A Conversation Between William Gibson and Bruce Sterling

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A conversation between William Gibson and Bruce Sterling FAD Magazine 1992 Bruce Sterling : Bruce Bepkie, who wrote a short story called "Cyberpunk" coined the term; he's a moderately known science fiction writer. But the use of Cyberpunk as a literary critical term started by a guy called Gardner Dozois, the editor is Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine now. He's also a well-known critic. He wrote an article in the Washington Post about Cyberpunk which mentioned my name and Gibson, John Shirley, Rudy Rucker, some of our crowd; - that stuck. This was around 1983 or so. William Gibson : He was aiming to do that as early as 1981, cuz that's when I met you. Bruce Sterling : We've had lots of names. Ever since we started people have been giving us one kind of title or another. I had a list of like a dozen once; Radical Hard SF, Techno Punk, 80's Wave, Outlaw Technologists... William Gibson : They've used them all up, so now people in England are starting to come up with new names. They have like Techno Goths, Techno Goth fiction. FAD magazine : How would you define Cyberpunk ? Bruce Sterling : I always thought it was the realm where the computer Hacker and the Rocker overlap. High Tech having its impact on Bohemia. FAD magazine : Sort of like sex, drugs and Rock and Roll with computers ? Bruce Sterling : More or less. Bohemia is an old thing, and Science Fiction is an old thing, and every once in awhile they just overlap. They're both products of industrial society, it's a very natural thing it's not very far- fetched it's very functional. It's hard to say whether we invented these people or these people invented us. You want to look at what Cyberpunk has become, read Mondo 2000. It's just as demented and just as strange. But it's very much a happening scene, it actually gives people something they really need. FAD magazine (to Gibson) : And how would you define it ? William Gibson (long pause) : I can't (laughs). Somebody once asked Jimmy Page what he thought of Heavy Metal, and he said, I didn't call it that when I invented it. FAD magazine : What did you call it ? William Gibson : I didn't call it anything..

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