Unofficial Cyberpunk FAQ

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/-----------------/ yber /--/ unk ---------------------------------------------------------------------| | | THE UNOFFICIAL FAQ FOR alt.cyberpunk | | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------:::::updated: 1Jan93 Contents: | | a. Introduction/disclaimer/editors notes | b. Abbreviations and TLAs | 1. What is Cyberpunk? (definitions and interpretations from alt.cp) | 2. Cyberpunk melding with other subcultures | 3. Required Reading | 4. What is CyberPunk music? | 5. CyberPunk Authors on the Net (Gibson's Email Address...Not) | 6. More info on-line | 7. Agrippa: A Book of the Dead | 8. Sterling's latest stuff | 9. Gibson's next book | 10. Gibson goes to the movies! Neuromancer?? Alien^3?? More?? | 11. Recommended Reading (books) | 12. Recommended Reading Mirrorshades Group (short stories) | 13. Recommended Reading Mirrorshades Group (interviews, critical works) | 14. Recommended Reading (zines and other) | 15. Recommended Viewing (movies) | 16. What is CyberPunk music? (w/ suggested-listening lists) | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------| a. Introduction and disclaimer | ----------------------------------

First off, welcome to the unofficial alt.cyberpunk FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions guide). This file should give you some broad idea of what alt.cyberpunk is about, and hopefully some idea of what CyberPunk is about.

By no means am I authorized to write such a file. I am just one avid fan of cyberpunk and the related subculture. I am not an author, publisher, or anything like that, so please take that into consideration when reading this file.

ahawks@nyx.cs.du.edu

alt.cp.faq originator] Comments from current editor:

Tim Oerting

space2@hardy.u.washington.edu] -------------------------------------------------------------------------Latest News Flash:

********** FTP Site ************

I have gotten an ftp site setup and although I only have under a Meg available for this.. it will make it helpful for those who want the latest FAQ and other stuffs. There is a README file which you should get first, as it explains what each of the files are.

Most importantly where is it?

Site: ftp.u.washington.edu

Dir: /public/alt.cyberpunk -------------------------------------------------------------------------As usual, I am still trying to add stuff to the FAQ so if you run accross anything good to add just send it on my way and I'll try to find a good spot for it! I would like to acknowledge those who have given assistance in the form of comments, additions, or whose postings I have gleaned info from for this edition as well as those who have given stuffs for the ftp site. Keep the info coming! Thanks to you all... | b. Abbreviations and TLAs | ----------------------------(included for the sake of completion, I guess...) :) Smiley usually denotes sarcasm or joking

A^3 Aliens 3

bb bOING bOING BB " BC Burning Chrome (Gibson's collection of short stories) BTW By the way BS Bruce Sterling or the old standard......:)]

CP Cyberpunk

CZ Count Zero (a Gibson novel) DE The Difference Engine Gibson & Sterlin novel)

FAQ Frequently Asked Questions

FLA FrontLine Assembly (industrial musical group) IMHO In my humble / honest ] opinion IMnsHO In my not so humble / honest] opion MLO Mona Lisa Overdrive (a Gibson novel)

MONDO Mondo 2000 Magazine

M2000 " M2 " M2K "

OAV Original Animation Video

SRL Survival Research Labs

T2 Terminator 2

TLA Three-Letter Acronym

VR Virtual Reality

WG William Gibson

| 1. What is Cyberpunk? | -------------------------

Inevitably after reading alt.cp for awhile, you will encounter posts where the author argues with some other party about a definition of cyberpunk. Cyberpunk is a new movement, a new subculture, thus it has no set definition. To get some idea of "just what is cyberpunk?" we'll examine what the leaders of this movement and the contributors to alt.cyberpunk would give as their definitions: --"CYBERPUNK. THE ATTITUDE. GET IT."

-a page out of Mondo 2000 --A CONVERSATION BETWEEN WILLIAM GIBSON AND BRUCE STERLING: lifted from FAD Magazine, #26, Spring 1992, pages 40-41 w/o permission] WG and BS interviewed by Marjan] Bruce Sterling: Bruce Bepkie, who wrote a short story called 'CYBERPUNK' coined the term]; he's a moderately known science fiction writer. But the use of Cyberpunk as a literary critical term started by a guy called Gardner Dozois, the editor is Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction magazine now. He's also a well-known critic. He wrote an article in the Washington Post about Cyberpunk which mentioned my name and GIBSON, JOHN SHIRLEY, RUDY RUCKER, some of our crowd;that stuck. This was around 1983 or so. William Gibson: He was aiming to do that as early as 1981, cuz that's when I met you. BS: We've had lots of names. Ever since we started people have been giving us one kind of title or another. I had a list of like a dozen once; Radical Hard SF, Techno Punk, 80's Wave, Outlaw Technologists... WG: They've used them all up, so now people in England are starting to come up with new names. They have like Techno Goths, Techno Goth fiction. FAD: How would you define Cyberpunk? BS: I always thought it was the realm where the computer Hacker and the Rocker overlap. High Tech having its impact on Bohemia. FAD: Sort of like sex, drugs and Rock and Roll with computers? BS: More or less. Bohemia is an old thing, and Science Fiction is an old thing, and every once in awhile they just overlap. They're both products of industrial society, it's a very natural thing it's not very far-fetched it's very functional. It's hard to say whether we invented these people or these people invented us. You want to look at what Cyberpunk has become, read 'MONDO 2000'. It's just as demented and just as strange. But it's very much a happening scene, it actually gives people something they really need. FAD: to Gibson] And how would you define it? WG: (Long pause) I can't. (Laughs) Somebody once asked Jimmy Page what he thought of Heavy Metal, and he said, I didn't call it that when I invented it. FAD: What did you call it? WG: I didn't call it anything. Note: I *highly* recommend this article if you can find a copy of the magazine. It's called FAD and is a SF-based style-rag (like Details was before it went glossy). FAD, Po Box 420-656, San Francisco, CA 94142. $3.95 / issue] ----------Cyberpunk as seen through the "snake-eyes" of Tom Maddox comes from an abridged version of his essay: "After the Deluge: Cyberpunk in the '80s and '90s"

(The essay was printed in the volume _Thinking Robots, an Aware Internet, and Cyberpunk Librarians_, edited by R. Bruce Miller and Milton T. Wolf, distributed at the Library and Information Technology Association meeting in San Francisco, during the 1992 American Library Association Conference.)

In the mid-'80s cyberpunk emerged as a new way of doing science fiction in both literature and film. The primary book was William Gibson's _Neuromancer_; the most important film, _Blade Runner_. Both featured a hardboiled style, were intensely sensuous in their rendering of detail, and engaged technology in a manner unusual in science fiction: neither technophiliac (like so much of "Golden Age" sf) nor technophobic (like the sf "New Wave"), cyberpunk did not so much embrace technology as go along for the ride.

However, this was just the beginning: during the '80s cyberpunk _spawned_, and in a very contemporary mode. It was cloned; it underwent mutations; it was the subject of various experiments in recombining its semiotic DNA. If you were hip in the '80s, you at least heard about cyberpunk, and if in addition you were even marginally literate, you knew about Gibson.

. . .] In the 80s] The boundaries between entertainment and politics, or between the simulated and the real, first became more permeable and then--at least according to some theorists of these events--collapsed entirely. Whether we were ready or not, the postmodern age was upon us.

. . .]

Anyone who was watching the field carefully had already noticed stories such as "Johnny Mnemonic" and "Burning Chrome," and some of us thought that Gibson was writing the most exciting new work in the field, but no one--least of all Gibson himself--was ready for what happened next. _Neuromancer_ won the Hugo, the Nebula, the Philip K. Dick Award, Australia's Ditmar; it contributed a central concept to the emerging computer culture ("cyberspace"); it defined an emerging literary style, cyberpunk; and it made that new literary style famous, and . . .] even hip. . . .] Along with _Neuromancer_, _Blade Runner_ together set the boundary conditions for emerging cyberpunk: a hard-boiled combination of high tech and low life. As the famous Gibson phrase puts it, "The street has its own uses for technology." So compelling were these two narratives that many people then and now refuse to regard as cyberpunk anything stylistically and thematically different from them.

Meanwhile, down in Texas a writer named Bruce Sterling had been publishing a fanzine (a rigorously postmodern medium) called _Cheap Truth_; all articles were written under pseudonyms, and taken together, they amounted to a series of guerrilla raids on sf. . . .]

Gibson and Sterling were already friends, and other writers were becoming acquainted with one or both: Lew Shiner, Sterling's right-hand on _Cheap Truth_ under the name "Sue Denim," Rudy Rucker, John Shirley, Pat Cadigan, Richard Kadrey, others, me included. Some became friends, and at the very least, everyone became aware of everyone else.

Early on in this process, Gardner Dozois committed the fateful act of referring to this group of very loosely-affiliated folk as "cyberpunks." At the appearance of the word, the media circus and its acolytes, the marketers, went into gear. Cyberpunk became talismanic: within the sf ghetto, some applauded, some booed, some cashed in, some even denied that the word referred to anything; and some applauded or booed or denied that cyberpunk existed _and_ cashed in at the same time--the quintessentially postmodern response, one might say.

. . .]

