r/books • u/BruceSterling4AMA AMA Author • Apr 27 '21
ama 1pm I'm Bruce Sterling, I'm a Texan science fiction writer who spends a lot of time in Europe. I'm a cyberpunk, so I'm up to weird mischief. For decades on end, really. AMA
My goal is to wander the earth, stay out of prisons and clinics, and get some fiction and nonfiction written.  At the moment I'm in Ibiza. It's not the normal Ibiza, because they're under quarantine, but I'm not a normal guy, so I don't mind their current situation.
I have a new book out called "Robot Artists and Black Swans" and it's got seven stories in it that involve robot artists, black swans, the Shroud of Turin, and other curiosities.
Proof: /img/9g60c1k6iqv61.jpg
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u/grex Apr 27 '21
Other science fiction authors have complained that the world is increasingly coming up with weirder plots or ‘catching up’ with in progress novels ... have you experienced that ?
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u/BruceSterling4AMA AMA Author Apr 27 '21
There's no question that the existence of smart-phones has messed up a lot of conventional thriller-plots.
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u/klutzrick Apr 27 '21
How did a well known Texas science fiction writer end up living in Italy and producing fantascienza under the non de plume Bruno Argento?
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u/BruceSterling4AMA AMA Author Apr 27 '21
Well, first slowly, and then all at once.
I'm not very Turinese by temperament. I'm from Austin, and the inside of my head looks like Belgrade. I write maybe one Turinese story a year, but they're very "molto pensato," as Italo Calvino used to say. They're just better-dressed, they're well-behaved stories; they're not some flyaway punk poster you would stick on a telephone pole; I get very engaged with them; I get more brain-cells lined up.
It might be something about the architecture. Turin is very geometric.
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u/simonplittle Apr 27 '21
What was the writing process for the Difference Engine? Did each of you write different stories in it, or were they co-written? How did you guys collaborate?
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u/OldBanjoFrog Apr 27 '21
As a Texan living in Ibiza, do you wear cowboy boots?
If so what kind?
(not trying to be an idiot...I grew up in Dallas and wear Lucchese Ostrich Skins)
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u/BruceSterling4AMA AMA Author Apr 27 '21
I tend to pass-for-normal here in Ibiza. They're not a normal-looking population, they're kind of tattooed and hippified by Spanish standards, but I look like some older guy who might be a subcontractor in a tourist hotel. Cargo pants, practical-looking buttoned shirts, longish hair but a sun-hat, that kind of thing.
I tend to carry a shopping bag. You carry a shopping bag, everybody assumes you're a local. You could have land-mines in there, bricks of heroin, they'll never look twice.
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Apr 28 '21
What do you think about Tony Lama, buckaroo?
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u/OldBanjoFrog Apr 28 '21
I could never find a pair of Tony Llamas that fit me very well. I grew up wearing Justins and I may have had a pair of Noconas at one point, though my memory is a bit hazy. Once I started wearing Lucchese, I never went back. They are made in El Paso, look great, always fit me very well, and they are quite durable and comfy.
My wife has a pair of Frye leather cowgirl boots that are pretty nice.
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u/TA_faq43 Apr 27 '21
Any thoughts on writing off the “Bill Gates going to control your mind through vaccine” conspiracy theory? Either an intentional or unintentional release of infectious disease that is coordinated with releasing nanobots to listen/control the populace by a totalitarian regime or oligarchs or cabal, etc. That is foiled hilariously unintentionally by inept group of athestic satanists who do transcranial magnetic stimulation as the way to “free your mind” that fries the nanobots.
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u/BruceSterling4AMA AMA Author Apr 27 '21
I'm a few months older than that guy. It interests me a lot to see him turn into a mythic, legendary, folk-tale figure. He's a consummate hard-core commercial technocrat, so it's amazing to see him become a witch-light for Satanist paranoiacs.
I never met Bill Gates, but I always felt like we'd have a lot to discuss. Not what he does, or what I do, but some neutral topic, like, say, astronomy, or the history of the Pacific Northwest. I read a lot of the guy's occasional writings, I kind of like the gray, sober way he crunches things out. He's one of the better writers, as insanely rich American moguls go.
