the science fiction/magical realism genre. He's also the most frenetic individual I think I've ever know. (Being bipolar, I know manic freneticism intimately.) I used to think he had honed the short story down to the scapel's edge. One molecule thick and able to easily strip muscle from bone. That he had labored to create the novel's equivalent of the tactical haiku.

Now, I realize, he just gets bored and wants to work on something else. He wants it fast and hard, and f*ck you if you don't like a sharp stick in the eye.

I've also realize from being in close proximity to genius that writing dances on the razor's edge between blessing and curse. Some of the best works of literary majesty have been created for the sole practical purpose of just that: paying the rent.

Now I feel guilty at the wave of relief I have when I look around my comfy little cubicle cell. I'm an *artist*, damn it! Really.

Thanks for the space to ramble,
C.

Mad: adj. Afflicted with a high degree of intellectual independence. ~Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary
www.digitalcarrion.com: Where Evolution & Entropy Collide...

I would like to thank Mr. Gibson for replying to my post with respect to The Neuromancer Script. I am surprised and very appreciative.

jaydee

In his latest blog (18/1) Gibson talks about Alan Moore's 'Voice of the Fire'. The version he has (1996) is hard to track down, but luckily Top Shelf comics are reprinting it later this year.

Everyone needs to read this book.

Moore did an interview with the Onion A/V Club about a year ago... I dunno if they archive them and if you can still find it... but my impression was pretty much the same. He'd talk about writing and the process and that sort of thing, and he'd sound like your average if a bit eccentric smart as hell writer, and then he'd start talking about what exactly he believes in, and it's welcome to crazyland. He said it in a way that you couldn't really tell if he was kidding or not though. Part of me wants to believe that he does all the weird pagan snake-god stuff as a really subtle and elaborate joke.

---
Spike
Memes don't exist. Tell your friends.

anyone knows if WG is doing any booksignings while here in denmark?

..it's funny. the day i decide to check his webpage he visits my country

i'm buying that Alan Moore book btw. thanks for the tip WG.