quote:

Originally posted by UberDog:
Lo told me a story once, about a job he'd had. he worked for a soup vendor in Hong Kong, a wagon on the sidewalk. He said that they'd never cleaned the kettle. In fact, they'd never stopped cooking the soup. It was the same seafood soup they'd been selling for fifty years., but it was never the same, becuase they added fresh ingredients every day, depending on what was available. he said that was what his career as a musician felt like, and he liked that about it.

quote:

Originally posted by green-robot:

quote:

Originally posted by UberDog:
Lo told me a story once, about a job he'd had. he worked for a soup vendor in Hong Kong, a wagon on the sidewalk. He said that they'd never cleaned the kettle. In fact, they'd never stopped cooking the soup. It was the same seafood soup they'd been selling for fifty years., but it was never the same, becuase they added fresh ingredients every day, depending on what was available. he said that was what his career as a musician felt like, and he liked that about it.

soup vendors...
food similarities have always struck me in WG's writing.
all the eggs (with rice, with salsa, with corn chips) in Count Zero.
and then in the Bridge trilogy there are these references to soup vendors, Lo's Hong Kong employer and then Thai Johnny on the Bridge with Chevette and Skinner.
i have no theory, i've just noticed.

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Originally posted by UberDog:
The never-ending, always-cooking soup bowl repeats at least three times: once in VL, once in Idoru and once in Neuromancer in Chiba, I believe.

quote:

Originally posted by green-robot:

quote:

Originally posted by UberDog:
The never-ending, always-cooking soup bowl repeats at least three times: once in VL, once in Idoru and once in Neuromancer in Chiba, I believe.

i knew there was another soup-reference. thanks!

quote:

Originally posted by green-robot:
soup vendors...
food similarities have always struck me in WG's writing.
all the eggs (with rice, with salsa, with corn chips) in Count Zero.
and then in the Bridge trilogy there are these references to soup vendors, Lo's Hong Kong employer and then Thai Johnny on the Bridge with Chevette and Skinner.
i have no theory, i've just noticed.

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How can you hear an accent through text?

quote:

Originally posted by kenmeer livermaile:

quote:

How can you hear an accent through text?

The same way we write "that's not what I said" when the fact is that it's now what we *wrote*.

quote:

Originally posted by UberDog:
On page 158 of the hardback Idoru that I have, Gomi Boy explains the backstory of his getting the computer and who he is. it seems unlikely he would do this for Chia. It's a fill-in for the reader but feels clunky to me.

Better, I think, for Chia to have asked Masahiko about Gomi Boy after the fact and he explain it to her. Feels forced this way.

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Originally posted by HALL-E: green robot:

quote:

Originally posted by UberDog:
On page 158 of the hardback Idoru that I have, Gomi Boy explains the backstory of his getting the computer and who he is. it seems unlikely he would do this for Chia. It's a fill-in for the reader but feels clunky to me.

Better, I think, for Chia to have asked Masahiko about Gomi Boy after the fact and he explain it to her. Feels forced this way.

perhaps, but i always felt it kind of... tells you about Gomi Boy a little.
that he is the sort of person who over-explains, is rather formal.
Gomi Boy reminds me of Bobby Chombo. or is it the other way 'round?

quote:

Originally posted by UberDog:
I asked him about it once, suggested the soup was the Jungian sea of pop-culture. he clearly thought I had apophneia, told me the soup was something he'd been told about, some guy on a ship that made chili that never stopped cooking.

I still like my theory.

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Originally posted by colin:

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You surely possess the same talent like Colin Laney.

It evokes an accent. Accent extends beyond just pronunciation. For example, most native English speakers would not write that sentence I quoted the way you wrote it. I might write, "You must have the same kind of talent as Colin Laney."

I do realize you're just fooling around, but I also find the broader topic of how our native language influences our thought patterns fascinating.

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Originally posted by UberDog:

quote:

Originally posted by kenmeer livermaile:

quote:

How can you hear an accent through text?

The same way we write "that's not what I said" when the fact is that it's now what we *wrote*.

That's now what I didn't write. Typos are the secret of time travel
Huh?

I think you are from 1926 Siam.