[Via Boing Boing] I must confess the idea of listening to some music tracks to get myself in the mood for reading a particular book has never occurred to me. But it has occurred to William Gibson. Here’s his playlist for Spook Country. I must say the dude’s got good taste. Excellent to see Lucinda Williams and Neko Case make an appearance.
6 Responses to “William Gibson’s soundtrack for Spook Country”
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Fox Confessor Brings the Flood really was an amazing album. I hope a new one comes out soon as well as another Australian tour by Neko.
Interesting to note the gradual steady evolution of Gibson’s oeuvre.
Over the past eight novels, he’s been winding back from the future to now while his prose style and narratives have been getting more zen. With his last couple of novels (and with one more in the same vein it’ll become the Bigend trilogy, joining the Sprawl and Bridge trilogies*) he really has emerged as Raymond Chandler’s true heir. A master of compressed detail, effortlessly rendered, about time and place that drives the narrative as much as the characters’ actions.
Somewhere out there on the interyoutubes, which I can’t be arsed googling now, is some wonderful footage of William Gibson, Bruce Sterling and Neal Stephenson on stage together getting completely absorbed in a discussion between the three of them. The only person missing was James Tiptree Jr (Alice Sheldon)- who they all namechecked as a key influence.
*Another brilliant Canadian writer with a keen eye for how social-demographic minutia can be artfully accumulated to gear up a sweeping narrative, Robertson Davies, was also fond of the trilogy format.
Just picked up the Lucinda Williams and Dock Boggs on itunes. Not my usual fare, but I’m liking it plenty even so.
For a good example of what I’m talking about with the Tiptree connection, just read her “The Girl Who Was Plugged In” back to back with Gibson’s “The Winter Market”.
Or compare and contrast her sharp eye for the commercial, political and bureaucratic imperatives of dealing with aliens with Sterling’s Shaper/Mechanic cosmos.
She was in her own weird way one of the seminal mothers of the cyberpunk (”the street finds its own uses for technology”) ethos that Bill, Bruce, Neal et al picked up and ran with nearly two decades later. And they know it.
The last Neko gig I attended in Brissie was seriously sublime:
http://larvatusprodeo.net/2007/01/29/neko-case-live-at-the-troubadour-280107/
Rats, i finished SC on Sat, nice list o songs, thanks Kim. It is not really a soundtrack as such, but i read Neal Stphenson’s System of the world trilogy while i was getting into Nick Cave’s Lyre of Orpheus and Abattoir Blues, some of the tracks on those albums have the feel of Dissenter and Ranter hymns so they matched well.
Thanks for the Tiptree reccomendation Nabakov, i’ll keep an eye out next time i’m in Sybers’.
ciao