How to Read Neuromancer and Snow Crash | Cyberpunk Week | Episode Three

Some tips for a more enjoyable reading experience with Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash and William Gibson's Neuromancer. These are two great cyberpunk novels.
#cyberpunk
#scifi
#sciencefiction
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[@davidsimpson8858]

That's my art behind him when he's talking about Nueromancer.

[@FIT2BREAD]

David, is there a social media handle I can link for you in the video description to credit you for the work?

[@breezyannreads]

I've had both of these paperbacks (unread!) on my shelf since I was a teenager. Perfect video to pique my interest again!

[@FIT2BREAD]

Oh great. I think the glossary really helps for enjoying Neuromancer. Snow Crash is good to go in blind or with the little background on Enki

[@Wabin22]

Haha I'm glad I'm not the only one who had to put down the book and google stuff every three sentence or so! 😅 It was confusing as hell, especially as english isn't my native language, but once you understood and got everyhing that was going on.. holy shit was this an amazing experience!

[@michaelc8246]

@TheShadesofOrange recommended your channel and I like it so far! Thanks for the video!

[@FIT2BREAD]

Thanks Michael. I appreciate it

[@jackreillygillic]

Two pillars of the genre. Great breakdown.

[@FIT2BREAD]

Thanks. I think a lot of people put Neuromancer down prematurely...so maybe this will help

[@fiberartsyreads]

This was great! So helpful for when I dive into these some time.

[@FIT2BREAD]

Thanks Crystal. It's fine to go into them blind, but I think really knowing this minimal info will make the read more enjoyable

[@fiberartsyreads]

@@FIT2BREAD I agree, especially for something like this that is a bit more complex.

[@joeyven0m]

Yes, I love this video! I wish this had existed when I first read the book in high school back in 2001 lol. As you know, these are some of my favorite books!

[@FIT2BREAD]

Joey thanks for stopping by...I made this video, because I also wish it had existed be for I read each of these the first time. Snow Crash was cool regardless, but it def slammed on the breaks with all of the Babel/Enki muck.

[@joeyven0m]

@@FIT2BREAD agreed about Snow crash's pudgy middle lol. I'm working on a novel now. Once it's gone through editing, perhaps I can get an early copy to you for review? It won't be an amateur / fan fiction affair, it will be a legit novel. I just had two short stories published, if you're interested in checking them out I can send you a link to the digital copy of the Literary Journal. Does your channel have a "channel email?" Cheers man, I'm really enjoying the whole cyberpunk series you've been putting out!

[@DamienPochon]

Nice video! I'll certainly look into the sites you mentioned as well as your other videos. Maybe a quick comment on the definition of cyberspace: Gibson actually coined the very definition we use. It's more than a representation of the network, it's a representation of the content. In his own words: "a consensual hallucination experienced daily by billions of legitimate operators, in every nation, by children being taught mathematical concepts... A graphical representation of data abstracted from the banks of every computer in the human system. Unthinkable complexity. Lines of light ranged in the non-space of the mind, clusters and constellations of data"

[@FIT2BREAD]

Thanks Damien. I did a couple videos on origins of cyberpunk too. I def appreciate your input on it too kzbin.info/www/bejne/bJSQZmCjm7yZj7s

[@3choblast3r4]

Snow crash has been next on my list for 8 books now .. Every time I get distracted by some other book or series. I'm also kinda savoring it ... there isn't a lot of cyberpunk out there,

[@FIT2BREAD]

This is one if the best. What do you like about cyberpunk?

[@3choblast3r4]

@@FIT2BREAD I mean everything, everyone seems to be defining it a little different. But to me Cyberpunk is neuromancer/sprawl, blade runner, strange days .. it's a set of sci fi concepts and ideas brought together in a corporate owned dystopia wrapped in a neon kitsch leather jacket. But I think the aesthetics are what truly make cyberpunk cyberpunk it's kind what ties it all together. Whether modern cyberpunk like Altered Carbon, the new blade runner or stuff like Neuromancer. I also like that the protagonists and heroes are often just random dudes, usually lowlifes.

[@FIT2BREAD]

@3choBlast3r did u see I did a whole week..5 days in a row of cyberpunk episodes? Among those, there's tons of books mentione...maybe some recs in there for u

[@3choblast3r4]

@@FIT2BREAD I'll make sure to check it out!

[@GehackteHorbucher]

Hello Michael. I have a question; Are the other Gibson books as difficult and hard to follow as Neuromancer?

[@FIT2BREAD]

No, some present a challenge and others have an easier flow. You might like virtual light...much different than Neuromancer. It's a bit humorous and has a bit of a look at societal and political issues

[@TheJellicle1]

Neuromancer sounds like a lot of work 😅 but I will try to get to it eventually. I did fall down a google rabbit hole with SnowCrash too but it was fascinating.

[@FIT2BREAD]

Yeah, the Enki stuff slowed me down and it never really clicked well for me, but I still enjoyed everything else about the book

[@dungeonlink4205]

So far the terminology in neuromancer doesn’t seem hard to get since all the words are constantly used in cyberpunk 2077 I’m new to the genre but I pretty much understand from playing the game so long thanks for the video.

