I was! Too bad I didn't bring a camera, I would have taken pictures. It was a nice sized crowd, and there were a few people left standing besides.

He did a reading from the first chapter -- it was interesting, he read kind of fast but with inflection that gave a different impression to some of the scenes that I hadn't considered. For example, when he read about the robots in Darien's apartment he made it seem almost sad the way they stood there, lifeless and yet beautiful. I took them to be more of a cold reminder of her loneliness, but he gave the scene a warmer, almost whistful reminiscent feeling.

When Question and Answer period came up, he was very...thorough...in his responses. It seemed like he wanted to approach each answer from every angle, to make sure that there was no misunderstanding to the question on hand.

FYI, if you were there last night, I was the one who asked the final question about the themes of Celebrity Worship in his works. I was curious to know about the fascination and almost fanatical views his characters seem to develop about people portrayed view the media, be it International Pop Stars or Anonymous Web Video producers. He took his time in answering, and mentioned the fact that "Mass Media" basicly sprung from the desire for important people to have the ability to project their presense over great distances. The example he gave was of Kings and Emperors who had great statues carved of themselves and placed in villages hundreds of miles away, so that the populous would always be consider themselves in his presense and thus increase his power over them. While this answer makes sense, it didn't really answer the question of why people in general seem to be drawn to worship these media stars to begin with, because it has to be a mutual need for Stars/Kings/Artists to be worshiped, and for people to worship them.

Just replied to your post in Random. Info about pix there.

You've got to admit, though, that his answer was very cool. At first, totally out of left field, but then it kind of began to make sense...in a weird Gibsonian sort of way

Pick me, I'm clean.

Yeah, his answer was very cool. I hadn't considered "Mass Media" anything prior to...oh...the day I was born =p

Unfortunately, and this is a known flaw of mine, I am a *horrible* public speaker. I had been thinking of the wording of my question since I got off the subway, and I still managed to botch the end, so I'm not surprised I didn't get my point across.

I'm sure he gets many questions about certain aspects of his writing, and has a good answer for each. Not to say that what he said was totally off the topic, but as soon as I asked about "Celebrity" certain neurons probably started firing in his head about how to answer before I got to the topic of "Celebrity Worship" in a modern society.

ps. Thanks for the response in the other page. I'll probably just check there for the link to the pics, and respond to anything else here.

you guys are the worst...


and you now what? I mean it!
here in greece, still waiting for a european tour and then if able, fly to London just for the signing and maybe a chat (last time I was so nervous, couldn't breath allmost)

Philip K. Dick is dead, alas!

I'm glad I'm not the only one who stressed over the wording of a question. Maybe I'll start composing my question for the next book tour now.

does anyone know yet if PR will bring Mr. Gibson to these fair UK shores ? shame I missed him last year. Neuromancer was my bible in the 80s. cheers.

mailed the penguin ireland offices and got this
so no dublin appearance. which is a bummer cause the hardback appearance was cancelled and as mentioned in the last few blog entries he actually was in ireland.

"Dear Alex, he won't be coming to Dublin unfortunately. Thanks for your
interest.
Yours sincerely, Michael McLoughlin"