RWP

READING: mona lisa overdrive by william gibson. i finished count zero a few days ago, and jacked (ha) right into this one. it's the third and final novel in gibson's sprawl trilogy (the first is neuromancer and the second is count zero). i'm really liking mona lisa overdrive, because it conveys a dark tone and follows a complex narrative line, more in the spirit of neuromancer. count zero, by contrast, seems more thinly plotted to me, not nearly as interesting. i've read neuromancer probably 5 or 6 times. i wrote about it in my exams (i focused on the dixie flatline, who completely fascinates me), and have taught it twice--my students usually like it, but they laugh about case trying to fence memory chips, particularly such small capacity ones. one of the things i love about futuristic sci-fi is how firmly a text is rooted in its context of production (i.e. the time and place of its writing), and how that context shows up in the kind of future it imagines, the limits to what it can imagine. in short, it would have been nearly impossible for gibson to envision the compact and efficient memory technologies we currently enjoy--memory sticks, enormous (in terms of capacity, i mean) hard drives, i-pods, etc. (estrangement and cognition, or the cognition effect...from darko suvin and carl freedman...) next i'll be diving (ahem) into the bridge trilogy, which consists of virtual light, idoru, and all tomorrow's parties. i'm very curious about that last one; it's named for a velvet underground song, so i'm wondering if there's an explicit connection or not. when i'm done with these novels, i think i'll go back to burning chrome: i have taught the title story and "johnny mnemonic" (the story, not the flick) before, but haven't read any others in the collection. and then, if i'm still feeling the gibson kick, i might pick up the difference engine, just to see what he and bruce sterling are like as conjoined authors. i've never read sterling...for some reason i just don't find his books attractive.

WEARING: nothing special. from toes to nose: brown suede birkenstock mary janes. no socks. jeans cuffed big. pink panties. funky burnt orange patterned tank top. beige bra. black hoodie. silver ivy ring. plus the usual permanent jewelry. glasses off at the moment.

PLANNING: not quite sure yet. one day this weekend i'm going to help my friend L to lay big slabs of slate in her yard (around the cinder block raised bed she/we built a few weeks ago). then we'll fill in the spaces between slabs with mulch, and plant some creeping thyme (i think that's what she said) seedlings. glaucon and i are planning to watch dune together at some point, not sure when. pride is this weekend, so i might go to that (it's up in the air; the fremont solstice parade crowds last weekend kinda did me in a little--especially combined with some emotional, personal stuff that i was also wading through). i was invited to a t-shirt and panty party saturday night, but i'm not raring to attend that. so...i guess weekend plans are kinda up in the air. in many ways, i prefer it that way. open to whatever comes up.

mona lisa overdrive

just finished mona lisa overdrive. kick ass! not sure about that ending, though...

now i'm off to clean my room.