William Gibson, author of science fiction classic Neuromancer, likes the first look Apple TV offered of its forthcoming show based on the novel: "I imagined the Chatsubo in 1984. 41 years later I opened its door. Neuromancer is in production."
Neuromancer now has generations of fans, and a fascinating thing about it is how its implied aesthetics land along technical-generational lines. The first line is a great example of Gibson's gift for stoking the imagination: "The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel."
To readers in 1984, and surely to Gibson, that suggested something like this:
To me, picking it up maybe 15 years later, I imagined something like this:
To youngsters reading Neuromancer now, do they see this?
That might seem silly, but young people are usually right about the weather!
If Chiba City's sky looks like that, it'd be neat. But all told, I think I'd go with snow. Last time around, I just missed out.