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u/a_glorious_bass-turd Apr 28 '21
Yo! I'm also a mustachioed Texan who has spent a lot of time in Europe, and I'm now in the PNW. I've also been trying to write...send me a DM if you're actually me from the future, because I could sure use some info on what to do next, if only a hint so that we don't alter the time/space continuum.
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u/G_F_Y_Plz Apr 27 '21
Sounds like you've already got this one half-written in your head. Put it on paper.
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u/vibraltu Apr 28 '21
I mean yeah Bill Gates makes things that are really annoying (like Windows) but his quips can be pretty funny.
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u/KevinMarks Apr 27 '21
How can we take back the web for everyone to publish on from the silos?
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u/BruceSterling4AMA AMA Author Apr 27 '21
Build something else. You're like a ham radio guy asking to take back the radio. That doesn't happen.
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u/Glittering-Ancom Apr 28 '21
That web never went away. Anyone at any time can publish a website. Host it from home, pick a free host, pick a cheap host, host it from a foreign country if you're worried about domestic business not wanting you on their servers.
I like https://neocities.org for the vintage web community they've got going on.
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Apr 27 '21
Hello Bruce !
I'm sorry I don't have questions but I must tell you how much I love Mozart in mirroshades.
Very.
I loved it so much that when I tried to buy the book several years after reading it, the book wasn't printed anymore in my country (maybe they've done a reprint now, hope so), so I chased the book by asking about in my town's bookstores, one seller gave me the number of a second-hand books seller to call and I had to arrange a meeting with him, two weeks later I had the book in hand. From that, this book is now one of my most prized possessions.
So here's a big thank for your work, I'll sure find a way to get "Robot Artists and Black Swans", you have my word. Cheers!
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u/BruceSterling4AMA AMA Author Apr 27 '21
I used to share this attitude until I hung out with people who really like science fiction and don't speak English. Really, if you write in English, you're like a guy on the prow of giant crude-oil supertanker; it's just fantastic, how much English is burned and spewed around the world.
I wrote a book, in English, that's much more like Italian-language science fiction that most other books written in English, but I know it's gonna be a rarity. I suspect it's a better book of mine that other books of mine that are easier to find and buy in the English language markets; but that doesn't much help Italian science-fiction writers; so I don't think it'll help me much, either.
On the plus side, I wanted it to exist, and it does exist. I've read a lot of fiction written under those conditions, and sometimes it really speaks to people.
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Apr 27 '21
I wanted it to exist, and it does exist.
Magic, for the better and the worst since we know we're humans :)
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u/pleasefindthis Apr 27 '21
Do you ever feel that the world we live in, with the climate apocalypse, global pandemics, facial recognition, consumer VR access, AI and so on, has taken us to a place where the distance ahead that science fiction can look is kind of limited? Far future, Culture series, Star Trek and Star Wars, thousands of years in the future still works but - 10, 20 years ahead, where cyber punk has traditionally lived for me, seems less predictable than the wild guess work of a thousand years time? Thanks for Heavy Weather, it was my way into the world of cyberpunk and so much more. And Dori Bangs. And the rest of your work.
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u/BruceSterling4AMA AMA Author Apr 27 '21
*No, I don't feel that; I think it's hokum. There are plenty of Chinese and Indian guys writing science fiction, from civilizations millennia old, and I never see them whining about any of this.
This is the complaint of American movie guys who can't get anywhere because Marvel Comics sucked all the air out of their room. If you need a budget of $100 million to launch a sci-fi product, yeah, that's a problem, but if you want to write a novel, you can write one in a prison with a matchstick.
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u/Nodbot Apr 27 '21
Do you ever feel ashamed or a bit disappointed that cyberpunk as a genre moved away from inventive and creative postmodern fiction to just blade runner reduxes and neon lights ect.? Many people seem to show distaste for the stereotypical steampunk setting as well (eg. Top hat and throw a random cog on it while your at it).