Literary cyberpunk had become more than Gibson, and cyberpunk itself had become more than literature and film. In fact, the label has been applied variously, promiscuously, often cheaply or stupidly. Kids with modems and the urge to commit computer crime became known as "cyberpunks," in _People_ magazine, for instance; however, so did urban hipsters who wore black, read _Mondo 2000_, listened to "industrial" pop, and generally subscribed to technofetishism. Cyberpunk generated articles and features in places as diverse as _The Wall Street Journal_, _Communications of the American Society for Computing Machinery_, _People_, _Mondo 2000_, and MTV. Also, though Gibson was and is often regarded with deep suspicion within the sf community, this ceased to matter: he had become more than just another sf writer; he was a cultural icon of sorts, invoked by figures as various as William Burroughs, Timothy Leary, Stewart Brand, David Bowie, and Blondie, among others. In short, much of the real action for cyberpunk was to be found outside the sf ghetto.

Meanwhile, cyberpunk fiction--if you will allow the existence of any such thing, and most people do--was being produced and even became influential.

. . .]

Also, various postmodern academics took an interest in cyberpunk. Larry McCaffery, who teaches in Southern California, brought many of them together in a "casebook," of all things, _Storming the Reality Studio: A Casebook of Cyberpunk and Postmodern Science Fiction_. Many of the academics haven't read much science fiction; they're hard-nosed, hip, and often condescending; they like cyberpunk but are deeply suspicious of anyone's claims for it. But whatever their particular views, their very presence at the party implies a certain validation of cyberpunk as worthy of more serious attention than the usual sf, even of the more celebrated sort. . . .] By the end of the '80s, people who never liked it much to begin with were announcing with audible relief the death of cyberpunk: it had taken its canonical fifteen minutes of fame and now should move over and let something else take the stage. . . .] However, Cyberpunk had not died; rather, like Romanticism and Surrealism before it (or like Tyrone Slothrop in _Gravity's Rainbow_, one of the ur-texts of cyberpunk), it had become so culturally widespread and undergone so many changes that it could no longer be easily located and identified.

. . .]

Cyberpunk came into being just as information density and complexity went critical: the supersaturation of the planet with systems capable of manipulating, transmitting, and receiving ever vaster quantities of information has just begun, but (as Benedikt points out, though toward different ends), _it has begun_. Cyberpunk is the fictive voice of that process, and so long as the process remains problematic--for instance, so long as it threatens to redefine us--the voice will be heard.

Tom Maddox

----------More on cyberpunk from: ahawks@nyx.cs.du.edu "The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel"

:::::opening lines of Neuromancer Asking someone to define Cyberpunk is like asking someone to define art. Each person has their own ideas about what art is, what constitutes art and what doesn't. Yet we all still know art when we see it. The same is true for Cyberpunk each cyberpunk has their own definition for it, yet common threads remain. In basic terms, these might be definied by an emphasis on individualism and technology (both in the present and in the future and in the past as in The Difference Engine a book by Gibson & Sterling]). So what seperates cyberpunk from other types of sci-fi? Generally, cyberpunk occures in the not-so-distant-future. It generally occurs on earth, in a time where technology is prominent. Characters are generally "average Johnny Mnemonics" not some fantastic hero with lots of virtue and a blinding smile. Cyberpunk revels in high-tech low-lifes, so you can expect to see lots of crime and back-stabbing and drugs and such. These are the basic elements of Gibsonesque CP (cyberpunk) we've all seen it before in movies such as Blade Runner and TV Shows like Max Headroom. In many cases, it appears as if our world is evolving into a classic cyberpunk setting: the rise of post-zaibatsu Japan with it's monopoly on technology, American cities developing into the "sprawl" (basically just large, mega-cities), drugs and crime are predominant in some cultures, and we thrive and survive on technology. So, it isn't too hard to see how cyberpunk evolved from being just a literary movement into a growing sub-culture industrial and post-industrial aspects of the culture, virtual reality, rave parties, nootropics, computer hacking they're all aspects of our culture, they all would fit nicely into a Gibson novel, and they all exist *now*. So, what makes a cyberpunk? If you already knew all this stuff, and you're laughing at my generalities and inconsistencies, then you're definitely a cyberpunk. If you're a techno-junkie or an info-junkie, than you'd probably consider yourself a cyberpunk. Basically, if you live in a world in the not-so-distant-future, ahead of the masses (the masses being guys named Buford who sit out in front of their trailer homes in lawn chairs sipping a Bud and watching the Indy 500 on an old tv), then you could probably safely consider yourself a cyberpunk. It's a spectrum, though I mean, it's kind of like if Micahelangelo had an assistant, he would probably not consider the assistant an artist. Yet to his friends and family, that assistant may seem like a great artist. I consider myself a cyberpunk compared to the masses that walk the halls of my school, yet at a virtual reality conference in the presence of the likes of Jaron Lanier, Gibson, John Perry Barlow, Timothy Leary, RU Sirius, etc. I would probably be more hesitant in labeling myself a true cyberpunk. But one the beauties of cp is that it is still somewhat elitist to an extent: members of the community realize that we who walk on the fringes of culture need to hold each others' hand until the masses join us the communal atmosphere, at times, can be seen as similair to the early hippie movement of the late 50's/early 60's. | 2. Cyberpunk melding with other subcultures | -----------------------------------------------

In recent years, the media and fans of cyberpunk literature have taken cyberpunk from a literary movement to a growing subculture. Look around you: 'cyber-' is everywhere.

The word 'cyberpunk' as an adjective often refers to one who uses a computer to infiltrate ("hack" or "crack" if you prefer) systems they should not be in (or at least, they don't have regular access to that system). Some use 'cyberpunk' in conjunction with computer hacking to mean "people who destroy data". Others use it to mean "people who liberate information". It all just depends on your particular views on the subject. At any rate, this use of the word 'cyberpunk' comes from the Deck Cowboys of Gibson novels.

Basically, any growing subculture that could help to bring about a generalized cyberpunk-esque world overlaps with the cyber-culture. These might include: virtual reality (read the sci.virtual-worlds FAQ for more info), nootropics (SmartDrugs and SmartDrinks), the rave subculture (read alt.rave), etc., etc., ad nauseum. For an idea of what I mean of cyberpunk relating to other subcultures, read MONDO 2000 (info. in this article). | 3. Required Reading | -----------------------

Definitely, the "bible" of cybperunk is William Gibson's _Neuromancer_. The book garnered the Philip K Dick, Nebula, Hugo, and Australian Ditmar Awards. William Gibson and Bruce Sterling are generally regarded as the founders of cp, although people argue endlessly as to where the roots of cp lie.

If you are new to cp, William Gibson and Bruce Sterling's books are the first things you should check out. Books By William Gibson:

Neuromancer

Count Zero

Mona Lisa Overdrive

Bruning Chrome (short story collection)

The Difference Engine (w/ Bruce Sterling)

Agrippa: A Book of the Dead (e-text poem)

Virtual Light forthcoming in late '93] other short stories have appeared in magazines like Omni, Rolling Stone, SPIN, etc.] Books By Bruce Sterling:

Mirrorshades (ed. *the* collection of cp fiction by various authors)

Islands in the Net

Schismatrix

The Artificial Kid

Involution Ocean

Crystal Express

The Hacker Crackdown new release from Bantam]

Globalhead (short story collection) through Mark V. Ziesing Books]

Heavy Weather what he is currently working on -more later] Sterling as also a frequent contributor to many magazines such as SF Eye,

Locus, Interzone etc.]

IMHO, Neuromancer is the first thing you should read, then Mirrorshades, and go from there.... ALT.CP.FAQ.(2/2) contains extensive lists of cp materials to keep you busy for a very long time books, zines, movies and other stuff.

For the literary side of CP I would suggest Larry McCaffery's casebook on postmodernism and cyberpunk, _Storming the Reality Studio_. It will give you a flavor of some of the different authors and also some good critical pieces. | 4. What is Cyberpunk Music? | -------------------------------

Every once in a while, inevitably, this thread shows its face on alt.cp. There is *NO* set definition of Cyberpunk music, though certain categories of music are generally "preferred": punk, industrial, techno.

A list of *suggested* musicians from the various categories is inclucded in part 2 of the faq (classical is not included, neither is country sorry, they should be). This list will give you an idea of the groups considered to be in some part cyberpunk related. | 5. Cyberpunk authors on the Net | ------------------------------------

1 out of every 5 posts an alt.cp will read: :)

"What is William Gibson's e-mail address?"

Gibson most likely *does* have an e-mail address, but he does not prefer to use the Internet as a means of communication. Bruce Sterling lets us know in various articles and interviews that Gibson prefers to use his FAX machine. So, you can search for Gibson's address if you like, and if you find one, mail will most likely bounce, so give it up.

Bruce Sterling and Tom Maddox have addresses, and are actually not that shy about making themselves known for the sake of privacy I won't include their addresses here, but these two are actually not too difficult to locate.

There are others out there too... Timothy Leary, bOING bOING and MONDO people, Neal Stephenson, D.K.Moran, Rudy Rucker, Ono Sendai ...

