Cyberpunk Week

I've realized I accidentally skipped over the cyberpunk section so I'm backtracking a bit-bare with me.

This week I read "Fragments of a Hologram Rose" by William Gibson. I think it's a really wonderful sci-fi piece that says a lot about VR. I think VR is cool, however I don't think it's going to be as big as people think it will be. Gibson plays on that-coining what we call VR as ASP-by saying old ASP facilities are now supermarkets, and how you may be able to find an ASP console sitting on a shelf in a second hand shop. It's the same sentiment I have to something like the SNES, which is interesting to see with such advanced technology. 

Gibson writes that people in this world sort of go back to their old ways, which is what I think will happen with VR. It's something cool, and it's a great technological marvel, but it won't make other ways of playing games obsolete.

I really liked the transition from third person to second person point of view. I didn't get it at first, but then I realized I was reading a transcription of an ASP tape. So it was second person told in third person POV technically. ASP kind of reminded me of a VR version of ASMR videos (autonomous sensory median response), where people whisper and make very quiet sounds using various objects to give listeners certain sensations. There's definitely some weird science in there that technology has yet to capitalize on.

I personally didn't like the protagonist too much in this story. I think Gibson writes a very convincing world, but not a convincing main character. I didn't feel for him at all; there didn't seem to be a sense of agency with this character. He just does things and he even mentions that. He says he doesn't know why he does the things he does, and I'm not keen on those types of characters. Sure, there are plenty of people like that out there, but they're not people I like to be around.

Cyberpunk is a hard genre to write compelling characters in because I think authors can get so lost in building a convincing world, that they forget their characters need just as much work. I have yet to read Neuromancer by Gibson, but I really want to, to see if it can have an intriguing cast of characters in a cyberpunk world. In all honesty the only times I've liked cyberpunk is when it's in anime. Ghost in the Shell, Cowboy Bebop, Neon Genesis Evangelion; they all are intense sci-fi worlds that have fleshed out-and distinct-characters. Maybe it's because most of my exposure to cyberpunk is through anime, so I'm excited to be exposed to other cultures' views of cyberpunk.