August 2009
1 post
Node Magazine: The Next Phase
WARNING! This blog is SPOILER-HEAVY!
If this is your first visit, you may want to start at the beginning.
Thanks for taking the time to visit the blog that University College London professor / Guardian UK ciritic called “the future of literary criticism” and scifi legend William Gibson described as “cheap A.I.” and “completely original.”
To learn more about...
September 2007
2 posts
NodeMagazine asks, "Is NodeMagazine Mostly About... →
Node 1, 2, 3...
Memetic Engineer has now created a secret subsite annotating the Node tumblog in chronological order [a much more accessible method, especially for newcomers].
August 2007
51 posts
Review of William Gibson's appearance in Boulder,... →
Node: "Remarkably Accurate and Inherently...
Someone is essentially doing a hypertext version of “Spook Country” at Node magazine, with chapter summaries and various annotations and illustrations.
Yeah, I’ve seen that. The amount of effort involved is a bit scary. The entries I’ve looked at have been remarkably accurate. Oscar Wilde said mirrors and cats are both inherently unhealthy to pay too much attention to,...
And Now, Towards Chapter 85...
345 posts.
84 chapters.
102 links to amazon.
100+ hours.
42 days.
When I started the Node project, I originally planned a multi-author blog of fictional news stories in the Spook Country universe.
When someone suggested that the site might be a subject of interest once the “inevitable googling begins” post-publication, I thought they were crazy. But just in case, I thought, it...
“She put the helmet on, turned it on, and looked up to where Alberto’s giant...”
– William Gibson [from Chapter 84. The Man Who Shot Walt Disney, Spook Country]
Chapter 84. THE MAN WHO SHOT WALT DISNEY
Bobby, now also free of his anxiety [and] in the presence of Inchmale, explores a potential location for a music video of the Bollards “I’m The Man Who Shot Walk Disney” that will “introduce locative art to a wider audience while helmets like Hollis’s were still in the beta stage” if Bobby agrees to “get everybody else’s work back up on new servers, which he’d already done.”
Earlier, Hollis had...
“‘It’s not bad,’ said Bobby, spilling a little of his second piso mojado as he...”
– William Gibson [from Chapter 84. The Man Who Shot Walt Disney, Spook Country]
Chapter 83. STRATHCONA
In a bed-and-breakfast near a deserted Vancouver Chinatown, Milgrim—passing himself off as a traveling scholar writing about “revolutionary messianism” and carrying the cash and phone from Hollis’s purse—takes a Rize, settles back on the pillows, and begins reading his book while thinking of a vaguely familiar-looking woman [Hollis] he’d seen outside a used-record store by St. Mark’s...
“‘And you’re writing your thesis on Baptists, Mr. Milgrim?’”
– William Gibson [from Chapter 83. Strathcona, Spook Country]
“Someone has a website going where every single thing mentioned in Spook Country...”
– Steve Ranger, Heading into Spook Country with the cyberspace guru [silicon.com]
Trouble at FLDS Church in Porthill, ID →
“The FLDS is a breakaway sect of the Mormon Church that is under investigation by the RCMP and B.C. government because of allegations of sexual exploitation, sexual and physical abuse, trafficking in women across the U.S. border and teaching racism and white supremacy in its private — but publicly funded — school.”
Chapter 82. BEENIE’S
Awakening to a call from Garreth, Hollis leaves the flat for Beenie’s where she meets Garreth, Tito and the old man. The old man explains that the contents of the shipping container were never intended to arrive in a First World country, rather for an economy “in which that sort of money can be traded for one thing or another, without too punishing a discount.” As the profiteers were...
“The unfamiliar ring tone of Garreth’s cell woke her.”
– William Gibson [from Chapter 82. Beenie’s, Spook Country]
“Someone’s already named a Web site after NODE, the nonexistent magazine in...”
– Chris Watson, Bookends: William Gibson explores the science fiction of the here-and-now in his new novel [Santa Cruz Sentinel] / [NodeMagazine.com is the sister site of this blog]
Chapter 81. IN BETWEEN EVERYTHING
After Garreth pick him up from sitting in with Igor and the band, Tito tells Garreth about the man who tried to kill him and his passenger who walked away concerned that his systema was sloppy. Garreth tells him that he was “fucking genius” and that Alejandro is waiting for him. After getting in the black Mercedes, Alejandro tells Tito that Carlito has plans for him to stay in Vancouver with an...
“‘You can’t give me a number?’”
