Neuromancing the stone …

Sorry, I couldn’t resist the movie title pun, there.

But I’ve been meaning to mention William Gibson’s famed 1984 novel;  the fact that tonight, I’ve found that the IMDb entry for it lists it as being in development, and expected to hit the screen in 2011.

Just in time for Brentwood’s new cinema, if it does …

I’m interested.

Definitely interested.

I’m no literary critic; - you can tell, can’t you?

So bear that in mind, while I write …

I read this one – with this very cover, in fact – in the late 1980’s, and found its mix of near future setting, industrial espionage plot and very street characters to be a fascinating combination;  one that read much like an old fashioned detective novel, tangled with the grease-covered look and feel of “Alien” or “Bladerunner”.

I came away from that first reading impressed.   As much by the characters, the iconic Molly, and the seriously seedy Finn, as much as anything else.   I wasn’t too sure I’d completely understood the ending as thoroughly as I could.   So read it again, at least three or four times, to make sure I could explain it as thoroughly as I feel I – possibly – may now be able to.

But I’ll try not to give away too much of that ending, I think I should leave you to read it, and let me know what you think.

Possibly before commenting on a movie version.

It’s fairly simple.

“Neuromancer” follows the life of Henry Dorset Case, over the course – I think – an approximately two month period.   Case is a cybernetically enhanced former hacker, who, as a result of trying to double-cross some gangsters he’d worked for, has been tortured and damaged to prevent him reconnecting with anything on what we now call the internet, but what Gibson called cyberspace.

Nice for an author, to be able to coin a word or phrase, isn’t it*?

And, as a result of this, and living a semi-homeless, criminal lifestyle in Japan, gets an … offer.

Of being healed, and able to reconnect to the Matrix he was so addicted to.   So long as he does a few jobs, for his new employer.

I use the words ‘Matrix’ and ‘addicted’, advisedly, here.   From what William Gibson writes of Case, he has certainly got a few bad habits – to the point that the offer he rapidly accepts includes a new liver and pancreas – that Mr Case only gets told about, once they’re in place – and reacts to being able to hook up to the Net in what, to me, seems a familiar way.   And, while I can find no references, I also believe that on top of the various philosophical works that the makers of “The Matrix” movie franchise had, “Neuromancer” could well have been an influencing factor.   If for no other reason than the hiring of Keanu Reeves.

Back to the plot, though, the jobs Case is – is, or are?  I can never work out – is to co-ordinate raids stealing a very important piece of kit and the kidnapping of one the personnel for the final job.

The hacking of a very powerful Artificial Intelligence …

Which is where I’ll the plot summary, I think, I’d rather not spoil things too much …

But Gibson’s book is seen as very important.   Certainly in literary terms, it’s one of the most talked about pieces of science-fiction around … quite probably on a par with “2001: A Space Oddyssey”, “Star Wars”, or “Bladerunner”º, in terms of recognition factor.   And one that also introduced the term ‘cyberspace’ as a synonym for ‘net’ or ‘internet’, well before “The Matrix” did the same for the word ‘matrix’.

Which is why I’m interested in seeing what happens with any projected film version of it.   William Gibson admitted in one or two earlyish interviews, that the grimy feel of “Alien”; – indeed wrote one of the many early draft versions of the script for “Alien 3”.

Speaking personally I feel the movie version of “Johnny Mnemonic” didn’t do the original Gibson penned short story much justice.

So, hopefully, I believe this is a chance to do a better effort.

I’m not holding out much hope, though.

But …

Well, here’s hoping any projected film of “Neuromancer” bears as good a resemblance as possible to its source material.

There’ll be a lot of disappointed fans out there, if it doesn’t.

* I know of at least one TV writer that’s done something similar.   After all, we all speak of politician’s, traffic wardens – anyone a touch too authoritarian for our liking – as being Dalek-like, in the sense of being Nazi-like.   Thank you, Terry Nation.

º Which was the name of the film, obviously; the original novel was, of course, Philip K. Dick’s “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep”