William Gibson’s latest is called, um, er…

Posted on October 8, 2006
Filed Under All, Weblogging, Technology |

So I’m a huge William Gibson fan - his cyberpunk trilogy caught my attention in the 80s, and I’ve been a reader ever since. Today I was cruising his blog and noticed this post:

My new novel is being published as The Very Latest, The Most Recent And Terrible News. On the multiverse fork immediately adjacent , though, it’s titled The Mongolian Death Worm. Utterly different works, of course, in spite their texts being exactly identical in every regard. For you, though, it’s Spook Country.

Hmmm… so we jumped over to Amazon just for fun, and noticed this offering:

Untitled (Hardcover)
by William Gibson (Author)
List Price: $25.95
Price: $17.13 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details
You Save: $8.82 (34%)

Pre-Order Price Guarantee! Order now and if the Amazon.com price decreases between your order time and release date, you’ll receive the lowest price. See Details
Availability: This title will be released on August 7, 2007. Pre-order now. Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.

Wow. A book with different names depending on which thread of the multiverse you happen to be experiencing. It’s The Very Latest, The Most Recent And Terrible News or The Mongolian Death Worm or Spook Country or Untitled, depending, and it’s identical but utterly different. Multidimensional publishing has arrived, apparently… but tell us, how many dimensions are there? Newton and Einstein thought there were four, but string theorists keep talking about eleven. I can only find four titles (so far)… significant?

Comments

3 Responses to “William Gibson’s latest is called, um, er…”

  1. gfbird on October 9th, 2006 6:08 am

    Dimensions = revised editions for different markets, appearing under different titles?

  2. cg on October 9th, 2006 11:38 am

    Maybe… but I like the idea of parallel realities where identical text means something different…

  3. gfbird on October 10th, 2006 8:30 am

    . . . or like non-plagerized collegians’ papers reflecting different read meanings of identical text? Or just gaming the branding/marketing? Nevertheless, enjoy!

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