Main

September 1, 2007

William Gibson's "Spook Country"annotations via Node Magazine, node.tumblr.com and SpookCountry.co.uk - "the future of literary criticism", according to Professor John Sutherland

Professor John Sutherland was the moderator for the Q&A session at the Trades Union Congress conference centre "Evening with William Gibson" last Tuesday 28th August 2007.

John Sutherland is the Emeritus Lord Northcliffe Professor of Modern English Literature at University College London and Visiting Professor of Literature at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California, USA.

Node idea

A new science fiction novel is threatening to completely overhaul the way literary criticism is conducted, claims John Sutherland

Friday August 31, 2007
Education.Guardian.co.uk

I have seen the future of literary criticism - and, as John Reed said - 'it works'. Works better, in fact, than Reed's beloved Soviet Union ever worked.

The readership of The Guardian Education supplement will contain a lot of "left wing" academics who are familiar with the allusion to the US Communist journalist John Reed, who was portrayed by Warren Beatty in the Hollywood film "Reds" (1981)

Continue reading "William Gibson's "Spook Country"annotations via Node Magazine, node.tumblr.com and SpookCountry.co.uk - "the future of literary criticism", according to Professor John Sutherland" »

August 28, 2007

An Evening with William Gibson - TUC conference centre London 28 Aug 2007 - mentions Node magazine at least twice

A fuller report and more photos late,

William Gibson mentioned Node website at least twice during his reading, talk and signing session at the TUC conference centre in London:

  • The very first second question the moderator asked about was the impact of the annotations in the Node magazine node.tumblr.com. - William Gibson seemed to be positive about them, but noted that the previous PR-otaku site for Pattern Recognition took about a year to appear after publication, whilst this project, to which I have added my own annotations here on this blog, happened even before the official book publication date.

  • When asked about the impact of "micro-celebrity" and "Web 2.0" technology, William Gibson again cited his meeting with patternboy who made an impact from a small town in Colorado, with the help of international contributors.

William Gibson said that this was one of the few, genuinely new uses of technology he had come across recently.

I met up with some fun loving members of the William Gibson Board - Hacking the Gibson in London !, who brought more than one sophisticated camera each on average. We visited the Science Museum, Covent Garden and then the TUC conference centre.

Here is my snapshot during the biggest WGB Rest Room Invasion photo yet:

TUC_toilet_2.jpg

UPDATE:

The Sci-Fi London co-sponsors of the event have now (September 6th) put up a
streamcast video (needs Flash 9), of the Questions and Answers session, with Professor John Sutherland as moderator.

August 8, 2007

Thank you patternboy for the Node Magazine and node.tumblr.com project

As patternboy explains his Node Magazine countdown project, publishing some deliberately limited quotations and chapter summaries each day until the official US publication date of Spook Country on August 7th 2007 is now complete.

I have been intrigued by the idea of reading the book in a search engine enhanced hyptext hypetext hypertext manner, and have contributed my own comments and observations on the node.tumblr.com published text.

I would like to thank patternboy for all his hard work, and I share his excitement that the project has attracted the attention of the author William Gibson himself.

William Gibson's recent interviews where he revealed how important the use of web search engines was for his writing process, is almost certainly going to be true for lots of other authors in the future as well.

In terms of technology, this could have been done using a Wiki or blog or bulletin board software which allows comments or edits from other authors, but that does not really matter too much.

This is how many readers will read fiction in the future, just like many of us read non-fiction news and current affairs articles now.

It is noticeable how many of the mainstream media's book reviews (sadly almost all from the USA rather than from the UK where they still seem to be ignoring Spook Country ) also have used Google or other online resources to help write their reviews.

I shall write my own review of Spook Country soon enough, but whilst it crystallises in my mind, I am working on my promised CyberPunk guide to central London, for the benefit of fans who are swarming there from out of town and from overseas, for the book promotion events on 28th and 29th of August.

Node magazine countdown - Spook Country Chapter 83 and 84

Chapter 83. STRATHCONA

"And you’re writing your thesis on Baptists, Mr. Milgrim?"

