Q&A: William Gibson Discusses Spook Country and Interactive Fiction

[Ian David]

Like Pattern Recognition before it, William Gibson's eighth novel, Spook Country, feels like dictation from the zeitgeist. Its "illegal facilitators," nonexistent magazines, terrorists, pirates, junkies, mad art dealers, and WMD are all woven together into something more unsettling and blackly comic than anything he's done before. Gibson and I started talking in '04, shortly before meeting in person while I was in Vancouver working on a doomed TV pilot based on my comic book series Global Frequency. At the time, he disclosed that near-future events would determine whether Spook Country would be comedy or horror. We've stayed in touch electronically ever since, and when wired asked me to talk to him about the book, set for release in August, we picked up right where we left off.

Wired: So, comedy or horror?

Gibson: I think it turned out to be satirical, which is what comedy best aspires to in tragic times. I can't make a narrative up beforehand, can't write before I start typing, so I literally don't decide what a story is or where it goes.

Wired:I was surprised to see Hubertus Bigend from Pattern show up. It made me wonder if that novel and Spook are consciously building to form your third trilogy.

Gibson: You know, I've never wanted to write a trilogy. I tacked that "He never saw Molly again" on the end of Neuromancer to indicate no sequel was to be expected. The fact that I've done it twice now ... Well, it seems to be one result of my "method." I wasn't suspecting H.B. either, for the longest time, but then it became apparent that Node, the shadowy magazine startup, was way Bigendian.

More:
http://www.wired.com/culture/culturereviews/magazine/15-08/pl_print