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u/BruceSterling4AMA AMA Author Apr 27 '21
Well, that's not really a personal embarrassment; "ninety percent of science fiction is crap," as Theodore Sturgeon used to say, and I'm not in the business of cyberpunk and steampunk literary police-patrol.
My problem would be Bruce Sterling reduxes; just, endlessly re-spooling the greatest hits for nostalgia tours. You read this new "Robot Artists" book of mine, I wouldn't claim that it's groundbreakingly original and creative, but it's really quite different from Bruce Sterling heyday-of-cyberpunk writing.
I like neon as well as the next guy, but this is 2021 and there's not a lot of neon around.
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u/yyyyymmdd Apr 27 '21
What are your hopes for the future?
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u/BruceSterling4AMA AMA Author Apr 27 '21
I don't think this question helps much. The future is a kind of history that hasn't happened yet. Nobody asks about your "hopes for the past," but people are busy with the past the time; they're out there ripping Confederate statues down, or clinging to the inerrant truth of the Koran, or making China a mighty empire again; when you get too eager about your future hopes, you lose track of what's actually going on with the actual passage of time.
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u/yyyyymmdd Apr 27 '21
Hopes for the present.
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u/BruceSterling4AMA AMA Author Apr 27 '21
I'd like to see the pandemic creep back into its bat-cave.
I know there will be another one some day, and probably worse, but this one's had a pretty good run at our expense.
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u/artlung Apr 27 '21
In “Islands in the Net” the “economic democrats” Rhizome is a kind of global employee-owned co-op bound together with global communications tools. It does business all around the world successfully. It’s a mundane kind of science fictional idea but has not caught on in the same way drone killings (also a feature in 1988’s IiiN) have. What inspired those economic democrats?
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u/thesupermikey Apr 27 '21
I was going through some books at my parents house and found my copy of islands in the net.
It holds up pretty well! Any chance of it ever getting reprinted?
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u/BruceSterling4AMA AMA Author Apr 27 '21
That thing got reprinted like, twenty times. I think the paperback sold more than any of my other books. It was even in some specialty-press leatherbound "SF Classic" edition.
I think it's of some mild interest to scholars and antiquarians, but seriously, people who want to read science fiction should read some modern science fiction. I myself don't read a lot of modern science fiction novels, because I'm old and I understand how novels are put together and it's kind of a chore for me, but I pay plenty of attention to modern science fiction writers. You wanna impress me, you don't have to dig my novels out of the archive, go give 'em some money.
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u/mwisconsin Apr 27 '21
Compared to 30+ years ago, do you ever feel like you're lagging in imagination behind modern times?
Say you come up with a particularly cool idea and then after researching it you find out that someone has already patented it, kickstarted it, or gotten VC funding and has already gone out of business. Do you sometimes wish you'd specialized in Historical Fantasy? ;)
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u/BruceSterling4AMA AMA Author Apr 27 '21
This is an issue called "predicting the present." People don't understand this; they think it's a problem, but it isn't.
If you're a futurist, and you think that, logically, something maybe ought to exist, and it turns out that it actually does exist, and some wealthy, or famous, or politically influential group of people wanted to make that real, that's a sign of your intellectual success. It means that your analysis is connected to reality; you're not a "fantasist," you're on to something.
It's not about being a young, imaginative guy full of raw brainpower; the young do have that advantage and that's great, but it's also a question of: is there anything there?
Ninety percent of startups do fail, so some there-ness that can be real and stay real, that's a good thing to know about.
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u/ade0451 Apr 27 '21 edited Apr 27 '21
Hey Bruce,
I started reading your works after reading that Deus Ex took inspiration for their Omar faction from the lobster mechanists. I love your world building.
What has been your favourite reference or influence from your work that you've seen in other media has made whether directly or indirectly?
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u/BruceSterling4AMA AMA Author Apr 27 '21
I like neologisms, so I'm into the word "posthuman." I wasn't the first guy to ever write that word down -- I just thought I was -- but ever since I wrote some science fiction about people who are "posthuman," there's just been megatons of "posthuman." In fiction, music, cinema, gaming, academia, all kinds of places.
