{"id":1768,"date":"2011-02-07T05:09:00","date_gmt":"2011-02-07T05:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2018\/11\/29\/480-revision-v1\/"},"modified":"2019-07-10T12:31:32","modified_gmt":"2019-07-10T12:31:32","slug":"zero-history-br-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2011\/02\/07\/zero-history-br-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Zero History (BR)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gibson and hipster consumerism in\u00a0Zero History<\/em><\/h3>\n

Successful\u00a0as he’s been,\u00a0William Gibson\u00a0has always been something of a\u00a0misfit. Gibson is best known for his first novel and\u00a0cyberpunk\u00a0classic\u00a0Neuromancer<\/em>. But the extent to which Gibson is a cyberpunk author is debatable. Sometimes it feels like the intersection between Gibson and cyberpunk is\u00a0incidental<\/a>. There’s no doubt that Gibson has some sort of interest in a technology-obsessed culture, but I’m not sure that his interest overlaps that of his (subject defined) readers.<\/p>\n

Stories like\u00a0Burning Chrome<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Neuromancer<\/em>\u00a0made Gibson’s books something of a\u00a0fetish\u00a0for\u00a0hackers, not least because of the fact that in the stories hackers themselves are portrayed as nerd superheroes. Hence the alignment between anything Gibson writes and the cyberpunk community. However, with that said, it seems like Gibson’s interest is subtly different from those of his peers: Gibson’s interest in technology is its allure and the desire for the new\u00a0because<\/em>\u00a0it’s new. This manifests itself\u00a0initially\u00a0in a delight and longing for custom-built technologies and products, but becomes more obvious with time, and even more so in his most recent writings. As Gibson’s bibliography crosses into the twenty-first century, we get a shift away from the familiar cyberpunk worlds of\u00a0Neuromancer<\/em>\u00a0and into a world that parallels our own. This brings us to the\u00a0Bigend Trilogy<\/em>\u00a0including its finale novel\u00a0Zero History<\/strong>\u00a0published in 2010.<\/p>\n

In a nutshell<\/a>,\u00a0the plot\u00a0of\u00a0Zero History<\/em>\u00a0tells of two freelancers (of sorts) hired to locate a secret uber-cool clothing company for the purpose of using their designs to win a U.S. military uniform contract<\/strong>. There’s a bit more to it than that, but not too much. The rest is either filler or part of the\u00a0third act\u00a0action sequence with its final\u00a0McGuffin\u00a0reveal.<\/p>\n

Zero History<\/em>, like the\u00a0prev<\/a>ious<\/a>\u00a0novels of the trilogy, is obsessed to a disturbing degree with\u00a0the cool<\/em>. I might not remember the protagonist’s (or anyone else’s) physical features, but I can be sure I’ll always know what they’re wearing. A non-trivial amount of prose is dedicated to describing people’s clothes: its colours, materials, eccentric features, and general\u00a0desirability. This focus is epitomized in the plot trajectory in which\u00a0Hollis Henry\u00a0receives her so-cool-anyone-who-sees-it-wets-themselves Gabriel Hounds jacket (hipster+12), the maker of which she’s to find. When did Gibson become a voice for\u00a0hipster consumerism?<\/p>\n

He probably always was[1]<\/sup><\/a>, the only thing that’s changed is that now’s he’s focusing on a familiar\u00a0milieu.<\/p>\n

\n

A few more general comments:\u00a0Zero History<\/em>\u00a0is a deeply flawed novel. The premise is sound and intriguing: the intersection between the fashion of the military, fashion of the street, and the different control implicit in each. That’s not the problem. One problem is the poor plot progression: the novel proceeds as follows: Protagonists go to A (wherein the clothing\/food\/coolness is described) to talk to someone and get information, then they get a call, \u00a0so they go back to the hotel and then later go to B to talk to someone, repeat some of the stuff they’ve already been told, get told some new stuff, and decide who to talk to next. The other problem I’d mention is the characters: they lack obvious willpower or motivation aside from some underlying sense of being capable, (although it’s never quite clear what they’re capable at). I’d recommend\u00a0this<\/a>\u00a0at Amazon, it’s, well it’s funny.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