Many interesting cyber-people have e-mail addresses. If you truly want to locate some of them, I suggest you get an account on the WELL. The WELL is where the cyber-crowd likes to hang....(info on the WELL is in this article) | 6. More info on-line | ------------------------Suggested related newsgroups: ----------------------------alt.cyberpunk.chatsubo Literary virtual reality in a cyberpunk hangout. alt.cyberpunk.movement Cybernizing the Universe. alt.cyberpunk.tech Cyberspace and Cyberpunk technology. alt.cyberspace Cyberspace and how it should work. alt.psychoactives Some Nootropics discussion here alt.rave Rave culture alt.society.cu-digest Postings about the Computer Underground. (Moderated) alt.zines a newsgroup devoted to discussion/reviewing zines comp.org.eff.news News from the Electronic Frontiers Foundation. comp.org.eff.talk Discussion of EFF goals, strategies, etc. comp.research.japan The nature of research in Japan. (Moderated) comp.risks Risks to the public from computers & users. (Moderated) comp.society The impact of technology on society. (Moderated) comp.society.development Computer technology in developing countries. comp.society.folklore Computer folklore & culture, past & present. comp.society.futures Events in technology affecting future computing. news.future The future technology of network news systems. rec.arts.anime Animation discussion group rec.arts.sf.misc Science fiction lovers' newsgroup. rec.arts.sf.movies Discussing SF motion pictures. rec.arts.sf.reviews Critiques of science fiction stories. (Moderated) rec.arts.sf.science Real and speculative aspects of SF science. rec.arts.sf.tv Discussing general television SF. rec.games.mud.* The MUD gaming hierarchy sci.crypt Cryptography (protect your freedom of speech rights) sci.virtual-worlds Virtual worlds soft/hardware & theory. (Moderated) FTP Sites: ---------cs.dal.ca 129.173.4.5

Computer Underground, Nanotech, Postmodern Culture, Discography,

Fractals, Computing Ethics, and much much more

/pub/ (takes a looooong time to look through) ftp.eff.org 192.88.144.4

Computer Underground, EFF, etc.

(/pub/EFF, SJG, journals, cspr, academic, cud]) ftp.u.washington.edu numbers will be changing use name]

Cyberpunk (/public/alt.cyberpunk)

I have put some interesting things along with the FAQ here]

Virtual Reality (/public/virtual-worlds)

Drugs (/public/alt.drugs) nic.funet.fi 128.214.6.100

Cultural Stuff (/pub/culture/), Computer Underground (/pub/doc/phrack) nigel.msen.com xxx.xxx.x.xxx

lots of cool and interesting stuff Mailing Lists (and e-zines) ---------------------------

Computer Undergroud Digest

Cyberspace Vanguard

cn577@Cleveland.Freenet.edu

a brand new e-zine coming from TJ Goldstein and others

preview issue out now.. first issue ~Dec 15.

Extropians

extropians-request@gnu.ai.mit.edu

-nanotechnology, cryonics, anarchocapatilist politics, technological

extension of human intelligence and perception

-serious discussion from an informative perspective

-available on listserv as xtropy-l

FutureCulture

future-request@nyx.cs.du.edu

-discussion of cyberpunk, vr, computer underground, raves, industrial

culture, post po-mo, etc.

-please specify realtime, digest, or FAQ only when subscribing

Quanta

quanta@andrew.cmu.edu

Science Fiction electronic 'zine edited by Daniel Appelquist

back issues available by anon ftp @ export.acs.cmu.edu (128.2.35.66)

(/pub/quanta), and lth.se (130.235.16.3) in EUROPE (/Documents/Quanta)

ScreamBaby

This is a new zine that has shown up recently. A rambling 1st issue

and and more composed second issue. It has been appearing in alt.cp

when released ..so stay tuned. A few BBSes where some cp people hang] --------------------------------------212.988.5030 MindVox (telnetable: phantom.com) 415.332.6106 The Well (telnet: well.sf.ca.us) 415.472.5527 The Cyberden (public access unix limited) 512.447.4449 The Illuminati BBS (Steve Jackson Games) Internet BBSes (not cp stuff, but thought I'd throw it in for fun) -----------------------------------------------------------------badboy.aue.com 192.136.108.18 bbs/new chatsubo.nersc.gov 128.55.160.162 bbs/new sparks 143.248.1.53 bbs/new kids 147.6.11.151 kids/new cimmaron 131.178.17.60 bbs/new greta's 128.214.87.1 bbs/new eagles nest seabass.st.usm.edu:131.95.127.2 bbs/bbs mars hotel jupiter.ee.msstate.edu:130.18.64.37 | 7. Agrippa: A Book of the Dead | ------------------------------------

William Gibson's new work is a poem entitled _Agrippa: A Book of the Dead_. In keeping with the forward-thinking theme of cp, it has been released not on paper, but on disk. The poem is ~5 pages in length says Tom Maddox. For a supposed picture of the thing see a 1 page ad/review in recent SF eye.]

There is one interesting aspect of this new book-on-disk: you read it once and it disappears. Now, there were two rumors about this: 1. a "virus" (the media's term) deletes the disk as you read it, or, 2. What you have previously read is encrypted and probably most likely un-decryptable (unless you have a couple Cray's lying around at your house).

Basically, the idea is that you can only read the story once. The encryption idea is the correct one so you can read 'virus' in the following articles as 'uninformed writer' :-).

If you would like a copy of the "book", the price ranges between $450 and $7,500 (no, that's no typo). Gibson worked with Kevin Begos Jr. and artist Dennis Ashbaugh on creating this virtual-art, thus the art prices. Agrippa is much more than an autobiographical poem, as it includes work from the other artist involved. The following on _Agrippa_ has been lifted without permission. Thanks to the original poster (chungkuo@ais.org)] :

"_Agrippa (A Book of the Dead)_ (New York, Kevin Begos, 1992, edition of

350, $450; deluxe edition of 95, $1500) could be a conventional livre

d'artiste. Inside a slick metallic box, it's evocative to a fault: there is

a burnt-looking honeycomb board and a distressed newspaper framing a

substantial bound volume with a singed cloth cover. The book contains a

half dozen etchings by Dennis Ashbaugh (reproduced offset in the large

edition)-abstractions in rich sepia tones with plenty of textural and

tonal range. But there are many twists. The abstractions convey not formal

but scientific information, each representing a fragment of a human genome--

an individualized biological blueprint. More immediately apparent, there is

brassy prewar advertising imagery obscuring each image."

"And then watch as the past gives way. These overprinted images are

executed in a slow-dissolve variety of disappearing ink. Within a few hours

of cracking the cover they vanish forever. Read on, and Ashbaugh's

abstractions themselves give way to page after page of genome fragments as

scientists know them-the letters ACTG in varying combination, printed in

mind-numbing four-column series. And deeper still, within a square recess

cut into blank pages like some long-forgotten drug stash, is a standard

computer disk (DOS and Macintosh version both available). This disk

represents something of a small press coup, since it contains a new

autobiographical novel by science fiction heavy William Gibson. In

_Neuromancer_ and _Count Zero_, among other titles, Gibson has created an

ominous anthro-electronic realm he calls "cyberspace." And that's just where

_Agrippa_ is headed, for it has a self-destructing virus. Publisher Begos

is confident the very great majority of readers can't prevent the text from

fleeing forever into the electronic netherworld as soon as it scrolls by

their screen. Farewell conventional books-and conventional collecting,

and reading, and remembering. Hello electronic communication."

---"Artists Book Beat," Nancy Princenthal, The Print Collectors

Newsletter Vol XXIII, NO. 2 May-June 1992 Now here's the legitimate side of the story - there is no "virus" nor does the thing delete itself. They say it uses RSA encryption.]

"William Gibson's short story, "Agrippa," is designed to automatically

and irrevocably encode itself after a viewer reads it on a computer screen.

But because a sophisticated and virtually unbreakable encryption program,

known as RSA, is used to do the code work, and because RSA, like most

encryption devices, is closely guarded by the U.S. government, it's possible

that "Agrippa" may not be sold overseas, said Kevin Begos, the publisher."

...] "On the one hand, exporting a product with RSA code built into it is

clearly controlled by the government, which monitors use of the code with

particular attention because it is considered one of the best codes ever

devised. "We want to know where it went and who's got it and how it's being

used," said Daniel Cook, a spokesman for the State Department's Office of

Defense Trade Controls. "The intent is to keep it out of the hands of people

who shouldn't have it."

...] "Cook suggested that the publisher could avoid the whole issue by

simplingsic] creating an export copy that automatically deletes rather than

encrypts the story. But because most good hackers can easily restore deleted

files, this would hardly be a satisfactory resolution. In any event, Cook said

that because the program apparently doesn't contain a key to decrypt the file,

"I don't see us getting a major heartburn over it."

---"Read Any Good Webs Lately? SIDEBAR: When Art Resembles National Security"

Joshua Quittner (staff writer), Newsday, issue?? And yet more from Newsbytes on the RSA encryption scheme and more..thanks to alt.cp poster alex.sirota@umich.edu]

"Agrippa: A Book of the Dead" by William Gibson and Dennis Ashbaugh,

illustrates the intangible nature of memory as air exposure

cause Agrippa's chemically treated etchings to change and a

Macintosh disk with a story on it to hopelessly encrypt, once read.

...]

On the subject of memory and how it mutates and changes, the focal

point is the story on the disk is William Gibson's father, who

died when he was six. The title of the work is not from King

Agrippa, a figure from Roman history, but instead is the label on

the 1919 family photo album containing photos of Gibson's father.

...]