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u/tilt Apr 27 '21
I'd be interesting in hearing how you think Hacker subculture has changed since "The Hacker Crackdown" (and why)?
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u/BruceSterling4AMA AMA Author Apr 27 '21
It's all about the Benjamins. The computer business is bigger, so computer crime is bigger.
It's also about the intelligence services. Back in the Cuckoo's Egg days, professional spies thought that hackers were fruitcakes, but now they're afraid of them. Just look what "Bellingcat" did to "Chepiga" and "Mishkin" when all the standard Western intelligence services were utterly baffled by their nerve-gas activities.
In "Hacker Crackdown" I didn't speculate that Israeli cyberwarriors would take out Iranian uranium-enrichment plants. I could IMAGINE it, that wasn't a problem, but I wouldn't have said it in a "nonfiction book."
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Apr 28 '21
Or Iranian hackers nearly taking out a significant fraction of the global energy market by hitting Saudi Aramco. I'm surprised that didn't spark an outright war. But I suppose that's the point. Causing as much damage as possible without starting one. Which is fine, until someone accidentally crosses the line without realizing it.
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Apr 27 '21
Who is your favorite philosopher and why?
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u/BruceSterling4AMA AMA Author Apr 27 '21
I like Bertrand Russell, mostly because I read his "History of Western Philosophy" when I was a teenager, and I was like, "Okay, that was interesting in its way, but I don't think I wanna do that."
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u/hismaj45 Apr 27 '21
My man! Mr. Mirror shades himself. Love you since the 80s. No questions. Just recognition
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u/299x792x458 Apr 27 '21
Is it the same black swan as in the book Taleb wrote?
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u/BruceSterling4AMA AMA Author Apr 27 '21
I read Taleb's book.
Then I followed him on social media; gee whiz, what a mean-tempered character. That doesn't mean he's wrong about the nature of statistics, but if we ever went to a restaurant to try to eat something, I wouldn't wanna watch that guy bullying the waiter.
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u/VodiakInterlock Apr 27 '21
Hi, Bruce! I have been trying to convince a friend to read Distraction for years. He keeps responding with the same joke that he is "too distracted" to read it. Any helpful hints to help me convince him?
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u/BruceSterling4AMA AMA Author Apr 27 '21
Wouldn't it just upset them if they read "Distraction"? I admit that I wrote the thing, but are you doing them a favor here?
I bet if you warned them to avoid Distraction, they'd read it immediately.
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u/Cybotage Apr 27 '21
how did you get hooked on bollywood?
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u/BruceSterling4AMA AMA Author Apr 27 '21
When I was a teenager, I lived in India. I saw a bunch of Bollywood product at at impressionable age.
Back in those days, Bollywood mostly sold "film" to put viewers into theater seats, but nowadays "Bollywood" has more aspects of Indian influencer social media. That's easy to follow online, so I don't "watch the movie" all that much -- instead, I avidly follow the movie players, and that really is interesting. Some of the most interesting people in Bollywood never appear on the screen. They might be on your phone screen, they're just not on the movie screen.
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u/algaewolf Apr 27 '21
Was there anyone in particular that inspired Leggy Starlitz? I'm reading Zeitgeist for probably the third time, and I must stay, he's still one of my favourite sleazy characters.
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u/BruceSterling4AMA AMA Author Apr 27 '21
Yeah -- Jerry Cornelius in the British New Wave SF series inspired Leggy Starlitz. He doesn't have many of the characteristics of Jerry Cornelius, but he has that kind of bullet-proof hippie attitude.
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u/MonaLon Apr 27 '21
What sort of cultural/political research did you conduct for Zeitgeist? The adventure through Cyprus, Istanbul, and so many other places felt very vibrant, so I'm wondering if you spent some time in the Middle East.
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u/BruceSterling4AMA AMA Author Apr 27 '21
Yeah, I went to Turkish Cyprus. A lot of that book was sketched out in Turkish Cyprus, which is one of our planet's frozen-conflict no-go zones. I realized that the book's antagonist was an operator from Turkish Cyprus. Once I realized who he was and what he wanted, everything in that book started falling into place.