[1]<\/sup><\/a> Neuromancer<\/em> was special because it made hacking and (the not-yet-existent) internet cool. It described a world in which underground communities and interests based around software and computing could flourish. What’s more, those early cyberpunk novels already displayed Gibson’s obsession with ownership of the cool, think of all the (especially custom-built) hardware that is caressingly described there.<\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gibson and hipster consumerism in\u00a0Zero History Successful\u00a0as he’s been,\u00a0William Gibson\u00a0has always been something of a\u00a0misfit. Gibson is best known for his first novel and\u00a0cyberpunk\u00a0classic\u00a0Neuromancer. But the extent to which Gibson is a cyberpunk author is debatable. Sometimes it feels like the intersection between Gibson and cyberpunk is\u00a0incidental. There’s no doubt that Gibson has some sort […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[159,198,204],"tags":[],"metadata":[158],"class_list":["post-1768","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all-posts","category-book-review","category-everything2","metadata-shai_footnotes"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1688,"url":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2010\/10\/12\/men-and-cartoons-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":1768,"position":0},"title":"Men and Cartoons","author":"Pala","date":"October 12, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"I hadn't intended to review this book -\u00a0Men and Cartoons: Stories by\u00a0Jonathan Lethem\u00a0- but then, like with so many other things,\u00a0I got thinking. This was the first\u00a0thing\u00a0I'd ever read by Lethem - surely there must be something unique about a person's first introduction to an author? Surely there must be\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All Posts"","block_context":{"text":"All Posts","link":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/all-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1772,"url":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2011\/03\/13\/golden-age-superman\/","url_meta":{"origin":1768,"position":1},"title":"Golden Age Superman","author":"Pala","date":"March 13, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Editorial notes: Shai was always fascinated with cartoon characters and, at least as his written coverage is concerned, mostly with Superman. Between March 2011 and December 2014, Shai writes\u00a0nine articles dedicated to this superhero and in November 2014 he starts a blog dedicated to reviewing Superman novels. Superman\u00a0came first, anyone\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All Posts"","block_context":{"text":"All Posts","link":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/all-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1181,"url":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2017\/08\/23\/sisters\/","url_meta":{"origin":1768,"position":2},"title":"Sisters!","author":"Pala","date":"August 23, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"[Fraudulent document? -- Editor] Marcus Garvey\u2019s diaries were amongst the improbable finds at Saddam Hussain's ill-financed palaces. Their contents have always been overshadowed, by the incredible story of their theft and doctoring by the Church of Scientology away from the Catholic Church (who were hiding it from common knowledge). They\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All Posts"","block_context":{"text":"All Posts","link":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/all-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1761,"url":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2011\/01\/29\/revelation-space-universe-br-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":1768,"position":3},"title":"Revelation Space Universe (BR)","author":"Pala","date":"January 29, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"The\u00a0mythology\u00a0and\u00a0history\u00a0shared by many of\u00a0Alastair Reynolds' books has been called the\u00a0Revelation Space Universe\u00a0(RSU). The world gets its name from the first book to feature it, namely\u00a0Revelation Space. RSU and space opera: Reynolds writes\u00a0space opera, which to me means stories that contrast the heroic\u00a0individuality\u00a0of the protagonist against the enormity of space. That\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All Posts"","block_context":{"text":"All Posts","link":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/all-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1729,"url":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2010\/11\/29\/the-algebraist-br-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":1768,"position":4},"title":"The Algebraist (BR)","author":"Pala","date":"November 29, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"The Algebraist\u00a0is a science fiction novel set in the unfathomably far future and is penned by the established author\u00a0Iain M. Banks. The plot concerns a star system being attacked by some force, (I would have written \"alien force\" but by this stage in the universe's history to define something as\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All Posts"","block_context":{"text":"All Posts","link":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/all-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1689,"url":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2010\/09\/30\/the-story-of-thales-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":1768,"position":5},"title":"The story of Thales","author":"Pala","date":"September 30, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Editorial notes: In September 2010, Shai begins the first phase of his intellectual journey with an\u00a0essay\u00a0dedicated to the Greek mathematician, astronomer and pre-Socratic philosopher, Thales of Miletus. This the first of\u00a080 essays, written between September 2010 and July 2015, dedicated to analysing the thoughts and writings of the great ancient\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All Posts"","block_context":{"text":"All Posts","link":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/all-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/padotI-sw","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1768","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1768"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1768\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1768"},{"taxonomy":"metadata","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/metadata?post=1768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}