Agrippa comes in a case that resembles a laptop computer, with book

inside surrounded by copper honey comb-shaped forms and cut-outs in

the inside pages to contain a 3.5-inch floppy disk. The disk

contains Gibson's story which is encrypted a scheme based on an RSA

data encryption. The story can be read by a program which unencrypts

the text on the fly and then self-destructs after one reading,

leaving only the encrypted text on the disk. Once the reading of the

text on the disk is started the story cannot be stopped, copied, or

printed.

...]

No paper form of Agrippa will be available. However, a fiber optic

transmission of the Gibson story is planned for September of this

year to sites worldwide, Begos said. While an IBM and compatible

personal computer (PC) version of Agrippa was planned, Begos said

the preponderance of orders have been for the Macintosh version. "We

just haven't gotten to the PC version yet," Begos added.

--LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1992 JUL 13 (NB) (Linda Rohrbough/19920713/Press Contact: Kevin Begos, tel/fax 212-650-9324)

However! (there's hope!) Gibson has reportedly said that he hopes (encourages) the book will be spread through the net. Supposedly it will be released into the net (uploaded only once, apparently). The problem is that the encryption or virus must be defeated.

Apparently the only people on the net to have seen a copy of Agrippa are Tom Maddox (he quotes it in his sig) and Bruce Sterling. However, there was talk a while ago from Loyd Blankenship who was working to secure a copy. The latest rumor is that it will show up on MindVox. | 8. Sterling's latest releases | ----------------------------------

It is called THE HACKER CRACKDOWN, and is a non-fiction account of Operation Sundevil (FBI's crackdown on hackers), the Steve Jackson Games case (in which SJG was raided bacause of the involvement of Loyd Blankenship a contributor to the Legion of Doom, who was writing the RolePlaying Game book: GURPS CYBERPUNK, for the GURPS RPG system). He covers all sides of the story from the SS, to the computer security guys, to the hackers, to SJG.

Sterling has also recently been involved with the EFF (the Electronic Fronteir Foundation Mitch Kapor and John Perry Barlow's group that protects on-line rights). Check out his article "Gurps' Labor Lost: The Cyberpunk Bust" in the September 1991 EFFector. He has said that he is trying to back away from the whole scene though, saying: "I know more about hacking now than any sane person should have to know.

The latest fiction release from Bruce is _Globalhead_ which is another new collection of his short stories. This book is being release from Mark Ziesing Books (PO Box 76, Shingletown, CA, 96088).

The very latest news is a book called _Heavy Weather_ which he is working on currently. In bOING bOING #9 he says that this is "about hacking tornadoes in the early 21st century." No, I didn't make that up! Sounds like an interesting new twist if he wasn't joking. | 9. Gibson's Next Book: did Gibson quit? | --------------------------------------------

Odds are we are not going to hear any more out of the characters from the Neuromancer, Count Zero, or Mona Lisa Overdrive.

Titled _Virtual Light_ (tentatively ?), this book is purported to be a near-term story involving some elements of VR. The story is not based on the Sprawl series. It is at least partly based in LA. Could it be that his recent short story "Skinner's Room" is of the same general setting? I don't know ... it is also based in California (San Francisco). Gibson has said: "I think LA slipped over the Fault into the 21st century about eight years ago, maybe even before that." Science Fiction Studies, 1992, v19,p(4)] "The last thing I want is to be writing Cyberspace XVIIIL in a couple of years. The world doesn't need it and it would get really stale really quickly...The next novel I do is going to be something different...It's called VIRTUAL LIGHT and it's set in California in a future that is closer to now compared to my first three novel...It's about a skip tracer, this guy that goes out and hunts down people who default on their credit cards, debts and things...There are thousands of them in New York..." FAD?] | 10. Gibson Goes to the Movies! | ---------------------------------Well here is the best I have been able to assemble for you.] And a thanks to TM for some updates.] Plans for a Neuromancer Movie? ------------------------------

Apparently scripts for Neuromancer have made their way around different Hollywood studios. As of this writing, I have no information to confirm that Neuromancer is/will be made into a film, and there is no information to deny that it will be made. So, keep your hopes up! Information on this is hard to come by but here is a started timeline of Neuromancer the movie's lineage: November? '86: Gibson sells the film rights for Neuro to Cabana Boys

Productions for $100,000.

Cabana Boys (supposedly) brought in some good talent:

William Burroughs & Timothy Leary as creative consultants

Earl MacRauch (Buckaroo Banzai) as screenwriter

Douglas Trumbull (2001, Bladerunner) for FX

Andy Summers to write score

Peter Gabriel to play a lead (case? Armitage?) ?????????????: A couple screenwriters missing here I guess 10 April 1991: Amidst an emerging debate over the movie on alt.cp Tom

Maddox had the following to say:

"The first one attempted was by Earl MacRauch ...] and was by report

unspeakably bad. There have been others, including a current one which

I think Gibson said is by the would-be director of the film for

Universal, but I don't remember his name" In June 1992 a new alt.cp movie discussion ensues and a very humorous story emerged about Cabana Boys and Neuro. It mentioned that rights reverted back to Gibson from Cabana Boys. Latest official word is that this is where the film rights remain with no current attempts being made on it.

Gibson and ALIEN^3

------------------

Gibson did in fact write *A* script for Alien^3, but it is not the one you see on the big screen. There are copies of it floating around. Try a SF convention and maybe you'll locate one. The script I have seen is titled "Alien III, by William Gibson, Revised first draft screenplay from a story by David Giler and Walter Hill". Ripley plays a very little part: she is in a coma in the early stages and then is jettisoned away. Hicks is the focus of this version along with some new people. Its a totally different story that Alien^3 you have seen. Gibson had the following to say about the script: "I didn't see there was very much that could be done with the alien the beast, as they call it around the shop so I tried to open out the background of the first two, exploring things about the human culture you wouldn't have expected but that didn't contradict what you already knew. You discover early on that the universe isn't run exclusively by the Company there's a hard-bitten, Third World socialist power in space as well, this motley bunch of Latin Americans and East Asians, who are all out there doing their own thing in big space stations painted inside like Mexican revolutionary murals. I was also fascinated by hints that the alien was someone's biological weapon, and I was exploring that." recent note: "His scenario was the first commissioned for the film _Aliens 3_, but several scripts later, there was almost nothing of local SF writer William Gibson's material left in the Hollywood blockbuster. Gibson's script, though, did circulate among Vancouver SF fans, including NO Fun songwriter and vocalist David M. The result is that NO Fun's Record Contract Signing Party at the Vancouver East Cultural Centre on Sunday (August 30) will include the band's rendition of "Vancouver's Own Cyberpunk Sci-Fi Superstar William Gibson's Aliens III". "It's much better than the one they put out on film," says M., who has Gibson's blessing for the performance and hopes the author will drop by if he is in town..." Random Notes, The Georgia Straight, Aug 14-21 --thanks to Jay_

Daunheimer@mindlink.bc.ca]

It seems that WG gave permission to do this but wasn't able to attend this silly party (-:

"Then Nina puts on a white body suit and takes a platic space gun and

chase the guys alround the place. The guys have pantyhose on their heads

to look like the Alien. And cool dracula teeth." Jay_D]

New Rose Hotel

--------------

Screenplay by Gibson himself. It was supposed to shoot in Tokyo with Ed Pressman producing and Kathryn Bigelow (Near Dark, The Loveless, Blue Steel) directing. Evidently Bigelo bowed out for "Her Own Reasons". Seems there have been untold numbers of changes on this thing too.

Burning Chrome

--------------

I have often heard that BC is the most likely to make it to the screen. As of early 1990 Gibson is on the record as having been working on the screenplay for BC to be done by Carolco Pictures. At that time he didn't mention a director or producer.

However from FAD 1992], James Cameron (T2, Aliens) apparently has agreed to direct Burning Chrome. Yet, Gibson believes that Cameron's contract obliges him to "go somewere else and direct a regular-budget, non-specialeffects movie and then he's supposed to come back and do Burning Chrome". Gibson has heard second-hand, apparently, that Cameron would like to shoot the movie in Detroit in the winter time. It remains to be seen if he is still sold on the film or not.

Gibson has said, "It is easier than New Rose Hotel because its a lot less interior. New Rose Hotel is a doomed silent monologue that this man is conducting with himself, locked in a coffin hotel outside a Tokyo airport, while in Burning Chrome people are crashing around, breaking into other people's computers...doing things."