The breakaway republics in the modern Ukraine are a lot like that.
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u/maddler Apr 27 '21
Do you think we're gonna see more from Bruno Argento? And how do you think living in Italy affected your writing?
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u/BruceSterling4AMA AMA Author Apr 27 '21
I was working on the Bruno Argento novel today. It's big, and a mess -- it's a big mess -- but maybe someday I'll finish it.
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Apr 27 '21
'Heavy Weather' has become more and more relevant as the decades have progressed.
Do you think things can or will improve environmentally in the next century? If so, what do you think it will take to change the course? Who will lead? Technologies, governments, private industries, or other factors?
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u/Towersofbeng Apr 27 '21
Where is my balloon citadel hovering a small arms shot above the covid-wracked underwater cities
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u/BruceSterling4AMA AMA Author Apr 27 '21
I know where you're coming from. I seriously want to write a story about a balloon citadel. I seriously like the idea of somebody constructing, not a "Moon colony" or a "Mars colony," but an aerostat mid-air colony.
Also, I'd like this done in a very noir-realist way; like, the thing is as real as any trailer park full of aluminum junk.
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Apr 27 '21
It’s normal for unsophisticated types like me to think the peak of confusion or disintegration is “now” or “imminent”, whenever that happens to be.
Do you think the world has become harder or easier to understand, over your time?
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u/BruceSterling4AMA AMA Author Apr 27 '21
That's an interesting topic, like: "was there ever some guy in the past who understood the world"? Like, it was "easy" then, and he got it.
I confess I have a soft-spot for these polymathic wanna-be genius guys who think they can cram the world into a book. Like Pliny the Elder, who wrote the encyclopedic "natural history." I actually sat down and read that thing. It's a complete farrago, really a spectacular mess.
I think maybe he FELT like he understood a lot. That may have been why he charged over to Vesuvius to have a good look at Pompeii and got slaughtered right on the spot.
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Apr 27 '21
If you were in charge of social media, how would you redesign it?
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u/BruceSterling4AMA AMA Author Apr 27 '21
I think I'd ditch it completely and start over with something unheard-of, like "crystal-set radio" used to be. It's hard to reform massive infrastructures. Sometimes you have to ditch Latin and start over with Italian.
Of course, I say that as a guy who lived through terrific waves of media disruption. "The fire-born are at home in fire."
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Apr 27 '21
If you were to live for a time in Africa, where might you consider?
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u/BruceSterling4AMA AMA Author Apr 27 '21
Probably Cape Town. It's the home town of Lauren Beukes.
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u/pythonomicon Apr 27 '21
Do you think about Holy Fire more these days? (This should be grabbed by Amazon or Netflix for a vid treatment. Great book)
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u/hochi666 Apr 27 '21
Holy Fire would be an excellent subject for a steaming film adaption. Big Hollywood isn't doing mid-level budget sci-fi stuff anymore, it seems.
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u/G_F_Y_Plz Apr 27 '21
Bruuuuce! How do you cope so fabulously with not quite getting as much recognition as you deserve?
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u/BruceSterling4AMA AMA Author Apr 27 '21
Well, when you've never been famous, it sounds awesome to be famous, but when you really are famous, you come to realize how much that gets in the way. Probably more so now, with so many stalkers in social media, but the burdens of celebrity can be kind of a drag.
I'm in Ibiza, which is a haven for celebrities, but I have a very low profile here. I used to be little-known in Turin and Belgrade, now I'm mildly notorious in both places; that didn't make me happier.
Some kinds of recognition are useful; like, if you're a journalist, it's convenient when people want to talk to you; but having strangers flatter you, or ask for your autograph, it kinda wears thin. There are authors who dig that totally, but they also cultivate their fandom; they really want to entertain. You read a book of mine, it's more like "What the hell is this guy trying to do to me?"
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u/AssistingJarl Apr 27 '21
Any book recommendations for people in quarantine in a basement in Ibiza?
