"Vineland" and Cyberpunk SF

[McCormick, Michael T [RV]]

 | I'm not a Gibson partisan, and even skipped a party in Oakland that he
 | was supposed to be at, but I think "Vineland" owes a bit to
 | "Neuromancer," Gibson's 1983-4 seminal novel. As lots of others have
 | noted, the whole "ninja woman" ("DC"?...don't recall her name, sorry)
 | theme in "Vineland" looked like it was influenced by the "Molly"
 | character in Gibson's works. (Molly? Hmmhh, does this mean Gibson is
 | Joyce?)
 |
 | (I read "Neuromancer" back then when it first appeared and was
 | mightily impressed, partly because of the fresh ideas about
 | cyberspace--which was largely unrecognized as a space back then--and
 | partly because of the attitude. I'd have to rate "Neuromancer" as more
 | influential than "Vineland.")
 |
 | --Tim May

The synthesis of Pynchon and Gibson can be found in the writing of Neal 
Stephenson.  This is not original with me, but the numerous litcrits who've 
already pointed it out.  His novel _Snow Crash_ in particular was called 
both "Pynchon with the brakes off" and "Neuromancer on acid".

I was blown away by Neuromancer once upon a time, but Gibson's stuff looks 
pale & tame now compared to the work of people like Stephenson (& Bull, 
Noon, etc.) in the new post-cyberpunk SF Next Generation.  Some of them show 
obvious Pynchon influences.

Now reading Stephenson's new novel _The Diamond Age_.  Not as Pynchonesque 
as _Snow Crash_ IMHO, but the writing is even more mature and the alternate 
post-cyberpunk culture even more vividly imagined....

Mike McCormick