1. chinese car commercial.
2. carlito's interest in china, and tito's placement to possibly take advantage of that.

personally, i'd be pretty interested if china took a role in the next book.

China is the next big thing say the media, but I don't think Gibson will go that route. His interest in China seems obligatory at best. And when has the next big thing actually turned out to be the next big thing?

The future is industrialized and modernized Africa.

Shhh!!!! Gib's subconscious has big ears!

Anyway, China is everywhere. And these Olympics show every sign of being one hell of a strange attractor.

I awlays had this idea about 21st century mercs in North African Brushfire wars.

I like Africa. it's different. China is already kind of been there, done that.

China is great for history, I have a book set largely there, but it takes place in the 1930's mostly.

I like Shanghai, but for sheer buzz worthiness and the like, China jusat doesn't do it for me. And I don't think it does it for Gibson either. The things about it is that China is kind of shaping up to be just like another America. Only the post-geographic period is setting in and they are sort of late to the table.

Africa's got lateral potential, and South America too. Lots of available labor that haven't been resourced well as yet.

Imagine a whole effort to educate and train Africans to run Green Machines? They could spearhead the labor effort to fix the stupid planet.

We started there, we're going back there to save the planet, you know, it could be a whole theme for the marketing concept.

People coming down out of the trees, making tools, making tools that hurt the planet, then refashioning those tools (in CGI morph mode) to save the planet. And all in the mother continent. cradle of Life: Once and Again.

That could fly.

Really I just want to hire a bunch of mercs to steal me the Ark of the Covenant from Ethiopia, though.

quote:

The things about it is that China is kind of shaping up to be just like another America.

Well, considering that Gibson's novels have mostly been set in America with British, Japanese, and Russian episodes...

Bah... That would still be a rehash.

He loved Walled City, yeah? That's interstitially China.

Not to sound morbid, but I'd find it incredibly interesting if he tied in the recent Chinese earthquake in a similar fashion he did to 9/11 in PR to his 3rd installment.

I think China would be a neat idea, especially with all of their censorship and internet restrictions. Just my 2 cents.

quote:

Originally posted by UberDog:
China is the next big thing say the media, but I don't think Gibson will go that route. His interest in China seems obligatory at best. And when has the next big thing actually turned out to be the next big thing?

The future is industrialized and modernized Africa.

Besides, China has really juicy and ancient evil.

The world loves a show.

quote:

Not to sound morbid, but I'd find it incredibly interesting if he tied in the recent Chinese earthquake in a similar fashion he did to 9/11 in PR to his 3rd installment.

Aye. Aye! Or post-disaster, like Cayce in the radioactive Russian desert.

It's going to be in Berlin, people.

And if you want to find where the next big thing is coming from you pretty much have to exclude what common wisdom cries as, "the next big thing."

quote:

And if you want to find where the next big thing is coming from you pretty much have to exclude what common wisdom cries as, "the next big thing."

But commonness has become so uncommonly common.

i think its naive to dismiss china as been there done that. while i agree africa and south america are post-geographies with plenty of scope for exploration, i think that asia still has potential, it is still *not* america or europe. i think china is far more complicated and ancient than you give it credit for uber, and there is still plenty of scope to become a real and serious node. and i don't think that necesarilly has anything to do with "next big thing", and more to do with the inevitable force of economic/social gravity.

and just because something is set in berlin, or otherwise, does not exlude it from being set anywhere else. if we percieve gibson as post-geographical, as travelling through a world landscape in flux, then we can readily have a book which has a chapter in london, a chapter in tokyo, a chapter in moscow. if you follow the logic...beijing, berlin, budapest...

I think you took my post too literally. What I was getting at is that China is overdone insofar as people keep bringing it up. It's passe in the same way that American is Rome is passe. So obvious as to be routine.

I also think that most widely accepted ideas about what the future will bring are completely wrong. I suspect that China might become a victim of post-geography. If it become a "super power" as such, it might very well be the last one as we conceive of the idea.

As for the novel, Gibson is writing a Civil War novel set in Canada and starring a cast of Inuit separatists.

Duh.

quote:

Originally posted by UberDog:
I think you took my post too literally.

quite possibly, i am particularly good at that.

quote:

Originally posted by UberDog:
I also think that most widely accepted ideas about what the future will bring are completely wrong. I suspect that China might become a victim of post-geography. If it become a "super power" as such, it might very well be the last one as we conceive of the idea.

to me thats as interesting in itself, and lets face it, its teh same old story, bid for super power status, all comes tumblin down, the end.

Yeah, it does all come tumbling down but if the system of superpowers comes down then it is the end of an age which is different from the cyclic rise and fall of nations.

That's what would be really interesting.

I wonder if Gibson realizes how his thinking (as disseminated interstitially between his plots) has affected contemporary thought on a good many issues?

regarding the setting for the next book:

I have to wonder if UberDog's also a fan of Stephenson and poking fun or just a coincidence. I suppose as I read the board more, I'll find out. Inuits and China just too odd.

In any case, the emergence of the new South American economic 'union' and the ongoing issues in Africa (political/hunger/disease)and esp, the Republic of South Africa's current semi-leadership roll do strike me as interesting settings.

And I know I had a much bigger train of thought rolling but I derailed it registering... alas. Perhaps next post. =/