Reply With QuoteGreat read, thank you.
"Watches tell time, in complete isolation: what they were invented to do. Their heroism, as it were. Smartwatches aren't watches, but nodes." (William Gibson on Twitter)
Mr Gibson with his Benrus Type II (Beams) homage
"The real pursuit is in the learning curve. The dive into esoterica. The quest for expertise."
"...military-issue watches, particularly those the military had designed and commissioned. Such watches are interestingly disconnected from fashion, marketing, appeals to status, or even, in our ordinary sense, “design”."
"Mechanical timekeeping devices were among our first complex machines, and became our first ubiquitous complex machines, and the first to be miniaturized. Mechanical wristwatches were utterly commonplace for less than a century. Today, there’s no specific need for a mechanical watch, unless you’re worried about timekeeping in the wake of an Electromagnetic Pulse attack. So we have heritage devices, increasingly archaic in the singularity of their function, their lack of connectivity. But it was exactly that lack that once made them heroic: they kept telling accurate time, regardless of what was going on around them. They were accurate because they were unconnected, unitary."
Following his seminal 1997 “My Obsession” Wired article, William Gibson 18 years later, updates his viewpoint on watches.
William Gibson on Watches (July 16, 2015)
http://www.watchpaper.com/2015/07/16...on-on-watches/
Last edited by abraxas; 27th February 2019 at 12:44.
Great read, thank you.
I now need an Omega 53
I love William Gibson's novels, and he sounds a pretty cool guy. Did he get that outfit from jimp?
There’s quite a nice looking 53 for sale on MWR - Fat Arrow though.Originally Posted by Onelasttime
I now need an Omega 53
I love William Gibson's novels, and he sounds a pretty cool guy. Did he get that outfit from jimp?
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An interesting read, ta.
F.T.F.A.
A great perspective on not hoarding the not necessary, culling , function over form and grails.
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Excellent - many thanks for posting this.
He was a big Pebble fan, from original Kickstarter campaign.
I enjoyed that, thanks for posting
Very interesting concepts - I’ve not read his work but remember he was always being referenced/quoted when I was studying
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His novel "All tomorrow's parties" is full of horological references. I recommend it.
I re-read Neuromancer a year or two back, and it absolutely holds up after all this time. I expected it to feel very outdated but if anything it's only clearer now just how visionary it was. Perhaps the AI aspects of it stand out more than the internet and VR in our current context. Well worth revisiting and a genuine classic that's outlived its pop-cultural moment. Not surprisingly he was onto watches pretty early too.
Haven't read that in a few years now, time for a re-read I think.
Dave E
Skating away on the thin ice of a new day
I've been trying to read "The Peripheral" (his last one) for a few years now but it is hard going. I got to half-way through and had no idea what was going on.
The "Blue Ant" trilogy is the best: Pattern Recognition (2003), Spook Country (2007) and Zero History (2010)
In one of his books there was a ninja assassin guy who's one prized possession was a military Jaeger LeCoultre. I cant remember which of his books it was but I'm sure it influenced me to have at one time 3 military jlc's. I still have one.
Thanks. Quite interesting👍
That is "All tomorrow's parties".
I rather enjoyed it, but it was hard work keeping track of what was going on!
I'd agree. I've (re-)read the 'Bridge' trilogy more recently, but I haven't re-read those probably since Zero History came out. I was hunting for my copy of ATP last night, and realising I could remember quite a lot of the trilogy. I sort of took a sideways step and started trying to find my 'Blue Ant' books instead to re-read. I think I know where they are, but I need to wait until the weekend to dig them out.
(He has a new book coming out at the end of the year, I believe.)
Dave E
Skating away on the thin ice of a new day
Oh brilliant, thank you.
Time for a re-read, I have it on a shelf somewhere.
This year and over two holidays I have managed to finish The Peripheral. Absolutely f*cking wow!
It took me 40 chapters* before I got any idea about what was going on. (The book is 124 chapters.) Anyway, when I finished it I went back and re-read the first 40 chapters. And it all made sense. Probably his best book ever. The dialogues are excellent. It is not a book you can only read once. Only Gibson could get away with such a trick.
Minimal wristwatch content. The baddy had a huge gold pilots and the policeman had his grandfather's old single-function three-hander.
"Agency" the followup book will be coming out January 21, 2020. It will be a 'sequel and a prequel' to "The Peripheral".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agency_(novel)
One advantage of taking so long to finish it means I don't have to wait too long for the sequel.
Did you see that stuff in the acknowledgements about the City of London guilds, the Remembrancer**, and Nick Harkaway...?
https://www.theguardian.com/books/20...omon-interview
https://twitter.com/greatdismal/stat...11577656659968
* Some got it at 20 chapters and some gave up completely. (I found this link after finished the book.)
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show...-february-2015
** Who is the Remembrancer?
https://fromtone.com/who-is-the-the-remembrancer/
Those are some interesting links! I feel I need to read something by Nick Harkaway now, apart from anything else. I'm looking forward to The Agency, think I need to re-read The Peripheral first...
Dave E
Skating away on the thin ice of a new day
I bought Harkaway's Gnomon (it was only £1 on Amazon) but I haven't started it yet.
Angelmaker looks good as the protagonist is a clockmaker... but Gnomon looks more interesting. You do know he is John le Carré's son...
He also wrote an unproduced screenplay for the third Alien movie that would have been way better than what we ended up with.
Yes, and I'm a big fan of Le Carre.
Dave E
Skating away on the thin ice of a new day
Amazon is adapting William Gibson’s The Peripheral into a TV series
https://www.theverge.com/2018/4/17/1...l-novel-series
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pe...ion_adaptation
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8291284/
Having read them both, I absolutely assure you that you will prefer Angelmaker. Indeed I'd strongly recommend you read it first as Gnomon becomes a bit of a job of work around half way through and remembering the brilliance of Angelmaker will keep you going - Angelmaker is, currently, my favourite book by a country mile.
Insightful, good read. Thanks for sharing
"Watches tell time, in complete isolation: what they were invented to do. Their heroism, as it were. Smartwatches aren't watches, but nodes." (William Gibson on Twitter)
Mr Gibson with his Benrus Type II (Beams) homage
"The real pursuit is in the learning curve. The dive into esoterica. The quest for expertise."
"...military-issue watches, particularly those the military had designed and commissioned. Such watches are interestingly disconnected from fashion, marketing, appeals to status, or even, in our ordinary sense, “design”."
"Mechanical timekeeping devices were among our first complex machines, and became our first ubiquitous complex machines, and the first to be miniaturized. Mechanical wristwatches were utterly commonplace for less than a century. Today, there’s no specific need for a mechanical watch, unless you’re worried about timekeeping in the wake of an Electromagnetic Pulse attack. So we have heritage devices, increasingly archaic in the singularity of their function, their lack of connectivity. But it was exactly that lack that once made them heroic: they kept telling accurate time, regardless of what was going on around them. They were accurate because they were unconnected, unitary."
Following his seminal 1997 “My Obsession” Wired article, William Gibson 18 years later, updates his viewpoint on watches.
William Gibson on Watches (July 16, 2015)
http://www.watchpaper.com/2015/07/16...on-on-watches/
I will do. Thanks. Sounds exciting.
I saw that, I'll wait and see how it turns out.
Thank you, I'll get hold of a copy of Angelmaker.
Dave E
Skating away on the thin ice of a new day
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