Chapter 84. THE MAN WHO SHOT WALT DISNEY


'It's not bad,' said Bobby, spilling a little of his second piso mojado as he leaned back in his chair to see the top of Bigend's building through Hollis's helmet.

[...]

She put the helmet on, turned it on, and looked up to where Alberto’s giant cartoon rendition of the Mongolian Death Worm, its tail wound through the various windows of Bigend's pyramidal aerie like an eel through the skull of a cow, waved imperially, tall and scarlet, in the night.


Chapter summaries - may contain plot and character teaser / "spoiler" information, depending on how many reviews, or on how much of the book, you have read so far:

Continue reading "Node magazine countdown - Spook Country Chapter 83 and 84" »

August 7, 2007

Node magazine countdown - Spook Country Chapter 82

Chapter 82. BEENIE’S

"The unfamiliar ring tone of Garreth’s cell woke her."

Chapter summaries - may contain plot and character teaser / "spoiler" information, depending on how many reviews, or how much of the book, you have read so far:

Continue reading "Node magazine countdown - Spook Country Chapter 82" »

August 6, 2007

Node magazine countdown - Spook Country Chapter 81

Chapter 81. IN BETWEEN EVERYTHING

'You can’t give me a number?'

Chapter summary - may contain plot and character teaser / "spoiler" information, depending on how many reviews, or how much of the book, you have read so far:

Continue reading "Node magazine countdown - Spook Country Chapter 81" »

Node Magazine blog and node.tumblr.com mentioned by William Gibson in interviews

The pre-publication blurbs and extracts published on William Gibson's blog mentioned Node magazine , a fictional magazine described in Spook Country, which is a vehicle for one of the main protagonists Hubertus Bigend to allow him to get Hollis Henry and others to ask journalistic questions to try to track down Bobby Chombo and the mysterious shipping container. Actual publication of Node or even publicity and marketing "buzz" before launc, seems to be deliberately discouraged.

However, this Node magazine does actually have a presence on the internet, Node Magazine blog courtesy of patternboy, who is also publishing daily chapter summaries and quotations until the official US publication date (tomorrow). These are illustrated and expanded with images and hyperlinks from other web resources, giving life to some otherwise arcane knowledge or obscure brand names.

I sometimes add a bit more commentary from my own web researches and pre-existing knowledge and experience, on these selections - see this blog's node.tumblr.com.

What is interesting is that William Gibson mentions this in two recent interviews:

Continue reading "Node Magazine blog and node.tumblr.com mentioned by William Gibson in interviews" »

August 5, 2007

Node magazine countdown - Spook Country Chapters 79 and 80

Chapter 79. ARTIST AND REPERTOIRE

"'Where’d you say you’re from?' asked the man from Igor’s label, offering Tito an open bottle of beer."

Chapter 80. MONGOLIAN DEATH WORM

"'Business-class lounge for Air Asshole,' declared Inchmale, enthusiastically taking in the central area of the first floor of Bigend’s flat."

Chapter summaries - may contain plot and character teaser / "spoiler" information, depending on how many reviews you have read so far:

Continue reading "Node magazine countdown - Spook Country Chapters 79 and 80" »

August 4, 2007

Node magazine countdown - Spook Country Chapters 77 and 78

Chapter 77. SLACK ROPE

"The Guerreros were not waiting for him, when he left the dark bed of the truck, blinking under artificial sunlight."

Chapter 78. THEIR DIFFERENT DRUMMER

"My purse,’ she said, as they drove back to Bobby’s."

Chapter summaries - may contain plot and character teaser / "spoiler" information, depending on how many reviews you have read so far:

Continue reading "Node magazine countdown - Spook Country Chapters 77 and 78" »

August 3, 2007

Node magazine countdown - Spook Country Chapters 75 and 76

Chapter 75. HEY, BUDDY

"Oshosi, scout and hunter, had entered Tito in mid-backtuck. "

Chapter 76. LOCATION SHOOT


Having dropped Tito and driven on, not far at all along the strip of low-lying auto-body repairs and marine supplies, Garreth turned right, into the parking lot of what seemed to be a much taller building, one built on an entirely different scale.

