Ottawa X-Press cover, Sept. 22, 1993
(colour shot of Gibson leaning over a combination ad/bike rack, headline:
"William Gibson's reality". The ad is blacked out, and the following
Virtual Light quote inserted over top:
There was a product called Kil'Z that Rydell had gotten too know at
the Academy. It smelled, but faintly, of some ancient hair-tonic,
flowery and cool, and you used it in situations where considerably
bodily fluids had been spilled. It was an anti-viral agent, capable
of nuking HIV's 1 through 5, Crimean Congo, Mokola fever, Tarzana
Dengue, and the Kansas city flu. He smelled it now, as the
IntenSecure man used a black anodyzed passkey to open the door into
1015.)
by Mark Shepherd
William Gibson is staring at a black sculpture on the ground
level of the World Exchange Plaza, a extremely upscale shopping
site in the heart of downtown Ottawa. Not only is Rinaldo, Mila
Mulroney's hairdresser here, so too are bike couriers, as the
Plaza often serves as an informal hangout, if not backdrop.
It's a particularly interesting piece: narrow see-through tubes
moulded into the sculpture hold souvenirs of Hong Kong, and
printed circuit boards are pasted onto the edges of it.
"This is very cool, great, very Gibsonian," he intones, as he
gazes intensely at his surroundings. Earlier in the afternoon Gibson
was entertaining fans down at the House of Speculative Fiction on
Fourth Avenue in the Glebe, a moderately affluent section which
juts across Bank Street.
About seventy fans, mostly university students in leather jackets
and jeans, showed up for autographed copies of Gibson's latest
novel, _Virtual Light_. A man from the Tea Room next door to the
small book store vainly tries to give away samples of "Arctic
Fire" tea and is promptly ignored. A CBC camera crew hovers at
the bottom of the stairs, asking emerging fans what cyberpunk is.
William Gibson is widely considered to be the father of
"cyberpunk", dark novels about hi-tech computer bohemians and
underground renegades. His first novel, _Neuromancer_, bears the
singular distinction of winning the Hugo, Nebula, and Philip K.
Dick awards, a veritable "grand slam" of SF honours. _Virtual
Light_ is his first published work in nearly three years.
Gibson and I sit down at a cappuccino bar and chat briefly
over coffee. Gibson orders a latte, and I have the same.