Johnny Mnemonic

---------------

This was optioned by painter Robert Longo's Pressure Pictures for production in 1990. Longo (director of "Arena Brains" short and music videos) and Victoria Hamburg are writing the screenplay. Hamburg will produce. Gibson and Longo collaborated earlier of "Dream Jumbo" for UCLA Center for the Performing Arts anyone seen or heard about this?]. Hamburg called JM the Rosetta Stone of Gibson's late work and she has also interviewed Gibson in _Interview_ but I have yet to locate it so I don't know if more details are there or if it was prior to her being involved in the film]. | 11. Recommended Reading (books) | -----------------------------------

Comics/Anime/Graphic Novels

---------------------------

Akira

Aliens

American Flagg

Appleseed (also OAV)

Black Magic (also OAV "Black Magic M-66")

Cyberpunk

The Dark Knight Returns

Dirty Pair

Dominion (also OAV series: "Tank Police")

Elektra Assasin

Hard Boiled

Give Me Liberty

Grendel

GunHed

Judge Dredd

Marshall Law

Puma Blues

Ronin

Video Jack

Be aware that this is a very large selction of books which

Books: may not all be cp but which do contain elements which lean

in that direction.. some predate cp and other types materials

are included which may fall on the fringe of the genre or may

be closer to (post)apocalypse..or may otherwise interest you. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------Acker, Kathy Blood and Guts High School

Empire of the Senseless Bachman, Richard The Running Man Bagdikian, Ben H. The Media Monopoly (nonfiction) Ballard, J.G. The Atrocity Exhibition

Crash

Barnes, Steven Gorgon Child

Streetlethal

Bear, Greg Blood Music

Eon

Beyond Heaven's River

Psychlone

Strength of Stones

The Wind from a Burning Woman (collection) Belsito, Peter, Ed. Notes from the Pop Underground (nonfiction)

interviews with SRL, Robert Anton Wilson, etc] Benedikt, Michael Cyberspace: First Steps. (nonfiction) Bester, Alfred The Demolished Man

Computer Connection

Golem 100

Stars My Destination

Betancourt, John Gregory Johnny Zed

Rememory Blankenship, Loyd (Steve Jackson Games) GURPS Cyberpunk. (RPG, guide to CP)

Bova, Ben Cyberbooks

Brand, Stewart The Media Lab (at MIT) (nonfiction) Brunner, John The Shockwave Rider

Stand on Zanzibar

The Jagged Orbit

The Sheep Look Up

The Stone that Never Came Down

Bull, Emma Bone Dance

Burgess, Anthony A Clockwork Orange.

Burroughs, William S. Interzone

Naked Lunch

Ticket That Exploded

The Third Mind

Cities of the Red Night

Nova Express

Butler, Jack Nightshade

Cadigan, Pat Indigo

Mindplayers

Patterns (collection)

Synners

Fools

Parasite (work in progress)

Carlisle, Anne Liquid Sky

Chandler, Raymond The Big Sleep DeBrandt, Don H. Quicksilver Screen

Delany, Samuel Dahlgren

Babel 17

Nova

DeLillo, Don White Noise

Denning, Peter J. (ed. ACM) Computers Under Attack:

Viruses, Worms, Hackers (nonfiction)

Denton, Bradley Wrack'n'Roll

Dick, Phillip K. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (Blade Runner)

Flow My Tears the Policeman Said

Vulcan's Hammer

We Can Remember It For You Wholesale

A Scanner Darkly

Drexler, EricEngines of Creation. Nanotechnology. (nonfiction) Effinger, George Alec A Fire in the Sun

When Gravity Fails

The Exile Kiss

Farren, Mick The Long Orbit

Vickers Faust, Clifford A Death of Honor

The Company Man

Fjermedal, Grant The Tomorrow Makers (nonfiction) Ford, John Web of Angels Foster, Alan Dean Cyber Way Gardner, Howard New Minds Science (cognitive science nonfiction) Garreau, Joel Edge City (nonfiction -the real Sprawl in LA) Gerrold, David When H.A.R.L.I.E. Was One Green, Terrence M. Barking Dogs Guscott, John Patrick (ed?) Technophilia 93 (some kind of resource book?)

(forthcoming contact by341@cleveland.freenet.edu) Hafner, Katie with John Markoff Cyberpunk: Outlaws and Hackers.. (nonfiction) Hamit, Francis & Wes Thomas Virtual Reality: Adentures in Cyberspace

(nonfiction)

Hand, Elizibeth Winterlong

Harrison, Harry Make Room! Make Room!

The Turing Option (coauthored with Marvin Minsky)

Hawke, Simon Psychodrome

Heinlein, Robert The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

Notebooks of Lazarus Long

Stranger in a Strange Land

Time Enough for Love

Hooper, Judith Would the Buddha Wear A Walkman? Catalogue of consciousness. Huxley, Aldous Brave New World

Brave New World Revisted

Jeter, K.W. Death Arms

Dr. Adder

Farewell Horizontal

The Glass Hammer

Kadrey, Richard Metrophage

Krueger, Myron W. Artificial Reality (nonfiction)

Artificial Reality II (nonfiction)

Laidlaw, Marc Nutrimancer

Kalifornia

Neon Lotus

Landreth, Bill Out of the Inner Circle. (Hacking nonfiction)

Leary, Timothy Info-psychology

Neuropolitique Lem, Stanislaw Memoirs Found In a Bathtub Lewitt, S. N. Dancing Vac Levy, Steven Hackers. (Origins of hackers nonfiction) Leyner, Mark My Cousin My Gastroenterologist

Et tu, Babe

Littell, Jonathan Bad Voltage

Maddox, Tom Halo

Martin, George R. R. The Armageddon Rag

Mason, Lisa Archane

McAffrey, Larry Storming the Reality Studio. (Cyberpunk & postmodern fiction)

(contains fiction and nonfiction)

Wounded Galaxies (interviews with SF people) Milan, Victor The Cybernetic Samurai

The Cybernetic Shogun

Minsky, Marvin Society of Mind (nonfiction)

The Turing Option (co-authored with Harry Harrison) Moran, Daniel Keys Armageddon Blues

Emerald Eyes

The Long Run

The Last Dancer (forthcoming)

Moravec, Hans Mind Children future/AI] (nonfiction ?) Newman, Kim The Night Mayor Olsen, Lance William Gibson (overview of WG's works & cp phenomenon) Orwell, George 1984 Parsegian, V. Lawrence This Cybernetic World. (Cybernetics nonfiction) Parfrey, Adam Apocalypse Culture. (Pomo/industrialism nonfiction)

Penley, Constance (ed.) Technoculture

Platt, Charles The Silicon Man.

Pynchon, Thomas Vineland

Gravitys rainbow

The Crying of Lot 49 Quarterman, John S. The Matrix. (Computer Networks) Quick, W.T. Dreams of Flesh and Sand

Dreams of Gods and Men

Singularities

Systems

Yesterdays Pawn

Queen MU (ed.) MONDO 2000: A User's Guide to the New Edge Re/Search Industrial Culture Handbook. (Industrial musicians profiles)

Modern Primitives

PRANKS! R.U. Sirius (ed.) Mondo 2000: A User's Guide to the New Edge Rheingold, Howard Virtual Reality. (nonfiction) Ross, Andrew Strange Weather: culture, science, and technology in the age

of limits (nonfiction?)

(ed.) Technoculture

Rucker, Rudy Software

Wetware

The Secret of Life

Masters of Space and Time

White Light

Ryan, Thomas The Adolescense of P1

Shepard, Lucius Green Eyes

Life During Wartime

Shiner, Lewis Frontera

Deserted Cities of the Heart

Slam

When the Music's Over (this is not cp.. its sf dedicated to

peace... profits donated to Greenpeace.) Shippey, Tom (ed.) Fiction 2000: Cyberpunk and the Future of Narrative

(collection of 17 essays) Shirley, John A Song Called Youth

Eclipse

Eclipse Corona

Eclipse Penumbra

Transmaniacon

Heatseeker (collection)

City Come A'Walkin' Sieber, Ulrich International Handbook on Computer Crime (nonfiction) Slusser, George (ed.) Fiction 2000: Cyberpunk and the Future of Narrative

(collection of 17 essays)

Spinrad, Norman Russian Spring

Bug Jack Baron

Little Heros

Other Americas (collection)

Science Fiction in the Real World Stephenson, Neal Snow Crash.

Zodiac (enviromental type book not cp) Stoll, Clifford The Cuckoo's Egg. (Hacking nonfiction)

Stone, Robert Dog Soldiers

Sturgeon, Theodore More Than Human

Swanwick, Michael Vacuum Flowers

In the Drift

Stations of the Tide

Gravity's Angel (forthcomming)(collection)

Thomas, Thomas T. Me

Tiptree, James The Girl Who Was Pluged In (novella) Toffler, Alvin Future Shock. (Social Change nonfiction)

The Third Wave. (Social Change nonfiction)

PowerShift (nonfiction) Turkle, Sherry The Second Self: Computers & the Human Spirit Varley, John The Ophiuchi Hotline

Vinge, Joan Catspaw

Psion Vinge, Vernor Marooned Across Realtime

True Names

Across Realtime

( The Peace War, The Ungovernable, Marooned Across Realtime ) Watkins, William John The Centrifugal Rickshaw Dancer

Going to See the End of the Sky Weaver, Michael D. Mercedes Nights Whole Earth Catalog Essential Whole Earth Catalog.

Signal, Communications for the Information Age.

Williams, Jon Walter Hardwired

Voice of the Whirlwind

Angel Station

Facets

Silop System

Aristoi Wilson, Robert C. Memory Wire Wingrove, David Chung Kuo (series, 7part?)

Chung Kuo I: The Middle Kingdom

Chung Kuo II: The Broken Wheel

Chung Kuo III: The White Mountain

Womack, Jack Ambient

Terraplane

Heathern

Zahn, Timothy Cobra

Cobra Bargain

Cobra Strike

| 12. Recommended Reading Mirrorshades Group | (individual short stories or part of anthologies) | ------------------------------------------------------

Gibson, William -

"Fragments of a Hologram Rose," UnEarth Publ., 1977. first publication]

"Johnny Mnemonic," _Omni_, May 1981, p56(8).