[@FIT2BREAD]

Oh nice. Maybe that's a good tip for others

[@3choblast3r4]

It really saddens me that so many people try to read neuromancer and then quickly give up. Or even worse, they don't get it, they don't even bother to try to get it and then push through reading it while they are completely lost only getting more lost. Then they complain the book makes no sense. One girl literally claims on goodreads that she didn't know when Case was in cyberspace and when not .. when that is very, very clearly indicated. Now I'm not saying it's easy to read Neuromancer, but it's not nearly as difficult as people make it out to be. Here are my personal tips 1. Have a decent glossary at hand, even if you are very familiar with cyberpunk terminology. This book doesn't hold your hand, a lot of the terminology was invented or popularized by Gibson in this book. E.g. A microsoft in the sprawl world is a chip that you stick into a socket behind your ear. Not the OS software we know. Gradually the book teaches you many of these terms but it's a lot easier when you know what he is talking about because often it won't be clear from the context immediately. 2. The prose is super neon purple, it's like it's written by someone buzzing on amphetamines and a light dose of lsd. But I don't think Gibson used much drugs back then if at all. (that said, his description of some drugs is incredibly accurate). But this neon flowery prose, the weird terminology and all the new concepts and ideas. For example, there are multiple words for cyberdecks, from brand names to versions, to slang etc. This all is already hard for most people. But on top of that the structure can be very confusing esp if you're not a native speaker (I'm not), E.g in a good example is the beginning of one of Gibson's short stories. *When Hiro hit the switch, I was dreaming of Paris, dreaming of wet, dark streets in winter. The pain came oscillating up from the floor of my skull, exploding behind my eyes in wall of blue neon; I jackknifed up out of the mesh hammock, screaming. I always scream; I make a point of it. Feedback raged in my skull. The pain switch is an auxiliary circuit in the bonephone implant, patched directly into the pain centers, just the thing for cutting through a surrogate’s barbiturate fog. It took a few seconds for my life to fall together, icebergs of biography looming through the fog: who I was, where I was, what I was doing there, who was waking me.* *Hiro’s voice came crackling into my head through the bone-conduction implant. “Damn, Toby. Know what it does to my ears, you scream like that?”* When you read the first sentence it's easy to mistakenly think that Hiro hit a switch and the narrator started dreaming of Paris (that's what happened to me). Then the next few sentences might make you think something went horribly wrong and woke the narrator up. Then it gets confusing because it makes no sense with what you thought you were reading, but there is a pain switch that's part of a an implant called a "bonephone", just the thing for cutting through a surrogate's (you later find out it's the protagonists job) barbiturate (a drug) fog. Many people likely didn't understand that part the first time they read it. Then at the final sentences it becomes slightly more obvious what is happening. The narrator was already dreaming when Hiro hit the switch that caused the narrator pain through his bonephone and woke him up out of his drug induced sleep. At first this can be super strange because this is how a lot of GIbson reads esp when you just start out a story, there is zero hand holding. But honestly it's part of the fun. And once you kinda crack the code, get the words, get the world, figure out who's who it really isn't that hard or confusing to read. But you will likely have to reread a few paragraphs at times, because no matter what at times you're gonna think "wait what?" So yeah, again.. use a glossary, look up the terms online for the sprawl universe. Because that will make it a lot easier. Like how the fk are you supposed to know that barbiturate is a drug. Or the names for cyberdecks (I wrote the part before you coincidentally also used that as an example). Definitely just take a few second to google a new term, create a glossary or have a glossary at had on your phone etc. currently I'm reading the book of the new sun. And while I'm reading the book I also have the lexicon urthus on my phone so I can look up words. it's also always smart to just keep track of characters. In my experience that's easiest while reading from an ereader because you can quickly highlight any character descriptions etc you get and add annotations to it if you want. Although nothing beats reading a nice full sized hardcover for me, I do think the most convenient way to read is on an ereader, it would be super cool in the future we could have integration of glossaries into ereaders. They can already easily do this but very few publishers care. Like my copy of the meditations of marcus aurelius has a lot of terms etc that you can click on and it will open up a small window explaining who that person is in history, or what the significance of something is etc. Wouldn't be cool if you were reading Gibson for the first time and read "It was a sprawl joke in a sprawl voice" and you could click sprawl and got a nice spoiler free definition for the term. anyway I'm ranting.. man I love neuromancer and want more people to love it as passionately...

[@3choblast3r4]

I went from I'm gonna give tips to I'm just being high and ranting online

[@FIT2BREAD]

Great comment. I get you. I don't know why it's important that others love Neuromancer like I do, but I hate thinking that it's genius was missed by anyone.

[@FIT2BREAD]

Yeah..that too...ha!!!

[@laggyluke5700]

Snow Crash was one of my biggest disappointments. For me, this is Stephenson's worst novel. As for Neuromancer, it's weird, not so easy to read, but satisfying. Both sequels, Count Zero and Mona Lisa Overdrive are worth reading too.

[@FIT2BREAD]

Sorry snow crash didn't work for you. Also a fan of MLO and CountZ