technology alters literature

[jwgh]

The opening sentence to William Gibson's Neuromancer is:

The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.

I always thought that this image was very evocative. It has occurred to me, however, that these days it just means that the sky was blue.

Comments

[muffyjo]

Well, depending on how far back...it might mean grey. I still remember that as a black and white television.

[sanspoof.livejournal.com]

I believe that someone, I can't remember who (Neil Gaiman?) has made this reference in print, as a joke. Whereas it used to mean grey and possibly ominous, now it means not just blue but bright, bright blue. I like having them both around.

[cpr94.livejournal.com]

Maybe literature altered technology. I wouldn't be surprised if TV engineers read Neuromancer.

Funnily, at least some big-screen HDTVs I've seen display a dead channel as flickering black-white snow.

[mskala.livejournal.com]

I remember another Gibson sky, probably in the same book, that was "the color of a Noxzema bottle." Do people still know that colour? There is a noxzema.com, but the bottles shown there are a lot lighter than the ones I remember.

[paracelsvs.livejournal.com]

This very issue regularly creeps up from the deep recesses of mind just to bug me for a few minutes.

Hey,

[jwgh]

I'm going to mail you something puzzling on a postcard tomorrow. If you can figure it out let me know.