"Gernsback Continuum," _Universe 11_ (doubleday anthology), 1981.

"The Belonging Kind," _Shadows 4_ (anthology), 1981. coauth. Shirley]

"Hinterlands," _Omni_, October 1981, p104(10).

"Burning Chrome," _Omni_, July 1982, p72(9).

"Red Star, Winter Orbit," _Omni_, Jl'83, p84. coauthored Sterling]

"New Rose Hotel," _Omni_, July 1984, p46(5).

"Dogfight." _Omni_, July 1985, v7n10, p44. coauthored Swanwick]

"Hippie Hat Brain Parasite," _Semiotext(e)_ SF, Vol.V, issue 2 (No.14),

1989, p109(4).

"The Angel of Goliad," _Interzone_, ??. coauthored Sterling]

"Skinner's Room," _Omni_, November 1991, v14n2, p56(8). Maddox, Tom with comments by Tom]

"The Mind like a Strange Balloon," _Omni_, June, 1985, p60. First

published story, first introduction of characters who later appear

in "Snake Eyes" and _Halo_.

"Snake-Eyes," _Omni_, April, 1986, p44. Also in _Mirrorshades_ and

Gardner Dozois's _Best of the Year in Science Fiction, 1986_ (the

last one done by Bluejay, I believe, and so difficult to find).

"Spirit of the Night," _Isaac Asimov's SF Magazine_, September, 1987.

For the completist: an earlier version of the story was translated

into French as "Gaia de Silicium" and published in _Demain les Puces_,

ed. Patric Duvic, pub. Denoel.

"The Robot and the One You Love," _Omni_, Mr'88, p42(6). In some ways

my favorite story--very hard-boiled. Soon to be in an _Omni Book of

Science Fiction_.

"In a Distant Landscape," _Mississippi Review 47/48_, 1988. A piece

that later appeared in _Halo_, considerably rewritten.

"Burning, Burning," _Qunata_, F'91, v3n1. First chapter to _HALO_]

"Baby Strange," _Omni_, Ap'89, v11n7, p70(6).

"Gravity's Angel," _Omni_, forthcoming.

Rucker, Rudy -

"Storming the Cosmos," _Isaac Asimov's SF Magazine_, Dec'85, p?.

coauthored Sterling]

"Rapture in Space," _Semiotext(e)_ SF, Vol.V, issue 2 (No.14),

1989, p91(10).

Shiner, Lewis -

"Deserted Cities of the Heart," _Omni_, Feb'84, p68.

"Till Voices Wake Us," _The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction_,

My'84.

"Mozart in Mirrorshades," _Omni_, S'85, p68. coauthored Sterling]

"Rebels," _Omni_, ????, ????, p65(7).

"The Gene Drain," _Semiotext(e)_ SF, Vol.V, issue 2 (No.14),

1989, p193(11).

Shirley, John -

"Freezone," _Eclipse_

"The Belonging Kind," _Shadows_, n4, 1981. coauthored Gibson]

"Triggering," _Omni_, January 1982, p54(7).

"Six Kinds of Darkness," _Semiotext(e)_ SF, Vol.V, issue 2 (No.14),

1989, p61(10).

Sterling, Bruce -

"Swarm," _Fantasy & Science Fiction_, Ap'82, p?.

"Spider Rose," _Fantasy & Science Fiction_, Aug'82, p?.

"Spook," _Fantasy & Science Fiction_, Ap'83, p.

"Cicada Queen," _UINVERSE 13_, 1983.

"Red Star, Winter Orbit," _Omni_, Jl'83, p84. coauthored Gibson]

"Twenty Evocations," _Interzone_, Spring 84, p?.

"Sunken Gardens," _Omni_, June '84, p59.

"Telliamed," _Fantasy & Science Fiction_, S'84, p?.

"Dinner in Audoghast," _Isaac Asimov's SF Magazine_, My'85, p?.

"Mozart in Mirrorshades," _Omni_, S'85, p68. coauthored Shiner]

"Green Days in Brunei," _Isaac Asimov's SF Magazine_, Oct'85.

"The Compassionate, the Digital," _Interzone_, Winter'85/86.

"Storming the Cosmos," _Isaac Asimov's SF Magazine_ , Dec'85, p?.

coauthored Rucker]

"The Beautiful and the Sublime," _Isaac Asimov's SF Magazine_, Jun'86.

"Flowers of Edo," _Isaac Asimov's SF Magazine_, My'87, p?.

"The Little Magic Shop," _Isaac Asimov's SF Magazine_, My'87.

"The Gulf Wars" _Omni_, Feb'88, p53(9).

"Our Neural Chernobyl," _Fantasy & Science Fiction_, Jun'88.

"Dori Bangs," _Isaac Asimov's SF Magazine_, Sept'89, p??.

"The Sword of Damocles," _Isaac Asimov's SF Magazine_, Feb'90.

"The Shores of Bohemia," _UNIVERSE 1_ (eds Silverberg, Haber), 1990.

"Hollywood Kremlin," _Fantasy & Science Fiction_, Oct'90.

"We See Things Differently," _Semiotext(e)_ SF, Vol.V, issue 2 (No.14),

1989, p27(17).

"Jim and Irene," _When the Music's Over_ (ed-Shiner), 1991.

"The Moral Bullet," _Isaac Asimov's SF Magazine_, Jl'91, p?.

coauthored John Kessel]

"The Unthinkable," _Fantasy & Science Fiction_, Aug'91, p?.

"Are You For 86?," _Globalhead_, 1992.

"The Unfolding," _Interzone_, date??, p???. coauthored Shirley]

"The Angel of Goliad," _Interzone_, ?? . coauthored Gibson]

"Sacred Cow," _OMNI??_, date??, p??. | 13. Recommended Reading Mirrorshades Group | (interviews and critical pieces by/about them) | ------------------------------------------------------

in no particular order] "Cobra, She Said: An Interim Report on the Fiction of William Gibson," Tom

Maddox, _Fantasy Review_, April, 1986. Republished in _The Year in

Criticism, 1986_, along with several other reviews of _Neuromancer_.] "The Wars of the Coin's Two Halves: Bruce Sterling's Shaper/Mechanist

Narratives," Tom Maddox, _Mississippi Review 47/48_, 1988, p237(8),

reprinted in _Storming the Reality Studio_, edited by Larry McCaffrey. "Spy Stories: the Life and Fiction of John LeCarre," Tom Maddox, _Wilson

Quarterly_, Autumn, 1986. "After the Deluge: Cyberpunk in the '80s and '90s," Tom Maddox, _Thinking

Robots, an Aware Internet, and Cyberpunk Librarians_, Bruce Miller ed.,

from a meeting of the Library and Information Technology Association in

San Francisco, during 1992 American Library Association Conference. "The Two Sides of Tom Maddox: A Mail Inteview," _Virus 23_, No. 0, 1989, p36. "Queen Victoria's Personal Spook, Psychic Legbreakers, Snakes and Catfood: An

Inteview with William Gibson and Tom Maddox," _Virus 23_, No. 0, 1989

p28. interesting Canadian 'zine] "Interview with William Gibson", Takayuki Tatsumi, _SF Eye_, Vol.1, No.1. "Future Shockers: Clive Barker and William Gibson," Maitland McDonagh, _Film

Comment_, Jan-Feb 1990, v26n1, p60(4). one of the best synopsis of

his film stuff I have found..worth checking out] "Hack to the Future," Darren P. McKeeman, _Compute!_, Nov 1991, v3n11, p160(1).

this is a Sterling interview of some sort] "The King of Cyberpunk," Victoria Hamburg, _Interview_, Jan 1989, p84.

WG Interview.]

"William Gibson Interview," _High Times_, Nov 1987. "An Interview with William Gibson", Larry McCaffery, _Mississippi Review_, 1988,

v16.2-3, p217(20). "William Gibson Interviewed," Doug Walker, _Impulse_, Winter 1989. Gibson Interview, Glenn Grant, _SF Eye_, Winter 1991, n8, p39. "The Culture of Cyberspace, An interview with William Gibson," Leanne Harper,

_Bloomsbury Review_, vol. 8, issue 5. "Letter from Bruce Sterling," _REM_, April 1987, n7, p4(4). "Cyberpunk Era," _Whole Earth Review_, Summer 1989, n63, p78(5). WG cut-up

Interview collage of other interviews] "Rocket Radio," William Gibson, _Rolling Stone_, June 15 1989, p85-87. Gibson Article of some sort, New York Times Mag, March 24 1991. "The Charisma Leak: a conversation with William Gibson and Bruce Sterling,"

Daniel Fischlin, Veronica Hollinger, and Andrew Taylor, _Science Fiction

Studies_, 1992, v19, p1(16). "Cyberspace '90: scifi writer William Gibson explores the final frontier: Infor-

mation," William Gibson, Oct 15 1990, p107(2). "The Rise of Cyberpunk," Mikal Gilmore, _Rolling Stone_, December 4 1986, p77+.

discussion of cp and first(?) mention of Neuromancer film] "Giving the C-word the Slip: Lewis Shiner Interview," _bOING bOING_, No.8,

