The Gernsback Continuum
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| Author | William Gibson |
|---|---|
| Country | Canada |
| Language | English |
| Series | Burning Chrome |
| Genre(s) | science fiction, cyberpunk |
| Released | |
| Preceded by | Johnny Mnemonic |
| Followed by | Fragments of a Hologram Rose |
The Gernsback Continuum is a short story by William Gibson, collected as part of his Burning Chrome anthology, about a photographer who has been given the assignment of photographing old, futuristic architecture. This architecture, although largely forgotten at the time of the story, embodied for the generation that built it their concept of the future.
During his assignment, the photographer, Parker, begins to come into contact with the "continuum," an alternate reality containing the possible future of the world represented by the architecture he is photographing – a future that could have been, but did not, thereby contrasting modernist optimism and postmodern loneliness. The 'Gernsback' of the title alludes to Hugo Gernsback, a pulp science fiction writer and publisher during the early 20th century. By using this title Gibson contrasts the future envisaged during Gernsback's style of science fiction and the present, cyberpunk era that Gibson was establishing.
[edit] External links
- Complete text of The Gernsback Continuum from AmericanHeritage.com
Novels: The Sprawl Trilogy: Neuromancer, Count Zero, Mona Lisa Overdrive • The Difference Engine (with Bruce Sterling) • The Bridge Trilogy: Virtual Light, Idoru, All Tomorrow's Parties • Pattern Recognition • Spook Country
Short stories Johnny Mnemonic • The Gernsback Continuum • Fragments of a Hologram Rose • The Belonging Kind • Hinterlands • Red Star, Winter Orbit • New Rose Hotel • The Winter Market • Dogfight • Burning Chrome • Skinner's Room
Film adaptations: Johnny Mnemonic • New Rose Hotel • Pattern Recognition
Miscellanea: Agrippa (A Book of the Dead) • No Maps for These Territories • X-Files episodes
