Organic Mutant

Every year for the last twenty years or so I read Neuromancer by William Gibson at least once a year. I remember being 13, going on 14, when I came home to a paper grocery bag full of books. Our family friend, Jeff McDaniels, had heard that I liked to read a lot and he wanted to encourage me to be a reader, so he hand-delivered a sack of sci-fi goodness. That bag of books included Neuromancer among many other memorable titles and was seminal in my development into a person who reads sci-fi and digs technology (although I already had a geeky tendency as a girl, preferring to play ‘mad scientist’ to playing with dolls).

Neuromancer does something to my brain. There are turns of phrase that are like keys to the dim recesses of my subconscious. I read certain passages and I silently freak out at how they grasp and mold my imagination and evoke startling clear images like dreams that grip you in your waking state. The prose resonates with me and after twenty-five+ readings, none of the enjoyment has diminished. I remember reading it for the first time and how my view of the world was changed and colored by his timeless observations. When I finished reading it, I lay on my bed for hours, imagining the world of the book then turned back to the first page and started reading again.

I envy William Gibson’s mind, his imagination, the way he synthesizes a new reality that parallels our own, which is but simply a reflection of who he is and his twisted magic. Even his blog reveals nuggets of cyber-gold that sometimes make me think that his books are reality and we are fiction.

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p.s. i read this after i wrote this entry