The mention of Pattern Recognition made me realize how the sequel Agency presages the present obsession with being "agentic" in response to AI. Score another prophecy for William Gibson.
The plot elements you mention sound fun but looking at the first page of this book it has the same problem I run into with all modern SF, which is that the sentences are so simplistic they repel me. (I suppose that is part of the "professional" aspect you write about.) I miss being able to ignore that and just immerse myself in story. But authors used to be able to do both!
I can see exactly what you mean about Nayler's prose. It has a cleanliness and orderliness, I guess, but it can't compare with Gibson's writing, for example, not even close. I've got to read Agency. And the other 21st century Gibson novels.
But you're right about modern science fiction prose. I do tend to read this stuff every so often, but I feel for the most part I'm not reading anything that has the style and intelligence (at the prose level) of the older work I tend to prefer. I remain open to the possibilities, though, perhaps for diminishing returns...
This is great, I particularly liked the reflections on driving. I wonder if you’ve read Jon Fosse’s “Septology,” which features quite a bit of driving and does a very good job showing its appeal.
Thank you! I appreciate that. I have the first few volumes of Septology all in one edition but have not read it yet. I would definitely like to. There are so many multi-volume European masterpieces these days (and I only recently realized that I might like to read Knausgaard…).
Interesting to imagine a contemporary non-American homage of sorts to driving; I wonder what road mythologies overlap and diverge. Not that it’s always been American, of course. Forster’s Howard’s End has a famous car sequence. This is a great heads up about Fosse.
You’ll get the idea pretty quickly when you start Fosse, but it is somewhat different than American driving mythology now that you mention it. Not so much cross country road trips but more driving from the countryside into the city and back again.
The mention of Pattern Recognition made me realize how the sequel Agency presages the present obsession with being "agentic" in response to AI. Score another prophecy for William Gibson.
The plot elements you mention sound fun but looking at the first page of this book it has the same problem I run into with all modern SF, which is that the sentences are so simplistic they repel me. (I suppose that is part of the "professional" aspect you write about.) I miss being able to ignore that and just immerse myself in story. But authors used to be able to do both!
I can see exactly what you mean about Nayler's prose. It has a cleanliness and orderliness, I guess, but it can't compare with Gibson's writing, for example, not even close. I've got to read Agency. And the other 21st century Gibson novels.
But you're right about modern science fiction prose. I do tend to read this stuff every so often, but I feel for the most part I'm not reading anything that has the style and intelligence (at the prose level) of the older work I tend to prefer. I remain open to the possibilities, though, perhaps for diminishing returns...
This is great, I particularly liked the reflections on driving. I wonder if you’ve read Jon Fosse’s “Septology,” which features quite a bit of driving and does a very good job showing its appeal.
Thank you! I appreciate that. I have the first few volumes of Septology all in one edition but have not read it yet. I would definitely like to. There are so many multi-volume European masterpieces these days (and I only recently realized that I might like to read Knausgaard…).
Interesting to imagine a contemporary non-American homage of sorts to driving; I wonder what road mythologies overlap and diverge. Not that it’s always been American, of course. Forster’s Howard’s End has a famous car sequence. This is a great heads up about Fosse.
You’ll get the idea pretty quickly when you start Fosse, but it is somewhat different than American driving mythology now that you mention it. Not so much cross country road trips but more driving from the countryside into the city and back again.