Chapter summaries - may contain plot and character teaser / "spoiler" information, depending on how many reviews you have read so far:

Continue reading "Node magazine countdown - Spook Country Chapters 75 and 76" »

August 2, 2007

Node magazine countdown - Spook Country Chapters 73 and 74

Chapter 73. SPECIAL FORCES

"Going somewhere she’d never seen, at night, in a van with two men, with equipment, reminded her of the beginning of the Curfew, minus Heidi Hyde."

Chapter 74. AS DIRECTED

"Milgrim had been thinking about offering Brown a Rize, when he spotted the IF walking along the sidewalk."

Chapter summaries - may contain plot and character teaser / "spoiler" information, depending on how many reviews you have read so far:

Continue reading "Node magazine countdown - Spook Country Chapters 73 and 74" »

August 1, 2007

Node magazine countdown - Spook Country Chapters 71 and 72

Chapter 71. HARD TO BE ONE

"'What do you know about money laundering, Hollis?' the old man asked, passing her a round foil dish of peas and paneer."

Chapter 72. EVENT HORIZON

"'That jacket we put you in, in New York, for the helicopter,' the old man said, walking around Tito, who had just put on a new black hooded sweatshirt that Garreth had given him.


Chapter summaries - may contain plot and character teaser / "spoiler" information, depending on how many reviews you have read so far:

Continue reading "Node magazine countdown - Spook Country Chapters 71 and 72" »

July 31, 2007

Node magazine countdown - Spook Country Chapters 69 and 70

Chapter 69. MAGNETS

"Garreth took Tito to the far end of the second table, where ten disks, each no thicker than a small coin, and about three inches in diameter, were arranged on a half-sheet of fresh plywood."

Chapter 70. PHO

"Brown took Milgrim to a dim, steamy Vietnamese restaurant, one with no English signage whatever."

Chapter summaries - may contain plot and character teaser / "spoiler" information, depending on how many reviews you have read so far:

Continue reading "Node magazine countdown - Spook Country Chapters 69 and 70" »

July 30, 2007

Node magazine countdown - Spook Country Chapters 67 and 68

Chapter 67. WARDRIVING

"Milgrim sat beside Brown on one of the two benches in a very small park, under the bare branches of a row of young maples."

Chapter 68. SNAP

"Hollis thought that he looked a little like William Burroughs, minus the bohemian substrate (or perhaps the methadone)."

Chapter summaries - may contain plot and character teaser / "spoiler" information, depending on how many reviews you have read so far:

Continue reading "Node magazine countdown - Spook Country Chapters 67 and 68" »

July 29, 2007

Node magazine countdown - Spook Country Chapters 65 and 66

Chapter 65. EAST VAN HALEN

"She opened her PowerBook on the counter of Bigend's crypto-kitchen, taking wifi for granted."

Chapter 66. PING

"Tito sat on a paint-spattered steel stool, looking up at a dirty skylight of wire-embedded glass."

Chapter summaries - may contain plot and character teaser / "spoiler" information, depending on how many reviews you have read so far:

Continue reading "Node magazine countdown - Spook Country Chapters 65 and 66" »

Node magazine countdown - Spook Country Chapters 63 and 64

Chapter 63. SURVIVAL, EVASION, RESISTANCE, AND ESCAPE

"Tito watched the old man fold the copy of the New York Times he’d been reading."

[...]

"Gradually, in the crisis of self that your captivity becomes, [the captor] guides you in your discovery of who you are becoming."

Chapter 64. GLOCKING


"'Score some shit,' said Brown, sounding like he'd rehearsed the line, as he handed Milgrim a fold of colorful foreign bills."

Chapter summaries - may contain plot and character teaser / "spoiler" information, depending on how many reviews you have read so far:

Continue reading "Node magazine countdown - Spook Country Chapters 63 and 64" »

July 28, 2007

Node magazine countdown - Spook Country Chapters 61 and 62

Chapter 61. THE PELICAN CASE

"They took the black plastic Pelican case on in Montana."