– William Gibson [from Chapter 81. In Between Everything, Spook Country]
Chapter 80. MONGOLIAN DEATH WORM
Thinking back to “the single strangest thing I imagine I’ll ever see,” Hollis wonders aloud to Inchmale about the Mongolian Death Worm [‘a mascot for my anxiety” directing focus to “what I’m supposed to be most afraid of, now”]. [227 characters]
“‘Business-class lounge for Air Asshole,’ declared Inchmale, enthusiastically...”
– William Gibson [from Chapter 80. Mongolian Death Worm, Spook Country]
Chapter 79. ARTIST AND REPERTOIRE
After phoning Garreth to tell him the job is done, Tito takes a beer from the A&R man, deciding to stay off the streets for a while. [132 characters]
“‘Where’d you say you’re from?’ asked the man from Igor’s label, offering Tito...”
– William Gibson [from Chapter 79. Artist and Repertoire, Spook Country]
More Reviews
Check out these recent reviews of Spook Country from the LA Times and the UK Times Online [focusing on the recent book reading in SecondLife]
Chapter 78. THEIR DIFFERENT DRUMMER
Leaving the building in the hands of the “dustmen” and her purse behind, Hollis tells Garreth to stop the car when she sees emerge from a small car parked by the Phaeton, Inchmale and Heidi Hyde carrying a three-foot, gift-wrapped ax handle.
At a bar near the flat, Bigend tells Hollis that her purse is near Hastings and Main, “on foot, apparently” before getting on a bus as Hollis imagines him...
“‘My purse,’ she said, as they drove back to Bobby’s.”
– William Gibson [from Chapter 78. Their Different Drummer, Spook Country]
Chapter 77. SLACK ROPE
Guided by the spirit of Ochun, Tito climbs the nylon rope and secures the magnets to cover the nine bullet holes from Garreth’s gun. On his way out of the shipyard, a helicopter comes out of nowhere, shining an “insanely bright light” as Tito catches his jeans on the top of a fence “like a child, no systema at all.” Climbing down, Tito meets Igor and two other young men moving a piano to their new...
“The Guerreros were not waiting for him, when he left the dark bed of the truck,...”
– William Gibson [from Chapter 77. Slack Rope, Spook Country]
Freerunning through cyberspace: Review of Spook... →
Thanks to Cissie of aworldtowin.net!
Powell Street [Vancouver, BC] →
Zoom in using the hybrid view and you will clearly see the black eight-story “live-work” building [“built on an entirely different scale”] on Powell street
Chapter 76. LOCATION SHOOT
Garreth and Hollis, pretending to be location scouts for an untitled movie, enter an eight-story “live-work” building [“built on an entirely different scale”] on Powell street with the Pelican case, a tripod and leather apron. After verifying a direct line of site to the shipping container and checking the radiation level of the case, Garreth assembles a rifle [“biomorphic, counterintuitive, like...
“Having dropped Tito and driven on, not far at all along the strip of low-lying...”
– William Gibson [from Chapter 76. Location Shoot, Spook Country]
Chapter 75. HEY, BUDDY
Recovering from Brown’s near-fatal attack and with the spirit of Oshosi “huge in his head,” Tito jumps into the back of an enormous pickup truck on its way to the shipyard. In the back, Tito calls the old man to tell him that Brown tried to kill him. [250 characters]
“Oshosi, scout and hunter, had entered Tito in mid-backtuck.”
– William Gibson [from Chapter 75. Hey, Buddy, Spook Country]
Village Voice review of Spook Country →
Spook Country, with its fugue-like advancement of these melodies [moves] toward an oddly harmonic resolution at a port in Vancouver. Not that it matters. Compelling for their own sake, the techno-thriller mechanics of these recent Gibson novels are largely beside the point. Gibson doesn’t engineer his labyrinthine plots to disclose the meaning at their core: The maze is the message.
William Gibson interview with Scribd →
“To me, the Internet is as basic a thing for humanity to be doing as cities have been. It’s that primal.” - William Gibson
Cory Doctorow review of Spook Country →
These characters inhabit the exciting, futuristic world of 2006. And it is a futuristic place, our recent past, a place so weird and light-speed that we don’t even notice it. Not until a master storyteller and keen observer like William Gibson comes along to show us what we’re all living in.
Only 5 more days (and 10 chapter summaries) before...
Chapter 74. AS DIRECTED
Watching Brown mutter and act intensely nervous as they get closer to the turquoise shipping container, Milgrim thinks back on meeting Brown when the he sees the IF [“like a younger Johnny Depp, but ethnic”] walking by in his bright-green jacket. As Brown wildly swerves the Taurus in his direction, Tito jumps over the car before crashing into a “large nursery toy, full of concrete.”
With sirens...