Carla Frauenfelder, pp19-24. Gibson Interview, J. Hanna and J. Nicholas, _Interzone_, Autumn 1985, n13. Stering Interview, D. Pringle and A. Robertson, _Interzone_, Spring 1986, n15. "The New Science Fiction," Bruce Sterling, _Interzone_, Autumn 1986?, n16. "Hackers in Slackertown: An interview with Bruce Sterling," Jon Lebkowsky,

_bOING bOING_, No.9, pp15-18. John Shirley Interview, Richard Kadrey, _Interzone_, Autumn 1986, n17. "Transcendence Through Detournement in William Gibson's Neuromancer," Glenn

Grant, _Science Fiction Studies_, 1990, v17, p41(8). "The Future of a Commodity: Notes Toward a Critique of Cyberpunk and the Infor-

mation Age." Terence Whalen, _Science Fiction Studies_, 1992, v19, p75+. "Is Cyberpunk a Good Thing or a Bad Thing?," Samuel R. Delany, _Mississippi

Review_, 1988, v16.2-3, p28(8). "Elements of a Poetics of Cyberpunk," Brian McHale, _Critique_, Spring 1992,

Vol. XXXIII, No.3, pp149-175. "Cyberpunk: Preparing the Ground for Revolution or Keeping the Boys Satisfied,"

Nicola Nixon, _Science Fiction Studies_ , 1992, Vol 19, Pt 2, p219(17). "Cyberpunk and Neuromanticism," Istvan Csicsery-Ronay Jr., _Mississippi Review_,

1988, v16.2-3, p266(13). "The Arc of Out Destruction: Reversal and Erasure in Cyberpunk," Neil

Easterbrook, _Science Fiction Studies_, 1992, v19 p378(17). The following are other Sterling nonfiction/criticism without documentation:]

CHEAP TRUTH (.. for those who have really read this far -I have them

.tar.Z'd in the new ftp)

Six Interzone columns

Six F&SF columns (?)

SF EYE columns

DETAILS Hacker piece

DETAILS Haruki Murakami piece

Preface to BURNING CHROME by William Gibson

Introduction to PATTERNS by Pat Cadigan

Introduction to SPASM: THE SOUND OF VIRTUAL REALITY by Arthur Kroker

MONAD piece "Precessing the Simulacra for Fun and Profit"

NYRSF Womack review

NY TIMES op-ed piece "Get the Bomb Off My Back"

NEWSDAY drug piece

"Glamor Machines" in COMPUTERWORLD

WHOLE EARTH REVIEW pieces: "The Obsolete Body" forum"

WHOLE EARTH REVIEW "Shout Sister Shout"

"No Climate, Just Weather" in CEO INTERNATIONAL

MONDO interview | 14. Recommended Reading (Zines and Other Sources) | ----------------------------------------------------NOTE: Only those pubs with a (*) have actually been seen by me... the others are just directly lifted from posts or zine reviews, I mention this because I plan to start adding some new zines who's quality I am unaware] Beyond Cyberpunk (a 5.5M HyperCard Stack) Eastgate Systems The Computer Labs bOING bOING PO Box 1307 Rt.4, Box 54C 11288 Ventura Blvd #818 Cambridge, MA 02238 Louisa, VA 23093 Studio City, CA 91604 800.562.1638 703.527.6032 (Fax) 818.980.2009 (Voice) 617.924.9044 800.xxx.xxxx (?) 818.908.0902 (Fax) 617.923.4575 (fax)

This is a hypertext resource guide to cyberpunk. A demo of this is

available for anon ftp check archie. Runs on a mac with HyperCard

2.0. There has been reviews of it in M2K & BB among other places.

"multimedia database of books, movies, comics, zines, games, and art

from the leading edge of the high-tech underground"

Black Ice

P.O. Box 1069

Brighton BN2 4YT

England]

"I haven't seen a copy, but the advertising is slick, and the contents

sound like stuff many of us here like to talk about.."

taken from whitaker@eternity.demon.co.uk in xtropy-L ]

Delve into the magazine that brings you a fluid window to the future.

Offering an oblique angle to current news and media, *Black Ice* looks

behind the scenes at the ideas and people creating the technology that's

impacting on today's world. Regular contents include:

Virtual reality / Smart drugs / Computer sub cultures / Future media

Underground science / Quantum mechanics /Weird art and Avant garde fashion bOING bOING (*** Note: NEW address ***) (*) 11288 Ventura Blvd, #818

Studio City, CA 91604

818.980.2009 818.908.0902 (Fax) mark@well.sf.ca.us

$4 an issue, $14 for 4 issues

Cyberpunkish neurozine discussing wierd tech, mind-hacking, etc..

Home of the 5.5meg HyperCard Stack "Beyond Cyberpunk"

Recent issues have included articles by/interviews with:

Lewis Shiner, Rudy Rucker, Bruce Sterling, Dan Joy (editor of

PHIKAL), Antero Alli, Richard Kadrey...etc

Bruce Says in an interview "I think people oughtta read bOING-bOING"

and I have to second that sentiment Get it!

Cybertek

OCL/Magnitude

PO Box 64

Brewster, NY 10509

hacking, cyberpunks, technology, culture

$10 a year

Edge Detector New Address] (*)

Glenn Grant

PO Box 36, Station H

Montreal, Quebec

Canada H3G 2KS

$3/issue(?) Cp-ish SF zine by a Canadian up 'n coming author who EXTROPY: The Journal of Transhumanist Thought Editor: Max More. (*)

P.O. Box 57306

Los Angeles, CA 90057-0306

Tel/fax: 213-484-6383 more@usc.edu

EXTROPY: The Journal of Transhumanist Thought is a journal of ideas,

dedicated to discussing and developing themes in the following areas:

very long list clipped]

+ Transhumanism and futurist philosophy

+ Life extension, cryonics, and physical immortalism

+ Artificial intelligence and personality uploading

+ Smart drugs and other intelligence increase technologies

+ Nanotechnology applications

+ Memetics (information in evolutionary terms)

EXTROPY is published twice per year USA: $9 Canada and Mexico: $10,

Overseas: $15 (airmail) / $11 (surface). Foreign orders in U.S. dollars

FLUX

co/Robert Derek 200 Market st. #a-21

Lowell,Ma.01852

email: rderek@world.std.com fluxu8@well.sf.ca.us

" I publish a zine called FLUX that deals with futurism,

cyberculture, psychoactives and psychedelics, life ext., nanotech,

etc. Always in need of submissions, suggestions, articles and

ideas, and of course subscription requests. Mondo devoid of gloss!"

Forbidden Knowledge

Darren Smith

BOX 770813

Lakewood, OH 44107

"Cyberpunk Newsletter It is a very informatable GUTS TO TELL

ALL newsletter. In addition to VR, Hacking, Phreaking, etc.. It tells

how to beat all systems from removing cancellations from postage

stamps to voting more than one time in an election! It cost $18 a

year/$24 overseas." cj137@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Jack Jeffries)]

FUTURE SEX

Lisa Palac, editor

1095 Market Street

San Francisco, CA 94103

"In the same vein as MONDO, check out FUTURE SEX. Glossy cybersex,

MONDO with nudity, some interesting articles (Kadrey on VR), some good

photos. The second issue should be out in the states sometime in

November. The first was okay, but sexist and kinda limited (so many

possibilites for cybersex, and it barely touched on them), but the editor

has promised much better for the second." cabal@sabrina.dei.unipd.it]

(Gianluca Donato 342139/IF)

Hack-Tic

P.O. box 22953

1100 DL AMSTERDAM

THE NETHERLANDS info@hacktic.nl

Hack-Tic is a paper magazine, almost entirely in Dutch. It appears very

irregularly and costs 40 guilders for ten issues if you live in holland.

Outside of Holland or Belgium, the rate is 30 US$, or 40 US$ for airmail.

" Hack-Tic deals with things that are of interest to the hacker and

phone-phreak subcultures. Every issue contains at least a few hints and

tips useful to those that want to make the most out of their computers,

modems and the like. If you like soldering together your own little

projects: so do we!"

Payment within Holland:

Maak 40 gulden over op girorekening 6065765 o.v.v. van je naam en adres

Outside Holland:

We accept NO CHEQUES, NO MONEY ORDERS and NO POSTAL CHEQUES. Just plain

old DEAD PRESIDENTS. Dealing with the dutch banking system is why! Intertek: The Cyberpunk Journal (***New Address***) (*)

Steve Steinberg

13 Daffodil Lane

San Carlos, CA 94070

steve@cs.ucsb.edu

Formerly Frank Drake's W.O.R.M

Covers areas of hacking, cyberspace, interviews, etc.

Now $4.00 an issue $14 for 4 issues

Current Issues include:

Vol3.1: The Hacker Issue

Vol3.2: The Ethics Issue

Vol3.3: Virtual Communities

Interzone (*)

217 Preston Drove

Brighton BN1 6FL, UK

Phone: 0273-504710

$27/6 issues or $52/year (12issues) in USA

Quite a decent SF mag (if a bit $$) that gets some really good

stuff by the likes of Sterling and Gibson and many other talented

authors. Bruce writes critical commentaries semi-regularly. Mondo 2000 (*)

PO Box 10171

Berkeley, CA 94709

415.845.9018 (phone) 415.649.9630 (fax) mondo2000@mcimail.com mondo2k@well.sf.ca.us

Definitive guide to all things cyberpunk and some things not

*the* cyberpunk quarterly-bible should be available at any decent

newsstand

was Reality Hackers and High Frontiers

Subscription: $21 for 5 issues (published quarterly)

R.U. Sirius and Queen Mu have assembled _Mondo 2000: A User's Guide to

the New Edge_. It is something of an introductory course on Mondo -

Mondo 101, if you will. It also includes the "Mondo Shopping Mall,"

a catalog of products on "the leading edge of the technological and

cultural movements" that Mondo 2000, the magazine, reports on.