Chapter 62. SISTER

"'This is Sarah,' said Odile, when Hollis found her, on the crowded cafe patio of a municipal gallery."

[...]

"[Chombo] implements finite differential methods for the solutions of partial differential equations, on block-structured, adaptively refined rectangular grids".

Chapter summaries - may contain plot and character teaser / "spoiler" information, depending on how many reviews you have read so far:

Continue reading "Node magazine countdown - Spook Country Chapters 61 and 62" »

July 24, 2007

Node magazine countdown - Spook Country Chapters 59 and 60

Chapter 59. BLACK ZODIAC

"Brown rented a remarkably ugly and uncomfortable black boat called a Zodiac".

[...]

"Cities, in Milgrim's experience, had a way of revealing themselves in the faces of their inhabitants, and particularly on their way to work in the morning. There was a sort of basic fuckedness index to be read, then, in faces that hadn't yet encountered the reality of whatever they were on their way to do."

Chapter 60. ROLLING THE CODES

"Hollis woke on Bigend’s mag-level bed, feeling as though it was the altar atop some Aztec pyramid."

Chapter summaries - may contain plot and character teaser / "spoiler" information, depending on how many reviews you have read so far:

Continue reading "Node magazine countdown - Spook Country Chapters 59 and 60" »

Node magazine countdown - Spook Country Chapters 57 and 58

Chapter 57. POPCORN

"Commercial airlines were like buses, Milgrim decided, staring at the textured ceiling in his room in this Best Western."

Chapter 58. ALPHABET TALK

"The pilot followed the highways."

Chapter summaries - may contain plot and character teaser / "spoiler" information, depending on how many reviews you have read so far:

Continue reading "Node magazine countdown - Spook Country Chapters 57 and 58" »

Node magazine countdown - Spook Country Chapters 55 and 56

Chapter 55. PHANTOM GUN SYNDROME

"'Miller,' said Brown, from his enormous white leather recliner, across ten feet of off-white shag carpet."

Chapter 56. HENRY AND RICHARD

"A pale boy with a very thin beard was holding a rectangle of white cardboard inscribed with Henry and Richard in green marker, as the left the customers hall."


Chapter summaries - may contain plot and character teaser / "spoiler" information, depending on how many reviews you have read so far:

Continue reading "Node magazine countdown - Spook Country Chapters 55 and 56" »

July 22, 2007

Node magazine countdown - Spook Country Chapters 53 and 54

Chapter 53. TO GIVE THEM THE PLEASURE

Chapter 54. ICE

"Tito woke as the Cessna's wheels touched down."

Chapter summaries - may contain plot and character teaser / "spoiler" information, depending on how many reviews you have read so far:

Continue reading "Node magazine countdown - Spook Country Chapters 53 and 54" »

July 21, 2007

Node magazine countdown - Spook Country Chapters 51 and 52

Chapter 51. CESSNA

"Tito discovered that he could sleep on an airplane."

Chapter 52. SCHOOL CLOTHES

"Milgrim found the housekeeper in the kitchen, where Brown has said he would be, rinsing breakfast dishes before putting them in the water."

Chapter summaries (may contain plot and character teaser / "spoiler" information):

Continue reading "Node magazine countdown - Spook Country Chapters 51 and 52" »

Node magazine countdown - Spook Country Chapters 49 and 50

Chapter 49. ROTCH

"Odile sat in the white armchair, with the white robot on its back in her lap, poking a white Mondrian pencil into its mechanism of plastic gears and black rubber bands."

Chapter 50. WHISPERING GALLERY

"Milgrim woke in a narrow bed, beneath a single flannel sheet printed with trout flies, partial riverscapes, and the repeated image of an angler, casting."


Chapter summaries (may contain plot and character teaser / "spoiler" information):

Continue reading "Node magazine countdown - Spook Country Chapters 49 and 50" »

July 20, 2007

Node magazine countdown - Spook Country Chapter 48

Chapter 48. MONTAUK

"Tito sat, eyes resolutely closed, within his music."

