Idoru trilogy
The Idoru Trilogy (English: Bridge Trilogy - "Bridge Trilogy"), also known as the "San Francisco" trilogy, is a trilogy by William Gibson . It is Gibson's second successful trilogy after the Neuromancer trilogy.
The trilogy consists of the individual novels:
- Virtual Light (1993), German virtual light
- Idoru (1996), German Idoru
- All Tomorrow's Parties (1999), German Futurematic
The name Bridge Trilogy comes from one of the locations of the novels, the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge , which is taken over by the homeless after a severe earthquake and used as a barrack town.
Plot of the Idoru trilogy
The trilogy is generally about the beginnings of cyberspace technology and takes place on the one hand on the American west coast, in a California that was divided into the two separate states of NoCal and SoCal after an earthquake , on the other hand in a Tokyo that was rebuilt by nanotechnology , after it was also damaged by an earthquake. The different parts of the bridge trilogy share a basic repertoire of characters: the most important are the driver "Berry" Rydell and the bicycle courier Chevette Washington. The computer hacker Colin Laney, who has the mysterious ability to read patterns from vast fields of data, appears in All Tomorrow's Parties and in Idoru . Another recurring character is the virtual " Idoru " named Rei Toei. The word Idoru (actually aidoru ) is a Japanese transformation of "Idol".
The trilogy often includes recurring themes in Gibson's books such as the connection between technology and living beings, traumatic changes and the cyborgs' self-awareness. The real San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge still exists as an old-fashioned steel structure. But after the traumatic shock from the earthquake that shook the actual bridge, as well as the outdated technology from which it originated, the rise of new technological systems is emerging. Two examples of this are nanotech-based tunnels that are replacing the bridge, and the makeshift huts on the destroyed bridge. This bridge is cyborg in that it lives out of the remaining elements of the bridge and the people on the bridge. This duality is also inherent in the characters: Chevette's courier colleague has bones made of steel and is described in one breath with his bicycle. Rei Toei or The Rez Entity has a human part (Rez) and an artificial part (Rei). The blind drummer has prosthetic eyes.
Blackwell's ax is repeatedly described as an extension of his body. The nameless killer is inseparable from his blade. Colin Laney's brain has been rewired through an experimental chemical that enables its ability to discern data patterns.
The entire story arc of the trilogy sets out Gibson's theory of the structure of the world. A traumatic event destabilizes, divides or even completely destroys the social and technical order. Uncontrolled technology (the bridge community was neither allowed nor planned) is growing rapidly and leading to major, radical changes. Those involved have no choice but to insert this new order into their self-perception - and thus to become a cyborg (either literally or figuratively). And as the effects of these changes expand, so does the speed with which this self-conception changes - to the point where the line between man and machine becomes blurred.
criticism
“Like all Gibson books, Idoru is an incomplete story, a fragment from the near future. Not only does the author leave enough questions unanswered for further books, but Laneys and Chia's journey to the re-emerging heart of Japan remains fragmentary at best. We hardly learn anything about Rez and not really much more about Rei Toei. They are without contours like the images in the clouds that Laney traces, like the objects of Japanese entertainment culture, without really making them tangible, because entertainment culture is what the author is interested in ... "
literature
- William Gibson: Virtual Light . Heyne Verlag , Munich 2002, ISBN 3-453-86327-5 (German translation by Peter Robert).
- William Gibson: Idoru . Heyne Verlag, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-453-86328-3 (German translation by Peter Robert).
- William Gibson: Futurematic . Heyne Verlag, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-453-86329-1 (German translation by Peter Robert).
- The Idoru trilogy. Three novels in one volume . Heyne Verlag, 2011, ISBN 978-3-453-52673-0 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ See Wolfgang Jeschke (Ed.): Das Science Fiction Jahr 1998 , Wilhelm Heyne Verlag Munich, ISBN 3-453-13313-7 , pp. 738f.