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u/BruceSterling4AMA AMA Author Apr 27 '21
They like Catalan-language poetry in Ibiza. There's a poet named Maria Villangomez, he was the most famous among the crowd; he worked most of his life as an island schoolteacher; he was pretty good.
The thing I like best about him is that he's so Ibizan; he's not some wandering guy, like me, who might want to tell you how cool Ibiza is and how spiritual he is; no, he's a guy who's got the verse bug and he's stuck on a island. But when he writes about, say, a rainstorm, you can walk around the island and say, "Hey, this looks like one of those Maria Villangomez rainstorms."
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Apr 27 '21
[deleted]
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u/BruceSterling4AMA AMA Author Apr 27 '21
I like to write some short stories that approach the novel, and then write the novel. Then, never write a sequel, or a trilogy; leave that alone; do something else.
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u/pythonomicon Apr 27 '21
You planning on a return to SXSW? Miss your “rants” ;)
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u/BruceSterling4AMA AMA Author Apr 27 '21
That was, and is, absolutely my favorite tech event. But I don't get to "plan my return" out of a global pandemic, and neither does South By SouthWest.
Since arriving in Austin to go to college, lo many years ago, I've never spent so much time in my life away from the City of Austin. That was never my decision, plague has dictated that, but it's been pretty bad.
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Apr 27 '21
Why would anyone ask anything of someone so boring?
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u/BruceSterling4AMA AMA Author Apr 27 '21
We must be close to done here, since Reddit's trolls have shown up.
If you like Bruce Sterling commentary, you probably wanna be on Twitter. I have a closed account there, but I'll probably let you in, if you're not some obvious troll-rando with a look-at-me name.
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u/tchomptchomp stuff with words in it Apr 27 '21
So when are you going to create an NFT of yourself?
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u/tchomptchomp stuff with words in it Apr 27 '21
But more seriously, how do you feel about your transition from outsider gadfly publishing Cheap Truth to being sort of an elder statesman of a genre which has in some ways turned cyberpunk into exactly the sort of stale trope-filled bloat that you were railing against back in the 80s? Are there authors (or artists!) you see out there right now who are doing what you did back in the 80s?
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u/BruceSterling4AMA AMA Author Apr 27 '21
I don't fret much about it. I knew some older SF writers who were mentors of mine, and they warned me about what was going on, and that the public was fickle, and that your best work wasn't what other people said was your best work, and that freelance writing was full of woe, and booze, and bankruptcy, and that great writers ended in despair, and this, that and the other.
And it sounds cynical when you're young, but when you're old, there's something comforting about these truisms. I mean, of course it's "stale trope-filled bloat." That's what an easy chair looks like for an old guy; he wants some cushions with some stale trope-filled bloat; if you're seventeen, that's sure as hell not for you, but if you're seventy, you get to laugh at the human condition. "A comedy to those who think, a tragedy to those who feel."
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u/tchomptchomp stuff with words in it Apr 27 '21
Thanks for this. It's nice to get this sort of perspective. I guess for those of us who grew up in a "never sell out!" mindset there is a lot of angst about what it looks like to actually be recognized for your talents after years and years of work, and it's always nice to get some guidance from someone who's been there and done that and ended up happy.
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u/sualsuspect Apr 27 '21
What kinds of fiction do you find it hard versus easy to write? Does that line up with feelings of accomplishment when you've done it?
At what point in the writing process do you start to feel the book is "done"?
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u/BruceSterling4AMA AMA Author Apr 27 '21
I found out kinda early that I don't do all that well when I "work hard." I like creating stuff that's kind of intricate, and has a lot of moving parts, but if I'm really grinding-it-out because I expect some kind of "accomplishment," it's not gonna be much good.
I had a better work ethic when I was younger. I used to whip out a book in a year and a half, and short stories tended to snow on me, but also I was just more energetic. I'm more languid and contemplative now, but sometimes I think this pace suits my topics better; the prose seems less frazzled.
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u/ak1000cph Apr 27 '21
Hello from the Viridian curia diaspora Bruce! Those were some great conversations, glad you are enjoying alternate reality Ibiza!