Chapter summary (may contain plot and character teaser / "spoiler" information):

Continue reading "Node magazine countdown - Spook Country Chapter 48" »

July 19, 2007

Node magazine countdown - Spook Country Chapters 45 and 46 and 47

Chapter 45. BREAKBULK

"'‘Where do you think the truck's headed?' Hollis asked, poolside, from her cozy depression in the edge of the giant Stark futon."

Chapter 46. VIP

"'You aren’t carrying identification,' the old man said, in English, turning off the small camera on which he’d been repeatedly observing a piece of video.

Chapter 47. N Street

"There were ghosts in the Civil War trees, past Philadelphia."

Chapter summaries (may contain plot and character teaser / "spoiler" information):

Continue reading "Node magazine countdown - Spook Country Chapters 45 and 46 and 47" »

July 18, 2007

Node magazine countdown - Spook Country Chapters 43 and 44

Chapter 43. PONG

"The lobby bar was full again."

[...]

"This is a matter in which possession of information accounts to involvement. Do you understand?" Hubertus Bigend

Chapter 44. EXIT STRATEGY

"Milgrim found himself heading for Brown's parked Corolla, or rather he found his body, cramping and gasping from its unaccustomed gallop, weaving unevenly in what he supposed to be that general direction."

Chapter summaries (may contain plot and character teaser / "spoiler" information):

Continue reading "Node magazine countdown - Spook Country Chapters 43 and 44" »

July 17, 2007

Node magazine countdown - Spook Country Chapters 41 and 42

Chapter 41. HOUDINI

"With a click that he felt, rather than heard, the tiny ratchet at the heart of the cable-tie moved aside for Milgrim's modified ballpoint clip."

Chapter 42. GOING AWAY

"Systema avoids pursuit, whenever possible, the uncles taught."

Chapter summaries (may contain plot and character teaser / "spoiler" information):

Continue reading "Node magazine countdown - Spook Country Chapters 41 and 42" »

July 15, 2007

Node magazine countdown - Spook Country Chapters 39 and 40

Chapter 39. TOOLMAKER

"Milgrim remembered Union Square from twenty years before, when it had been a place of broken benches and litter, where a corpse may go unnoticed amid the huddled and unmoving bodies of the homeless."

[...]

"The core anxiety as he knew it today was in part an artifact of the substance [to which he is addicted "countering a tension at the core of his being"]"

Chapter 40: DANCING

"Tito knelt and tightened the laces of his Adidas GSG9s, respectfully reminding the Guerreros that it was time."

Chapter summaries (may contain plot and character teaser / "spoiler" information):

Continue reading "Node magazine countdown - Spook Country Chapters 39 and 40" »

July 14, 2007

Node magazine countdown - Spook Country Chapters 37 and 38

Chapter 37. FREERUNNERS

"The orishas spread through a seemingly ordinary awareness, invisible drops of ink in a volume of water [creating] a still higher state of readiness"

Chapter 38. TUBAL

"She lay very still, on her back, the sheet forming a cool dark tunnel, and gave her body explicit permission to relax."

Chapter summaries (may contain plot and character teaser / "spoiler" information):

Continue reading "Node magazine countdown - Spook Country Chapters 37 and 38" »

Node magazine countdown - Spook Country Chapters 35 and 36

Chapter 35. GUERREROS

" He left the black-wrapped mattress on the floor, with his keys at its exact center, the toothbrush and toothpaste on the edge of the sink, the wire hangers on the old rack that concealed the bug"

[,,,]

"(T)he holding of knowledge in dignified privacy helps insure desired results."

Chapter 36. SPECTACLES, TESTICLES, WALLET, AND WATCH

"By the time Milgrim had finished shaving and gotten dressed, Brown was holding a meeting in the adjoining room."

