this post was submitted on 27 Nov 2024
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Why is Neuromancer so hard to get in to? (feddit.org)
submitted 2 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/sciencefiction
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I just started reading Neuromancer, and finished the first two chapters. Can someone encourage me to keep on reading? It’s just so… disorienting. Very quick scene changes, hard to follow dialogues (who is actually talking?), too much jargon (I have read up on some, to get the gist), … I just feel lost, and doubt I will enjoy it at some point.

I like various degrees of scifi, and many people recommended the book (and the ones following it). I also fought through some harder chapters in Trisolaris, Children of Memory, The Expanse books, CS Lewis‘ Space Trilogy, … but Neuromancer is on awholenother level.

Is it just me? Did anyone else have a hard time with it? Does it get better? Is it worth it?

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 2 weeks ago

Too lazy to dig up the source, but I remember that Gibson said something to the effect of emulating the experience of him hanging around a group of hackers irl just listening in, not having background/context, but just allowing meaning to slowly come together as an outsider.

The worlds he built do not spoon feed anything to the observer. Even the characters often have to figure out what just happened after the fact; that's how quickly technologies and people move there.

Second read through was even more rewarding than the first, if you have the time it will not disappoint.