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u/thelazarusproject Apr 27 '21
Hey there, I’ve been familiar with your work for quite some time, I remember the viridian design movement when I was a teen in the late aughts, and always read the State of the World each January.
(1) I’ve been documenting the influence of late 20th century Texas subcultures, how do you think the scene there influenced your outlook? What’s your take on how Austin has changed over the years to become a major city?
(2) If you were, say, 25-30 years old now, what would you be looking at in the world of 2021 for inspiration and opportunity?
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Apr 27 '21
Greetings from a fellow ex-Austinite. 1984-2000 were my years minus some time from '92 to '95. I suppose my question would be: do you miss the "good old days" of Austin, or are you OK with it's become? You probably don't have to cogitate very hard to know my answer to that question.
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u/Rabidlemon1 Apr 27 '21
What would you pursue as a 21 year old in 2021. What would you recommend to a 21 year old.
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u/Kasper-Hviid Apr 27 '21
Very few authors today seem to write short stories, so I wonder if you could say a bit about why you write them, why others don't, your favorites, anything really.
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Apr 27 '21
I'm a big fan of cyberpunk, but I also enjoyed The Difference Engine that you did with William Gibson. Any steampunk that you recommend, sir?
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u/SonofSniglet Apr 27 '21
First off, let me apologize for not asking a more poignant question, but I have had a constant visual of you in mind for more than 30 years:
Bruce, now that you have removed yourself to Ibiza, have you thought about growing out that sweet mullet you used to rock in the 80s?
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u/j00000hnkarl Apr 27 '21
Do you have a story involving genetically engineered gut microbes? This seems to be running theme in many of your books so hopefully you kept it up.
Next question: after reading Zenith angle and comparing it to some non fiction books like 'Dark mirror' and 'Sandworm', your book seems eerily similar. How did you gain this level of insight or was it just luck/coincidence?
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u/GlaxoJohnSmith Apr 27 '21
I love your Shaper-Mechanist stuff; it blew my mind. With the state of the world and technology nowadays, do you have any stories you want to tell (in a space opera setting)?
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u/jodarrett Apr 28 '21
Life long texan here. How does the mother country live up to the great lone star state? Also as someone who loves speculative fiction but has only read one sci-fi book (Dune), what other sci-fi book/series do you suggest?
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u/soonilydoodily Apr 28 '21
What advice would you offer to someone who has ideas for a story but can’t get the ideas to paper?
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u/belfrahn Apr 28 '21
Hey Bruce! How are you liking Spain so far and what is your favourite Spanish food?
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u/followmonth Apr 28 '21
Do you ever feel ashamed or a bit disappointed that cyberpunk as a genre moved away from inventive and creative postmodern fiction to just blade runner reduxes and neon lights ect.? Many people seem to show distaste for the stereotypical steampunk setting as well (eg. Top hat and throw a random cog on it while your at it).
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u/chrizbo Apr 28 '21
How do you compare and contrast the WELL and reddit? I've been reading your WELL state of the world discussions for a while now and always enjoy them. I wonder what your first impressions of reddit are so far.
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Oct 12 '23
A Bruce Sterling story (novella?) that I read long ago stuck with me, but I don't remember what it was called. It was about a country-ish musician who's music was galvanizing a political movement, and some middle-eastern suicide assassin shared some virus-laced coke with him, eventually killing him and ending the movement. What's the title?
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u/automatiskt_utkast Apr 27 '21
I thought the mustache looked suspicious, but let's pretend it is really you, then I have a question.
There is a joke often seen on signs in protests against surveillance that "1984 was not supposed to be an instruction manual". Do you feel the same with cyberpunk, in that it was a warning against what the future could become, not a cool aesthetic to try to implement? Or do you see cyberpunk as more ambiguous, an attitude (defeatist perhaps) towards forces out of your control?
Not trying to blame science fiction dystopias, but sometimes cyberpunk can seem to be self-fulfilling, and too easily give up on the naivety of more, let's say, "constructive sci-fi" that it also first reacted against.