Chapter summaries (may contain plot and character teaser / "spoiler" information):

Continue reading "Node magazine countdown - Spook Country Chapters 35 and 36" »

July 13, 2007

Node magazine countdown - Spook Country Chapters 33 and 34

Chapter 33. COUNTERPANE

" Brown, in cloak and tight-fitting cowl fashioned from one of the New Yorker's foam-core blankets, gestured across the rolling beige plain with a sturdy wood-look staff, its length decorated in a traditional pattern of cigarette burns."

[...]

"The sky had turned a Turner-on-crack intensity."

Chapter 34. SPOOK COUNTRY

"'Ezeiza,' he said."

Chapter summaries (may contain plot and character teaser / "spoiler" information):

Continue reading "Node magazine countdown - Spook Country Chapters 33 and 34" »

July 12, 2007

Node magazine countdown - Spook Country Chapters 31 and 32

Chapter 31. PURO

"Brotherman took the black packages down and loaded them into his truck, then the chair and ironing board, to be delivered to Vianca"

[...]

"Sometimes the closer to a truth one gets, the more complicated things become. The men in bars who explain every dark secret of this world [believe that] no secret requires more than three drinks to explain... The three-drink answers never contain the truth."

Chapter 32. MR. SIPPEE

" She ate a dollar-fifty-nine barbecue beef rib with broasted potatoes off a paper plate on the trunk of the Passat, waiting for Alberto to turn up at Mr. Sippee, a blended oasis of peace and mutual respect situated in a twenty-four hour convenience store at the Arco gas station at Blaine and Eleventh."

Chapter summaries (may contain plot and character teaser / "spoiler" information):

Continue reading "Node magazine countdown - Spook Country Chapters 31 and 32" »

July 11, 2007

Node magazine countdown - Spook Country Chapters 29 and 30

Chapter 29. INSULATION

"There was something about Rize, Milgrim decided, reclining fully dressed across his New Yorker bedspread, that reminded him of one of the more esoteric efforts of eating exceptionally hot Szechuan."

[...]

"Are you really so scared of terrorists that you'll dismantle the structures that made America what it is?"

Chapter 30. FOOTPRINT

"She drove to Malibu with the Blue Ant helmet in the carton beside her"

Chapter summaries (may contain plot and character teaser / "spoiler" information):

Continue reading "Node magazine countdown - Spook Country Chapters 29 and 30" »

Node magazine countdown - Spook Country Chapters 27 and 28

Chapter 27. THE INTERNATIONAL CURRENCY OF BAD SHIT

"Held physically together by the thick white Mondrian robe, her sunglasses, and a room-service breakfast of granola, yogurt, and a watermelon liquada, Hollis sat back in one wide white armchair, put her feel up on the shorter of the two marble-topped coffee tables, and regarded the vinyl Blue Ant figurine on the chair arm."

Chapter 28. BROTHERMAN

"Tito and Vianca packaged the contents of his room as ten parcels of varying sizes, each one double-wrapped in contractor-grade black trash bags and sealed with heavy black tape."

Chapter summaries (may contain plot and character teaser / "spoiler" information):

Continue reading "Node magazine countdown - Spook Country Chapters 27 and 28" »

July 9, 2007

Node magazine countdown - Spook Country Chapters 25 and 26

Chapter 25. SUNSET PARK

"Vianca sat cross-legged on Tito's floor with his Sony plasma screen across her knees."

Chapter 26. GRAY'S PAPAYA

"Sometimes, if Brown were hungry at the end of the day, and is in a certain mood, they’d go to Gray Papaya for the Recession Special."

Chapter summaries (may contain plot and character teaser / "spoiler" information):

Continue reading "Node magazine countdown - Spook Country Chapters 25 and 26" »

July 7, 2007

Node magazine countdown - Spook Country Chapters 23 and 24

Chapter 23. TWO MOORS

"Brown left Milgrim in the Korean's laundry for a very long time."

Chapter 24. POPPIES

"Votive candles had been lit in her darkened room."

Chapter summaries (may contain plot and character teaser / "spoiler" information):

Continue reading "Node magazine countdown - Spook Country Chapters 23 and 24" »

July 6, 2007

Node magazine countdown - Spook Country Chapters 21 and 22

Chapter 21. SALT OF SOPHIA

"Tito crossed Amsterdam passing the gray, snow-dusted stalks of a makeshift public garden, then walked quickly along 111th, towards Broadway."

