I was reading William Gibson and I was pretty stoned and I realized that it was poetry. Then I realized, William Gibson should be the poet laureate of the Net. The Net functions, in a way as an independent nation, as no other nation can regulate or control it, and it has its own laws, it transcends the boundaries of other nations (not all, but many), perhaps meta-nation is a better word. It is not a perfect nation (the level of affluence determined by the high taxes is pretty insane.), but it is its own nation,and what nation is perfect. However, it is, in its way, a nation. And nations need poet laureates. And there is nobody more appropriate for the post. Whatever you think of his politics, I don't always approve of them myself, his writings are still lovely and artistry is, to my mind (and perhaps I have just been reading too much Wilde) what determines who should be a poet laureate .

i'd vote for him. he's got that way with words that i seem to lack, although i wrestle with this knowledge irregardless.

Point me in his direction, Lucy? Please.

I prefer neal stephenson myself. Or Jeff Noon I thought Idoru was a bit derivative (of himself). Is this too harsh? Or is it that the thousands of neuromancer rip-offs have poisoned the cyberpunk gene pool for the originator? It may be asking too much for every new Gibson book to be as good as his first. A bit like Douglas Coupland. Hey, I'm demanding of my cultural heroes.

Idoru sucked. I read Neuromancer when it first came out, and worshipped it, and have read each subsequent offering, and I like Burning Chrome more than most novels I've read, but the Difference Engine muchly kicked ass (with Bruce Sterling). I TOTALLY dig on Stephenson, though, because the aspect of community is only dimly hinted at in Gibson, and developed conceptually ALONGSIDE tech in Stephenson. Snow Crash was good, but Diamond Age has it in uberspades.

William Gibson has the honor and the misfortune of starting a genre. Like Vonnegut, his writing is good but there are others who have taken their foundation and really made their efforts seem empty. Stephenson is great, omitting "Zodiac", and I'm sure there will be even more exciting stuff coming out, in time. I thought Neuromancer and Burning Chrome were great, but I couldn't stay focused on Count Zero and put it down after about 50 pages. I guess not-too-distant-future fiction has become as dull to me as contemporary fiction. I like crazy, galaxy-spanning, way-distant stuff like Iain Banks' Culture novels and Dan Simmons' Hyperion books, although I got tired of the romantic element towards the end. As for poet laureates: after Richard Brautigan, who cares?

I actually liked Idoru. Wasn't as good as some of the other stuff, though. You gotta love the John & Yoko reference (whether or not you like her, the whole "relationship as art" which still pisses off the fans bit is definitely there in the book) Burning Chrome was probably my favorite. I just like the fact that he coined the term "Cyberspace" and was really instrumental in the development of the hacker chic element of (sub)culture (and maybe it's just Silicon Valley that's making me feel like there's been a strong cultural shift towards the Gibsonian lately). At least out here, life is definitely imitating his art. I guess what I'm trying to say is, love him or hate him, you can't deny that Gibson is iconic, and a poet laureate should have resonance.

i liked idoru, too. it was fluffier than his other work, but still a good book.