Response to Milan Ilnyckyj's blog comments on William Gibson's "Spook Country"

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In responding to Milan Ilnyckyj on his a sibiliant intake of breath blog posting about Spook Country, I have rambled on a bit:

Are you commercially associated with Gibson or his publishers?

Not in any way, just a fan.

Spook Country certainly mentions a lot of specific contemporary events and technologies. People who pick it up in twenty years will probably find that it has a retro flavour.

The same will be true of anything else which depicts contemporary technology or events. Everything from 1986 has a retro flavour today.

Response to the ROT-13 protected "spoiler" comments below:

"The resolution of the central mystery really doesn’t make a lot of sense."

Neither did the ending of "Neuromancer", make much sense i.e. voodoo spirits, super artificial intelligence and faster than light communications with Alpha Centauri. It is the sign of a good writer if he can make you suspend your disbelief in such things whilst reading the novel.

"If you wanted to irradiate a 40 foot container full of money, shooting nine cesium bullets into it doesn’t seem like a terribly sensible way to go about it. After punching through the steel, it seems unlikely they would penetrate too far."

As Gibson implies in the text, the low melting point radioactive caesium would vapourise and contaminate the interior of the container.

However, there is a risk that, as a reactive alkali metal, which explodes on contact with water,
it would also ignite some of the paper and plastic inside. Given that they have a man physically climbing on to the container, the use of armour piercing bullets, rather than , say a drill, or some concentrated acid, to puncture the container, or simply breaking the seals and opening the door of the container, does seem a bit complicated, but it adds to the drama.

"Also, the general motive for punishing the thieves in such a roundabout way is unclear."

How would you force an official governmental investigation into a container full of money which has successfully bypassed the customs authorities around the world for some considerable time ?

Once the radiation alarms go off, it may be impossible to simply spirit the container away in secret, no matter how much influence you might have in the "Spook Country" of the US Government.

Presumably it is the investigation of the paper and computer data trail associated with the illegal cash, to embarrass whoever is controlling it, which is important to the old man character, rather than just simply hijacking or destroying the $100 million itself.

"Like Bigend’s levitating bed, a lot of the technology included in the novel seems unnecessary"

Surely the impractical and expensive architect designed magnetic levitating bed, like his Brabus Maybach customised Mercedes car, is just something which illustrates the designer obsessed lifestyle of the rich advertising agency founder Hubertus Bigend ?

"For instance, it isn’t clear why ultra-precise coordinates would be necessary for locative art. Even if they were, it would be the viewer who needed them, more than the artist, in order for all the overlaid images to seem to be in the right places."

The Locative Art is meant to be a sort of stealth graffiti artwork, done without the visible cooperation of the owners or managers of the locations themselves, hence the hassle by the security guards in Tower Records Virgin.

Even if the artwork is entirely generated by the equipment that the viewer is wearing, there needs to be some accurate datum points in order to superimpose the images correctly. Either that or you also need an artificial intelligence vision system comparable to human sight and cognition, which can interpolate the orientation of the images simply from visual and motion clues, something which not even military heads up displays are capable of doing today.

Of course neither GPS nor mobile phone, nor "RFID" technology is actually accurate enough to allow for the 3D holographic effects which the commercially sponsored Archie the squid installation for the Japanese department store, implies.

Actually tracking a 40ft container, with a GPS aware tracking device installed, is not possible when the container is not stacked at the top of a pile or on the top deck of a ship with a clear view of the sky i.e. most of the time, for the majority of such containers.

William Gibson had to revise his text at a late stage before publication, after it was pointed out to him by Cory Doctorow, that GPS simply does not work indoors, hence the triangulation from mobile phone cell tower and the RFID system in Tower Records/Virgin ,(which is already out of date as a real location since February 2006, when the book is set.)

William Gibson's novels have never been detailed technical how-to manuals.It is his ability to keep you turning the pages, to willingly suspend your disbelief, together with his stylish, often witty, prose and nuanced descriptions, which make "Spook Country" an entertaining read.

1 Comment

Thanks for the detailed response.

On a general level, I agree that Spook Country is one of Gibson's best pieces of writing.

It's good that you have put so much effort into thinking and writing about it.

About this blog

This blog is discusses and analyses the new book Spook Country by cyberpunk author William Gibson, published in August 2007.

This will be primarily from a United Kingdom perspective, as some of the themes of espionage and surveillance and hidden forces really do resonate in our endemic Surveillance Society.

This blog has been described, quite fairly, as "otaku-worthy immersion"

Email Contact

email: blog @ SpookCountry [dot] co [dot] uk

Here is our PGP public encryption key or download it via a PGP Keyserver.

Hints and Tips for Whistleblowers

Please take the appropriate precautions if you are planning to blow the whistle on shadowy and powerful people in Government or commerce, and their dubious policies. The mainstream media and bloggers also need to take simple precautions to help preserve the anonymity of their sources e.g.

Spook Country Links

William Gibson Books discussion bulletin board Spook Country *NO SPOILERS* forum

William Gibson Books discussion bulletin board Spook Country - *SPOILERS OK* forum

William Gibson video about "Spook Country" on YouTube and on the official website.

William Gibson Links

William Gibson blog - written by the author himself, on which he has test marketed fragments of his novel Spook Country whilst writing it.

William Gibson Books discussion bulletin board

www.williamgibson.de - William Gibson book promtion website in Germany

William Gibson aleph - lots of resources about William Gibson's works.

The Cyberpunk Project - some online texts of some of William Gibson's writings hosted in Russia.

Wikipedia Links

Wikipedia entry for "Spook Country"

Wikipedia "Spook Country" page edit history RSS feed or Atom feed

The character "Hubertus Bigend" has his own fictional Wikipedia entry in "Spook Country", which has now become now a real one.