Chapter 22. DRUM AND BASS

"Pamela Mainwaring, English, with blond bangs entirely concealing her forehead, drove Hollis back to the Mondrian in one of the big silver Volkswagen sedans."

Chapter summaries (may contain plot and character teaser / "spoiler" information):

Continue reading "Node magazine countdown - Spook Country Chapters 21 and 22" »

Node magazine countdown - Spook Country Chapters 19 and 20

Chapter 19. FISH

"Brown took Milgrim back to the Korean-owned laundry on Lafayette Street, for parking."

Chapter 20. TULPA

"Had that woman in the wheelchair had an IV drip-stand in tow, one-handing her way across the intersection, the other hand keeping the chrome-plated upright of the stand erect?"

[...]

"The celebrity self is a sort of tulpa ("projected thought-form"). The celebrity self has a life of its own. It can, under the right circumstances, indefinitely survive the death of its subject."

[...]

"I've learned to value anomalous phenomenon... From them, sometimes, emerge Blue Ant's most successful efforts. Trope Slope, for instance, our viral pitchman platform, was based on pieces of anonymous footage being posted on the Net"

Chapter summaries (may contain plot and character teaser / "spoiler" information):

Continue reading "Node magazine countdown - Spook Country Chapters 19 and 20" »

July 4, 2007

Node magazine countdown - Spook Country Chapters 17 and 18'

Chapter 17. PIRATES AND TEAMS

"The front of her Mondrian haircut had started to remind her of Bobby Chombo's elephantiasis-of-the-forelock, the result of an ongoing interaction of product with particulates."

[...]

"She ran her thumbs along a lambskin seat seam [in the Phaeton]. Like touching the butt of a supermodel, probably"

Chapter 18. Eleggua's Window

"Tia Juana sent him walking, crosstown along the 110th, to Amsterdam and the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, the better to consult Eleggua."

Also see the "Communications Bay" extract (which may or may not be quite what will be published) in this William Gibson Blog entry of Friday, March 10, 2006

Chapter summaries (may contain plot and character teaser / "spoiler" information):

Continue reading "Node magazine countdown - Spook Country Chapters 17 and 18'" »

July 2, 2007

Node magazine countdown - Spook Country Chapters 15 and 16

Chapter 15. SPIV

"Inchmale had always been balding and intense, and Inchmale had always been middle-aged-even when she first met him, when they were both nineteen."

Chapter 16. KNOWN EXITS

"Milgrim was reading the New York Times, finishing his breakfast coffee in a bakery on Bleecker, while Brown conducted a series of quiet, tense and extremely pissed-off conversations with whomever was supposed to be in charge of watching the IF’s known exits, when the IF was home sleeping - or whatever the IF did, when he as home."

[...]

"If Brown had declared that the Queen of England to be a shape-shifting alien reptile, craving the warm flesh of human infants, Milgrim would not have argued."

Chapter summaries (may contain plot and character teaser / "spoiler" information):

Continue reading "Node magazine countdown - Spook Country Chapters 15 and 16" »

July 1, 2007

Node magazine countdown - Spook Country Chapters 13 and 14

Chapter 13. BOXES

"She stood beneath Archie's tail, enjoying the flood of images rushing from the arrowhead fluke toward the tips of the two long hunting tentacles."

Chapter 14. JUANA

He remembered her apartment in San Isidro, near the big train station.

Chapter summaries (may contain plot and character teaser / "spoiler" information):

Continue reading "Node magazine countdown - Spook Country Chapters 13 and 14" »

June 30, 2007

Node magazine countdown - Spook Country Chapters 11 and 12

Chapter 11. BOBBYLAND

"East on La Brea, Alberto steered the Aztec-lacquered VW, Hollis beside him."

Chapter 12. THE SOURCE

"Milgrim dreamed he was naked in Brown’s room, while Brown lay sleeping."