Computer NewsLink newsletter]

Science Fiction Eye (*)

PO Box 18539

Asheville, NC 28814

SF/CP magazine, contains a regular article by Bruce Sterling

which could be considered a pseudo-official arm of the cyberpunk

literary movement. Sometimes really good stuff.

3 issues $10, 6 issues $18, back issues available

Science Fiction Studies (*)

Arthur B Evans

East College/ DePauw University

Greencastle IN 46135-0037 USA

A Canadian literary type zine that has had some good literary

criticism on the subject of cyberpunk (although they don't always

see cp in a good light, most of the negative criticism of it is

presented in an semi-intelligent albeit occasionally long-winded

manner...you know academia!)

$15/yr US, $17(CDN) in Canada, $16.50(US) elsewhere. Checks to:

SF-TH Inc.

2600: The Hacker Quarterly (*)

PO Box 752

Middle Island, NY 11953

Office: 516.751.2600 Fax: 516.751.2608 2600@well.sf.ca.us emmanuel@mindvox.phantom.com

$21/ year (quarterly) or $4/issue at your local newstand

Hacking computers, phones and anything else they get

their hands on

These guys are one of the longest lived, best hack/phreak mags out

there. and there are meetings held in 6 cities in the US on the

first friday of the month: New York, Washington DC, Chicago,

St. Louis, Los Angeles, San Fransisco. VIRUS 23 (*) Box 46

Red Deer, ALBERTA

CANADA T4N 5E7

-" full of Hilbert Space and Thee Temple Ov Psychick Youth and the

New Age and strange drugs and shamanism and more. They cover cyberpunk

and Crowley with equal elan...reprint the weirder bits of mainstream

news they run across...discuss the joys of fake news, throwing their own

memes into the growing pool of disinformation that surrounds us."

Mike Gunderloy & Cari Goldberg Janice, _The World of Zines_]

VIRUS 23 No. $ (that's right, homeboy, "$", not "4") is now available

from A.D.o.S.A., the Alberta Department of Spiritual Affairs:

+ the Generation X/Slacker/twentysomething meme

+ weird Canadian films and filmmakers + vampires and worse things

+ cutting edge new music + (post)cyberpunk

+ Strange fiction + Even stranger poetry

+ Newage (rhymes with...) + Memes

Darren Wershler-Henry @ Sonic Interzone ]

VONKO

Bolzanova 7 110 00 Praha 1

Czechoslovakia

Phone: +42 2 22-47-53 Fax: +42 2 26-72-75

The cover price is 40 Kcs. per copy ($1.50 a steal for this much

magazine), and it comes out twice a year.

"This is a really really really neat publication, sort of like

Semiotext(e) or Re:Search, with a bold/wild graphic style. The

current issue is 160-pages" antenna@well.sf.ca.us]

Blumfeld (editor) explained in a follow-up letter , VOKNO is for

"...Czechs with interests about marginals, edges, fringes,

alternatives in culture, philosophy, art, music, literature,

films, ecology, trends and tendencies in thinking... We don't

need, as I think, surface of freedom."

Whole Earth Review (*)

PO Box 38

Sausalito, CA 94966-9932

(Whole Earth runs The Well Whole Earth Lectronic Link] well.sf.ca.us)

Combines new age, techno-culture, california fads, etc.

should be available at any decent newsstand

$20 year for subscriptions Former zines that may be of interest -----------------------------------

High Frontiers

Reality Hackers

Cheap Truth

W.O.R.M. | 15. Recommended Viewing (movies) | ------------------------------------

Blade Runner is generally regarded as *the* Cyberpunk movie. The book title is "Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?" by Philip K. Dick. This movie was really the first of the cyberpunk genre and has generated quite a following. phaedrus@unkaphaed.UUCP adds:]

Those with access to laserdisc players should check out the Criterion

version of Blade Runner, with letterboxing and all the neat-o stuff on the

last side (mostly still frames). n_k_guy@sfu.ca]:

Blade Runner groupies will be undoubtedly thrilled to learn that,

according to today's 27 Aug] Globe and Mail (Toronto-based Canadian

newspaper), the infamous director's cut of Blade Runner will be

showing at the Festival of Festivals, Toronto's modestly-named annual

film festival. As of September 11 the rumors of a Directors Cut of BR were finally put to rest. It was nationally released in theatres around the US. I am unsure if it has/will be released overseas. Also check out: ---------------

Aeon Flux (anime)

Akira (anime) Aliens, s^3] (sci-fi) Blade Runner (science fiction)

Brainstorm

Brazil (science fiction/fantasy)

Circuitry Man

A Clockwork Orange (science fiction)

Cyberia on U-Network (music, animation) Cyberpunk (Intercon productions) (documentary) Cyberpunk (animated)

Cyberspace, Power and Culture (documentary)

Hardware (science fiction)

La Femme Nikita (punkish drama)

The Lawnmower Man (science fiction/fantasy)

Max Headroom (science fiction) eMpTV's Buzz (documentary/soundbytes) eMpTV's Liquid Television (anime/animated) anything by Psychic TV (Genesis P-Orridge) (music)

Repo Man (drama)

2600's Hacking Video (featured on 'Now It can Be Told')(documentary)

SCANNERS

Sneakers (vaguely cp'esque) (drama) SRL Videos from AMOK:

A Bitter Message of Hopless Grief

A Scenic Harvest from the Kingdom of Pain

Virtues of Negative Fascination

The Will to Provoke An Account of Fantastic Schemes for

Initiating Social Improvement

Baited Trap

Terminator, 2] (sci-fi) THX 1138 (science fiction) Total Recall (science fiction) Tron (science fiction/fantasy) Until the End of the World Videodrome (sci-fi/horror) Video Toaster Demo Tape (computer graphics) Virtual Reality 1991 (documentary) WAX or The Discovery of Television Among the Bees

(email David Blair] artist1@rdrc.rpi.edu for info or see ftp site) Wax Trax Promotional Sampler Video (music)

War Games (drama)

| 16. What is Cyberpunk Music? | --------------------------------

Every once in a while, inevitably, this thread shows its face on alt.cp. There is *NO* set definition of Cyberpunk music, though certain categories of music are generally "preferred": punk, industrial, techno.

What follows is a list of *suggested* musicians from the various categories (classical is not included, neither is country sorry, they should be): Classic/Classic-Progressive/Progressive/etc. --------------------------------------------

David Bowie

Devo

The Doors

Robert Fripp

Grateful Dead

Stuart Hamm

Information Society (Hack)

OMD

Phish

Pink Floyd

Rush

Thomas Dolby

Ultravox (Midge Ure)

Velvet Underground

Neil Young (the unrelease cp/computer-experiment thing he did awhile back)

Frank Zappa

Industrial/Goth/etc. for discussion of this try rec.music.industrial] ---------------

Braindead Sound Machine

Cabaret Voltaire

Nick Cave

ClockDVA

Cyberactif

Einsturzende Neubauten

Front 242

Frontline Assembly

Jesus and Mary Chain

Richard H Kirk

KMFDM

LFO

MC 900 Ft. Jesus

Meat Beat Manifesto

Ministry

The Mission

Nine Inch Nails

Negativland

Nitzer Ebb

Gary Numan

Psychic TV

Renegade Soundwave

Rise Robot Rise

Sisters of Mercy

Skinny Puppy

Throbbing Gristle

Manchester/Madchester/Overground Dance/Shoegazer/etc. -----------------------------------------------------

Art of Noise

Depeche Mode

Happy Mondays

Primal Scream

Ride

Slowdive

Soup Dragons

Stone Roses

New Age/Experimental/Experimental Jazz/etc. -------------------------------------------

Laurie Anderson

Cocteau Twins

Dead Can Dance

Brian Eno

Kitaro

Tangerine Dream

Gary Thomas

Vangelis

Punk/Thrash/Hardcore/Grindcore/Harder stuff/etc. ------------------------------------------------

Bad Brains

Black Flag

Dead Kennedys

Dinosaur, Jr.

Fugazi

Gwar

Husker Du

Public Image Limited

Rollins Band

Sex Pistols

Sonic Youth

Voivod

Rap/Hip-Hop/etc. ----------------

Disposable Heroes of HipHoprisy

PM Dawn

Public Enemy

A Tribe Called Quest

Urban Dance Squad

Reggae/Ska/Dancehall/Jamaican/etc. ----------------------------------

Aswad

Bob Marley

Ziggy Marley

Jacob Miller

Peter Tosh

Yellowman

Techno/Rave/Club/Underground Dance/House/Ambient House/etc. ----------------------------------------------------------808 State

Altern8

Fortran 5

KLF

Kraftwerk

Moby

New Order

N-Joi

Orb

Orbital

Shamen

T99

-------------------------END ALT.CP.FAQ]------------------------------