Node Magazine

  • Node Magazine - a fictional magazine which "seems to be actively preventing the kind of buzz that magazines normally cultivate before they begin to exist" mentioned in the hints given about the Spook Country book, which has already been created online by a fan (patternboy), before the book has been published.
  • node.tumblr.com - Node Magazine is publishing 2 Chapter Summaries and Quotations each day in the 42 day countdown to the official publication of Spook Country
  • Spook Country blog's "cloud of hyperlinks" in numerical chapter order - commentary and annotations on the node.tumblr.com annotations to Spook Country.

Fictional British TV Spooks

James Bond 007

Stylish, if somewhat far fetched, BBC TV drama based on MI5 the Security Service - Spooks

BBC children's TV series M.I.High

2008 spin off TV series from Spooks [spooks] code 9 , set a few years into the future in 2013, in the Orwellian Police State which has emerged after a nuclear bomb attack on London.

Fictional Spooks

The Spy Wise Blog by Wesley Britton

Real Spooks

MI5 - the Security Service - counter-espionage, counter-terrorism, domestic surveilance

GCHQ - the Government Communications Head Quarters - intercepting and deciphering enemy communications, and protecting UK ones.

MI6 - SIS - the Secret Intelligence Service - mostly foreign intelligence - not quite like depicted in James Bond films.

Ex - Spooks

RichardTomlinson.org - Richard Tomlinson - still being harassed by his former employer MI6. There are also links to Cryptome's archives of articles and alleged, unproven, lists of names of former or mcurrent MI6 agents (including, improbably, some UK Ambassadors), which caused lots of controversy. Tomlinson denies publishing anything not already in the public domain.

Martin Ingram, Welcome To The Dark Side - former British Army Intelligence operative in Northern Ireland.

Operation Billiards - Mitrokhin or Oshchenko ? Michael John Smith - seeking to overturn his Official Secrets Act conviction in the GEC case.

The Dirty Secrets of MI5 & MI6 - Tony Holland, Michael John Smith and John Symond - stories and chronologies.

Naked Spygirl - Olivia Frank

Spooky Info

Cryptome.org - including various spooky documents which some Government agencies would prefer not to be online.

Alan Turnbull's www.secret-bases.co.uk - "An entertaining guide to using Internet-based research tools – Ordnance Survey's maps, Getmapping's aerial photos and Google Earth! to reveal the UK's "hidden" MoD facilities and military sites"

Eye Spy Magazine - " The world's leading newsstand magazine on intelligence and espionage" - photos, articles, book reviews, private sector surveillance equipment and services adverts etc. N.B. Sometimes uncritical articles on various anti-terrorism and espionage topics, presumably in order to keep in favour with their anonymous sources.

Historical Spooks

Science Museum, London - Science of Spying Exhibition - for Spy Kids of all ages until September 2007.

Bletchley Park - "Historic site of secret British codebreaking activities during WWII and birthplace of the modern computer."

Imperial War Museum. London

Spooky CyberPunks and CyberGoths

The Dose is a "free, downloadable PDF zine ranging from industrial and gothic music to indie game development, Japanese visual kei, eyecandy, cyberpunkness" produced in Hungary.The three (so far annual) issues so far, with another promised in July 2007 contain plenty of CyberPunk and CyberGoth images and reviews, with the occasional reference back to William Gibson or other cyberpunk fiction authors.

Spy / Surveillance Art Projects

Spy Box - "A digital camera inside a parcel looks out through a small hole and captures images of its journey through the postal system. The Spy Box was sent from my studio to the gallery taking an image every 10 seconds recording a total of 6994 images these were then edited together to create an animated slideshow." - by artist Tim Knowles

Benjamin Males - "Face Targeting and Analysis System (2008) - Software designed to find and analyse faces in a video stream. First stage in an ongoing project looking at the potential misuse of technology"

London CyberPunk Tourist Guide

As part of the preparations for William Gibson book signing and lecture event promoting Spook Country in London, during August 2007, this "local knowledge" guide to places of interest to cyberpunk fans was compiled, and has been subsequently expanded.

London CyberPunk Tourist Guide - http://CyberPunk.org.uk

Please feel free to add comments or send emails, to keep it up to date.

Zero History

Zero_History_amazon_150.jpg

Zero History blog - ZeroHistory.net - discussion and hyper link cloud enhanced literary criticism of William Gibson's forthcoming novel, entitled Zero History, which is due to be published on 7th September 2010.

See the Fragments of a Hologram Bill thread on the William Gibson Books discussion forum for the snippets of writing which have been released for discussion to the public so far.

Syndicate this site (XML):

Zero History

Zero_History_amazon_150.jpg

Zero History blog - ZeroHistory.net - discussion and hyper link cloud enhanced literary criticism of William Gibson's forthcoming novel, entitled Zero History, which is due to be published on 7th September 2010.

See the Fragments of a Hologram Bill thread on the William Gibson Books discussion forum for the snippets of writing which have been released for discussion to the public so far.

Cover Artwork

US cover art (the design we prefer):
US_cover_April_150.jpg

UK cover art:
UK_cover_February_150.jpg

See how the cover artwork designs have changed slightly over time in the Cover Artwork category archive

"Spook Country" hyperlink cloud annotation

Our "Spook Country" hyperlink cloud annotation - re-orderd into numerical Chapter sequence

The Node Magazine node.tumblr.com, which this was a collaborative online contribution to, was online even before the official publication date of the first hardback edition of the book in August 2007.

This has been commented on by the author William Gibson, and described by Emeritus Professor of English Literature John Sutherland as "the future of literary crticism"

Recent Comments

  • Milan: Thanks for the detailed response. On a general level, I read more

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