William Gibson's Neuromancer and Science Fiction

Neuromancer cover

 

"Anyone inheriting the fantastic device of human language can say the green sun. Many can then imagine or picture it. But that is not enough--though it may already be a more potent thing than many a "thumbnail sketch" or "transcript of life" that receives literary praise.

"To make a Secondary World inside which the green sun will be credible, commanding Secondary Belief, will probably require labours and thought, and will certainly demand a special skill..."

(J. R. R. Tolkien "On Fairy-Stories")

Before there was science fiction (SF), there was the fantastic mode. Before the "Matrix" films, there was William Gibson's Neuromancer (1984), the first, and most significant, work in the science fiction (SF) subgenre known as "cyberpunk."

Main
Defining SF
Defining Cyberpunk
SF and Postmodernism
The Motifs of Cyberpunk
A Short Bibliography

 

 

Amelia A. Rutledge
English Department
Updated 1/17/2005