As a relatively new genre, at least in comparison to mystery or romance, science fiction has many pioneers making their mark and developing the genre in the last century. One of the most influential is William Gibson who is credited with coining the term cyberspace and is a founder of the cyberpunk sub-genre. Accompanying the rise in computers and technology at the height of the information age, in one way or another, his imprint and ongoing influence is found woven through nearly every science fiction book written since the 1970s.
Notable Works
Though many of his works are considered seminal milestones in the development of the science fiction genre, Gibson’s Sprawl trilogy may be the most impactful. The series includes the genre-defining Neuromancer, Count Zero, and Mona Lisa Overdrive, and helped launch the cyberpunk genre, setting many ground rules for cyber systems, hacking, and artificial intelligence (AI).
Later, in his Bridge trilogy, consisting of Virtual Light, Idoru, and All Tomorrow’s Parties, Gibson takes a step back in time to consider how modern-day society might deal with the growth of new technologies. Many of the issues he outlines have been reflected in society.
Finally, in his Blue Ant trilogy of Pattern Recognition, Spook Country, and Zero History, Gibson explores how adjunct processes, such as viral marketing, location-based communications, and technology-integrated clothing might affect society with an undertone of how authoritarian regimes might utilize this personal information.
As I read other science fiction novels, I see Gibson’s influence generally appear in three main areas: the rise of technology and its integration with humanity, the world-building of a hyper-populated society and its dependence on technology, and in the technology-influenced language that permeates not only the prose of other stories but also modern speech.
Technology Integration
In Gibson’s works, most notably in the Sprawl trilogy, the integration of technology with humans, either as devices to be used or integrated directly into a human body, is commonplace. Implants to augment senses, encourage healing, or accommodate disabilities sit side-by-side with others that allow brain connectivity to networks, illegal access into systems, the creation of fake identities, and the manipulation of markets.
Presenting both the positive and negative impacts of technology provides a sense of raw, unadulterated realism in Gibson’s books. Technology is neither inherently good or bad but simply augments the nature of the humans utilizing it.
World Building
The idea of mega-sized cities that sprawl for hundreds of square miles and have buildings that stretch thousands of floors high with streams of flying cars at various levels stems from the early ideas of Gibson. Star Wars’ planet Coruscant, The Fifth Element’s New York, Judge Dredd’s Mega-City One, or even Cathedral City in Priest include details originally considered by Gibson.
Walking down the street being bombarded by personalized advertisements like in Altered Carbon or the Minority Report movie illustrate the theme of overbearing, hyper-targeted marketing like Gibson considers in his Blue Ant series.
In possibly one of the most famous scenes in cinema, the crowded streets of always-dark-and-raining Los Angeles in Blade Runner could be pulled directly from Neuromancer.
Language
My favorite area of Gibson’s influence is his colorful and creative use of language to convey both the setting and tone of his work. Gibson has an abrupt and stylized approach which immediately immerses the reader into the story.
Here are a few evocative opening paragraphs from Neuromancer that immediately set the tone of the book.
The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel. … A year here and he still dreamed of cyberspace, hope fading nightly. All the speed he took, all the turns he’d taken and the corners he cut in Night City, and still he’d see the matrix in his sleep, bright lattices of logic unfolding across that colorless void… he was no console man, no cyberspace cowboy. Just another hustler trying to make it through. But the dreams came on in the Japanese night like livewire voodoo, and he’d cry for it, cry in his sleep, and wake alone in the dark, curled in the capsule in some coffin hotel, his hands clawed into the bedslab, temperfoam bunched between his fingers, trying to reach the console that wasn’t there.
Similarly, here’s a sample from the very first paragraph of Count Zero:
They set a slamhound on Turner’s trail in New Delhi, slotted it to his pheromones and the color of his hair. It caught up with him on a street called Chandni Chauk and came scrambling for his rented BMW through a forest of bare brown legs and pedicab tires. Its core was a kilogram of recrystallized hexogene and flaked TNT.
Direct and intense, Gibson unceremoniously dumps his reader into the crowded, connected, and darkly wondrous world of his imagination. A flood of unique language and situations with little initial context forces the reader to sink or swim with the story and learn the language in order to understand what is happening.
Conclusion
Cutting-edge in terms of vision, style, and language when they were first released, Gibson’s works have since heavily influenced science fiction authors and stories in their presentation of technology integration, world-building, and language. A pioneer examining the impact of technology on humanity, many of his works could be considered prescient to what is happening in society today.
No science fiction education is complete without reading William Gibson.
Matthew Cushing has written speculative fiction since high school when he began adding elements of mystery and action to classroom assignments. Short stories soon followed with “The Rite to Vote” selected as a 2021 Roswell Award Finalist. His first novel, a sci-fi crime mystery titled The Osect Indiscretion, is underway. An aficionado of science fiction, magic, and the macabre, Mr. Cushing enjoys writing character-driven stories that explore the wonder of ‘what if’ – often with a large dose of humor.
Mr. Cushing has degrees from UC San Diego and Yale University and is a member of the Triple Nine Society, the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers, and Spec Fic Writers. An animal lover and amateur trombonist, Mr. Cushing lives in Connecticut.