burning chrome enotes

(Full name William Ford Gibson) American-born Canadian novelist, short story writer, and scriptwriter.

Jack buys a piece of unknown software that turns out to be a sophisticated and almost untraceable Russian hacking software. In “Burning Chrome,” Bobby Quine and Automatic Jack, hot-shot computer jockeys, use stolen Russian military software to break into the computer system of a local crime lord, Chrome, and destroy her power base by redistributing her financial assets. As do many single-author short-story collections, Burning Chrome presents a summary of Gibson’s early themes and devices. Several of these stories have been widely anthologized in science fiction magazines.

“Red Star, Winter Orbit” and “Hinterlands” are both set in space, in a society in which power is still largely divided between the Americans and the Soviets. “Hinterland” is a dark story in which Toby Halpert explains the workings of the Highway, a point in space where human space vehicles vanish and eventually reappear, the occupants bringing back strange artifacts and new information. Learn more.

Bobby decided to use this software to break in and steal money from a high level and well connected criminal known as Chrome. As do many single-author short-story collections, Burning Chrome presents a summary of Gibson’s early themes and devices. He grew up in a small town in Virginia and developed a strong interest in science fiction from an early age. Our summaries and analyses are written by experts, and your questions are answered by real teachers. William Gibson American Literature Analysis, The Triangle Fire: A Brief History with Documents. This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience. “Fragments of a Hologram Rose,” “Winter Market,” and “Dogfight” are stories set in the Sprawl or in a world very similar to it. Write a paragraph exploring the setting of "Burning Chrome," known as "the Sprawl." ― William Gibson, Burning Chrome. Gibson was born on March 17, 1948, in Conway, South Carolina. Reviewers have commended Gibson's bleak envisage of the future and of the disturbing role of technology in society and on human interaction. The Triangle Fire: A Brief History with Documents. It's got an old-fashioned dive bar where the main... eNotes.com will help you with any book or any question. A collection of primarily near-future stories, Burning Chrome demonstrates the style, ambiguity, and dark vision characteristic of William Gibson’s work.

After Jack agrees, the two hackers successfully break in and steal money as well as tak… Since that initial success, Gibson has issued numerous novels, a short fiction collection, and has written several scripts for film and television. Moreover, Gibson is viewed as a vital voice in the science fiction... Start your 48-hour free trial to unlock this William Gibson study guide and get instant access to the following: You'll also get access to more than 30,000 additional guides and 300,000 Homework Help questions answered by our experts.

He dropped out of high school and moved to Toronto, Canada, in 1967. Gibson's portrayal of multinational corporations and their growing role in the world is considered by some commentators as insightful, disconcerting social commentary. The cyberpunk story “Johnny Mnemonic” is the basis for the film Johnny Mnemonic (1995), starring Keanu Reeves as Johnny. It is perhaps not surprising, given the near-future timeframe, that these stories have in some ways dated rapidly. After receiving his B.A. This story is the precedent of the author’s famous novel Neuromancer, which is followed by “Count Zero.” All his books represent similar ideas and … They were overtaken in the early 1990’s not by technological change so much as by social changes, such as the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the reunification of Germany. Central to Gibson's stories are his grim vision of the future, misfit characters, the role of memory as well as the artist in society, and a reliance on dense layers of technological information and slang. It is told through the eyes of Casey, the recording editor who reworked her dreams and ambitions into best-selling software.

He is pursued by a Japanese crime syndicate, intent on killing him and recovering the chip, and later saved by Molly Millions, a bionic hit woman with razor blades under her fingernails.

Stylistically, Gibson's work is characterized by frenetic pacing; Gibson also utilizes features such as flashbacks, vivid imagery, juxtapositions, and metaphors. In “New Rose Hotel,” the nameless narrator details the machinations of corporate headhunters and the inexorable, deadly vengeance of their employer after a defection goes wrong.

Stories in this group are also set against a background of a high-technology society with sharp economic extremes. © 2020 eNotes.com, Inc. All Rights Reserved. The title character of “Johnny Mnemonic” is a walking safebox for other people’s data.

“Burning Chrome” analysis in this essay explores main characters’ traits, major themes, and symbolism of the story. With the help of Molly Millions, a surgically enhanced bodyguard/assassin, and Jones, a drug-addicted former Navy Dolphin, Johnny evades the Yakuza and begins to make use of all the data he has ever stored. Gibson's reputation as a short fiction writer rests on his 1986 collection, Burning Chrome, a volume of his early short stories that also include pieces written in collaboration with fellow cyberpunks Bruce Sterling, John Shirley, and Michael Swanwick.

The story details the slow metamorphosis of Coretti, a socially awkward linguist, into one of... Start your 48-hour free trial to unlock this Burning Chrome study guide and get instant access to the following: You'll also get access to more than 30,000 additional guides and 300,000 Homework Help questions answered by our experts. Stories with direct references to the Soviet Union, such as “Red Star, Winter Orbit,” suffer most. The remaining two stories differ from the rest of the collection in tone as well as setting. Yet some critics regard Gibson's work as superficial, immature, sometimes impenetrable, and only geared toward young, technologically savvy males. The primary characteristics of the subgenre that became known as cyberpunk are all present: setting, character types, basic conflicts, and pace. in 1977, he began to write science fiction stories and had some of his early work published in Omni magazine. Despite these charges, Burning Chrome is a well-regarded collection and Gibson's short fiction is perceived as an integral aspect of his oeuvre. (Critical Survey of Science Fiction and Fantasy), Burning Chrome contains Gibson’s short work up to 1986. Our summaries and analyses are written by experts, and your questions are answered by real teachers. The Sprawl in "Burning Chrome" is different from other science fiction settings because it seems almost old-fashioned rather than futuristic. © 2020 eNotes.com, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Toby’s job is to meet the ones that come back alive and sane and to keep them that way, if he can. “Red Star, Winter Orbit,” a collaboration with Bruce Sterling, describes the decline of Kosmograd, a Soviet space station in a decaying orbit. Gibson is recognized as one of the creators of the cyberpunk subgenre.

“The Belonging Kind,” cowritten with John Shirley, describes a kind of animal evolved to live within urban structures, mimicking people and changing like a chameleon to fit its various environments.

The story was made into a movie in 1995.

Gibson is a leading practitioner of cyberpunk, a futuristic subgenre of science fiction that combines the tough atmosphere and scatological language of hardboiled crime fiction, imagery from the punk counterculture movement, and technical developments of the 1980s. A few years later he moved to Vancouver and enrolled in the University of British Columbia.