Chapter summaries (may contain plot and character teaser / "spoiler" information):

Continue reading "Node magazine countdown - Spook Country Chapters 11 and 12" »

Node magazine countdown - Spook Country Chapters 9 and 10

Chapter 9. A COLD CIVIL WAR

"The message tone woke him."

Chapter 10. NEW DEVONIAN

"Milgrim was dreaming of the Flagellant Messiah, of the Pseudo Baldwin and the Master of Hungary, when Brown reached down into the hot shallows of his sleep, dug his thumbs into his shoulders, and shook him, hard."

Chapter summaries (may contain plot and character teaser / "spoiler" information):

Continue reading "Node magazine countdown - Spook Country Chapters 9 and 10" »

June 29, 2007

Node magazine countdown - Spook Country Chapters 7 and 8

Chapter 7. BUENOS AIRES

"Hollis dreamed she was in London with Philip Rausch, walking fast down Monmouth Street, towards the needle of Seven Dials"

Chapter 8. CREEPING HER OUT

"She watched Alberto trying to explain the helmet and the laptop to Virgin Security."

Chapter summaries (may contain plot and character teaser / "spoiler" information):

Continue reading "Node magazine countdown - Spook Country Chapters 7 and 8" »

June 28, 2007

Node magazine countdown - Spook Country Chapters 5 and 6

Chapter 5. TWO KINDS OF EMPTY

"Coming back from the Sunrise Market on Broome, just before they closed, Tito stopped to look in the windows of Yohji Yamamoto, on Grand Street."

Chapter 6. RIZE

"Milgrim was enjoying the superior brightness of the nitrogen-filled optics in Brown's Austrian-made monocular well enough, but not the smell of Brown's chewing gum or his proximity in the back of the chilly surveillance van."

Chapter summaries (may contain plot and character teaser / "spoiler" information):

Continue reading "Node magazine countdown - Spook Country Chapters 5 and 6" »

Node magazine countdown - Spook Country Chapters 3 and 4

Chapter 3. VOLAPUK

"Milgrim, wearing the Paul Stuart overcoat he’d stolen the month before from a Fifth Avenue deli, watched Brown unlock the oversized steel-sheathed door with a pair of keys taken from a small transparent Ziploc bag..."

Chapter 4. INTO THE LOCATIVE

"The Standard had an all-night restaurant off its lobby--a long, glass-frosted operation with wide booths upholstered in matte-black tuck-and-roll punctuated by the gnarled phalli of half a dozen San Pedro cacti."

"See-bare-espace... it is everting." - Odile Richards

Chapter summaries (may contain plot and character teaser / "spoiler" information):

Continue reading "Node magazine countdown - Spook Country Chapters 3 and 4" »

June 26, 2007

Node Magazine is publishing 2 daily Chapter summaries and Quotations in the countdown to the official publication of William Gibson's "Spook Country" novel

patternboy is publishing, as part of his Node Magazine project, a daily quotation and comments on each chapter of William Gibson's Spook Country as the official publication date approaches:

See http://node.tumblr.com:

With 42 days before the official release and a total of 84 chapters, I will begin posting two short (under 807 characters each in celebration of the official release date) chapter summaries each day. Quotations will be very sparse and all posts will contain my interpretations (and likely significant spoilers) re: the yet-to-be-released work.

I hope you enjoy what is to come and look forward to your feedback and comments.

My only quibble is that there does not seem to be a comment facility to comment on each quotation and chapter summary on the node.tumblr.com website.

The first two Chapters seem to be entitled:

Chapter 1. WHITE LEGO

'Rausch,' said the voice in Hollis Henry's cell. 'Node,' it said.

Chapter 2. ANTS IN THE WATER

The old man reminded Tito of those ghost-signs, fading high on the windowless sides of blackened buildings, spelling out the names of products made meaningless by time.

Chapter summaries (may contain plot and character teaser / "spoiler" information):

Continue reading "Node Magazine is publishing 2 daily Chapter summaries and Quotations in the countdown to the official publication of William Gibson's "Spook Country" novel" »