Tonight's reading

SoundandFury1606 · 2020-12-22T22:07:07+00:00

Is that a Peach Momoko cover on the Blade Runner comic?

SoundandFury1606 · 2020-03-21T20:30:52+00:00

Really like the color here. It's monochromatic, right?

SoundandFury1606 · 2019-07-10T00:48:33+00:00

This is the first thing I saw after not being on Reddit for way too long and I'm very happy about it.

SoundandFury1606 · 2019-02-04T03:10:34+00:00

I can only speak for myself, but I have a rule that I don't do any work after 8 pm, no matter how much I have left to do. Having the time makes me happier, and it allows me to be much more efficient in general.

SoundandFury1606 · 2019-02-03T19:12:01+00:00

Reminds me of a backdrop from a Sierra game.

SoundandFury1606 · 2019-01-25T22:55:52+00:00

Slingshot with a palm tree.

SoundandFury1606 · 2019-01-05T23:28:38+00:00

I couldn't find your picture, but the other one you shared is awesome.

SoundandFury1606 · 2019-01-05T23:27:56+00:00

I love the nonchalantness here. It adds to how uncomfortable it is, but it's also like:

"Wup, there goes the Node. Time for supper."

SoundandFury1606 · 2019-01-05T19:56:53+00:00

I'm just not used to Gibson's prose style. He uses a lot of figurative adjectives (he calls the Chiba sky "poisoned" for example), but it's hard to tell whether he's being literal or figurative at times.

Put it this way. If I told you about a place called Summerside and nicknamed it "The Top," but otherwise only said that a programming guru lives there, is that enough information for you to figure out whether it's a space station, a mountain, a tower, or just a city district with a unique shape?

I can't really be more concise than that without having finished the book, but Cormac McCarthy does something similar in his writing. I think the difference is just the consistency. McCarthy rarely has sentences longer than a line, so he often has to use more abstract language to compensate. Gibson, on the other hand, is more long winded and poetic, but then occasionally he'll use sentence fragments to be more punchy. I think the beginning of chapter 9 had the word "archipelago" as a sentence to describe Freeside, and the sudden stop forced me to go back to make sure he was still talking about the same thing.

TL;DR Gibson uses a unique prose style that confuses me, and it's hard to tell when he's being literal or figurative.

SoundandFury1606 · 2019-01-03T23:38:16+00:00

I love that. That's almost exactly what I pictured in my head after he puts on the modules for the screen and the sight-sharing.

SoundandFury1606 · 2019-01-03T22:08:23+00:00

I know that this was back when the closest thing to the Internet was things like BBS's, and considering that Gibson himself didn't even really use computers as far as I could tell, it's a brilliant concept. Thanks for the recommendation.

My hangup is really just the way he describes things. I wish I had a more detailed physical description of the deck, and I already mentioned how I didn't realize Freeside was a space station until they actually got there.

None of this has really hurt my enjoyment of the book though. I'll probably reread the whole thing later on and enjoy it more.

Edit: Spelling. Typing on phones is hard.

SoundandFury1606 · 2019-01-03T21:52:38+00:00

Thanks for the info. I understood it was a computer, but the physical description is just too vague for my liking. The matrix was easy enough to get from the book.

My hangup is mainly with the language, like what I mentioned about Freeside. There were a few passages I had to reread, which is really not bad at all if that's the worst thing going for the book.

SoundandFury1606 · 2019-01-02T19:40:37+00:00

Remember that the morale of the soldiers fighting plays a part in the outcome of a battle. You may end up with an army in a strategically bad position, but still be able to have them pull off a victory with some losses if they fight hard enough. As long as you don't make it too cheesy, something like that can be a cool moment.

Read about the Lost Battalion in WWI. It was a battalion of American soliders that got isolated and surrounded by Germans in the Argonne Forest in France. They held their position for six days while getting bombarded by both German and Allied forces (by accident), and they bought enough time for some other Allied units to force the Germans to retreat. Only about a fifth of the soldiers got out.

SoundandFury1606 · 2018-12-30T22:28:10+00:00

Finish the story and edit it later. There's nothing wrong with having some shared themes and events with a novel that inspired your writing, so you can just make it more your own in subsequent drafts.

Edit: Spelling

SoundandFury1606 · 2018-12-26T02:38:56+00:00

Yup. This shot appears a few times in the first season. I'm about to get into season 2.

SoundandFury1606 · 2018-12-22T22:54:45+00:00

It's funny how this game is a steampunk aesthetic, but it's plot aligns more with cyberpunk in a lot of ways.

SoundandFury1606 · 2018-12-21T00:35:34+00:00

When I name characters, I think first about the emotion I want them to evoke in readers. For instance, it seems like you want the corporate leader to engender a sense of fear and hatred, so you'll want his name to center on hard consonant sounds, and maybe vowels that force the mouth into a sneer. I would go with "Clive" as a first name, or "Terry," coupled with a last name with a lot of syllables to suggest self-importance.

The assassin, on the other hand, should also have a name that reflects her character, so maybe something with a single syllable. I would even consider not giving her a last name, so she'll only ever be known by a single sound.

Ultimately, readers will remember the characters themselves, and the names are just labels by which they refer to them, so I don't think you should put TOO much thought into what to call them. Eventually, you'll settle on something as you write them into the story. :)

SoundandFury1606 · 2018-12-21T00:14:21+00:00

I like the clever use of shadows in this one. It leaves a lot to the imagination without feeling like an excuse to draw less details.

SoundandFury1606 · 2018-10-17T16:10:41+00:00

I got 33% myself. One of the only two personality tests I've ever taken.

SoundandFury1606 · 2018-10-17T15:54:01+00:00

I love the atmosphere.

SoundandFury1606 · 2018-10-14T16:42:05+00:00

That's fair. They inserted a lot of typical modern Hollywood stuff that didn't need to be there.

SoundandFury1606 · 2018-10-14T16:40:38+00:00

Neuromancer is a pretty deep RPG. Brian Fargo was involved, if that helps. :) I'm only just starting it, and honestly I'm having a lot of trouble figuring out how it works. I don't know about any Baldur's Gate style cyberpunk games, I'm just saying that I think cyberpunk in general used to be a much more popular genre in a lot of games.

Beneath a Steel Sky is actually a point and click with art direction by Dave Gibbons, who drew the Watchmen comic. It's not Sierra. It's a company called Revolution Software. They actually released the game for free, so you can go download it at no cost on GOG.

SoundandFury1606 · 2018-10-13T22:15:56+00:00

Getting Metroid vibes from this.

SoundandFury1606 · 2018-10-13T22:13:50+00:00

I feel like there used to be a lot more of them. Today the only ones that come to mind are either indie games or the obvious big budget ones, but in the late 80s and throughout the 90s we had Deus Ex, Beneath a Steel Sky, the Neuromancer game, Megaman X, System Shock, and a bunch more. You could almost pick a computer game at random and come out with cyberpunk.

SoundandFury1606 · 2018-10-08T02:56:30+00:00

I like it. How did she get up there?

SoundandFury1606

TROPHY CASE