neonresolutions

“I knew that cyberspace was exciting, but none of the people I knew who were actually involved in the nascent digital industry were exciting. I wondered what it would be like if they were exciting, stylish, and sexy. I found the answer not so much in punk rock as in Bruce Springsteen, in particular Darkness on the Edge of Town, which was the album Springsteen wrote as a response to punk- a very noir, very American, very literary album. And I thought, What if the protagonist of Darkness on the Edge of Town was a computer hacker? What if he’s still got Springsteen’s character’s emotionality and utterly beat-down hopelessness, this very American hopelessness? And what if the mechanic, who’s out there with him, lost in this empty nightmare of America, is actually, like, a robot or a brain in a bottle that nevertheless has the same manifest emotionality?”

William Gibson on the musical inspirations behind the birth of cyberpunk in his Paris Review interview, 2011.

With the digital arrival of both The Paris Review and mono.kultur, it’s been a good week for reading on the iPad. The ECM issue of mono.kultur is especially recommended, as it’s free and has Arvo Pärt speaking both German and Italian.