Question About William Gibson's The Peripheral
November 25, 2014 7:54 AM Subscribe
I have some questions about William Gibson's new novel, The Peripheral. Be warned, these questions the answers will involve spoilers.
1. What was the identity of the peripheral body Flynne uses in the future? She and several other people remark that it looks familiar. I feel like it was remarked on enough times that we were supposed to be able to get it, but I think I'm just dense and missed it.
2. More of a long shot, but at one point they mention that the US became a military dictatorship for a short period and was randomly deleting huge swathes of data and no one ever knew why. Was this supposed to be an indication of something deeper, or just background world-building?
Thanks for any help anyone provides!
1. What was the identity of the peripheral body Flynne uses in the future? She and several other people remark that it looks familiar. I feel like it was remarked on enough times that we were supposed to be able to get it, but I think I'm just dense and missed it.
2. More of a long shot, but at one point they mention that the US became a military dictatorship for a short period and was randomly deleting huge swathes of data and no one ever knew why. Was this supposed to be an indication of something deeper, or just background world-building?
Thanks for any help anyone provides!
1. The references to Flynne's peripheral's identity/basis are classic Gibson (and I think Stephenson) tropes--people with plastic surgery or avatars in virtual worlds that look very close to celebrities, but not so close you'll get sued for using their likeness. Also, Berry Rydell in the Bridge Trilogy is described as looking like Tommy Lee Jones based on the police likeness-creation software, Separated at Birth. Going back further, in (I want to say) Mona Lisa Overdrive, there's an explicit plot about one young woman getting plastic surgery to take over the identity of a media star who has burnt out on being that person. He's really obsessed with the nature of celebrity identity vs. genuine identity, and keeps coming back to it over and over. Idoru went full-on invented celebrity identity.
So Miley Cyrus. The Peripheral is a copy of Miley Cyrus.
2. I think it's just a swipe at the CIA for deleting evidence of torture, the conceit being that after a long time, without evidence, you can only look at absences, because you don't know why anything happens without knowing what happened.
posted by turntraitor at 10:12 AM on November 25, 2014 [1 favorite]
So Miley Cyrus. The Peripheral is a copy of Miley Cyrus.
2. I think it's just a swipe at the CIA for deleting evidence of torture, the conceit being that after a long time, without evidence, you can only look at absences, because you don't know why anything happens without knowing what happened.
posted by turntraitor at 10:12 AM on November 25, 2014 [1 favorite]
The frustrating, but I suspect largely true answer, is that this is Gibson's genre: loosely called cyberpunk, but driven by gaps, vague references, and a lack of complete detail. The experience of reading his works and being confused, or thinking you've missed out on something, is key to the style.
In short: the gaps/absences/vagueness is the point. There are no answers.
posted by gsh at 10:43 AM on November 25, 2014 [2 favorites]
In short: the gaps/absences/vagueness is the point. There are no answers.
posted by gsh at 10:43 AM on November 25, 2014 [2 favorites]
I didn't see the gaps as meaningfully you did, gsh. I think that the "It's on the tip of all our tongues" aspect of the identity of Flynne's peripheral was kind of a commentary on the plasticity/sameness of modern pop stardom, the interchangeability of celebrities. He named Rainey's peripheral, because it was in service to being able to let Ainsley explain a bit more, and to develop her character as somebody who knew everything and everyone. So he made the choice to leave out the true identity that Flynne's peripheral was based on deliberately.
There were definitely gaps in the early parts in the sense that he didn't just give everything away right away, the explanations of things like "stub" and "polt" left unexplained until later, but I think that was just in service to the plot. You need the reader to be learning at about the same pace as the character they are intended to identify with, in this case Flynne. But by chapter 20 or so, one should have most of that ironed out, and he definitely did a bit of an expository dump a few chapters later, for those who still needed gaps filled in.
But the gaps, vague references, etc. are all just tropes of the espionage/thriller genre he's leaning on. Without that kind of artifice, it'd just be a short story, or about ten tweets maybe.
posted by turntraitor at 11:20 AM on November 25, 2014
There were definitely gaps in the early parts in the sense that he didn't just give everything away right away, the explanations of things like "stub" and "polt" left unexplained until later, but I think that was just in service to the plot. You need the reader to be learning at about the same pace as the character they are intended to identify with, in this case Flynne. But by chapter 20 or so, one should have most of that ironed out, and he definitely did a bit of an expository dump a few chapters later, for those who still needed gaps filled in.
But the gaps, vague references, etc. are all just tropes of the espionage/thriller genre he's leaning on. Without that kind of artifice, it'd just be a short story, or about ten tweets maybe.
posted by turntraitor at 11:20 AM on November 25, 2014
1. If this is another trilogy, I wouldn't be at all surprised for Gibson to tie the peripheral's physical appearance to one of his earlier female characters. Could be Cayce, Hollis Henry, or even Marly Krushkova.
2. I don't have an answer for this question.
posted by valkane at 3:03 PM on November 25, 2014 [1 favorite]
2. I don't have an answer for this question.
posted by valkane at 3:03 PM on November 25, 2014 [1 favorite]
I agree with pretty much everyone else - I like the Miley comparison. A plastic quasi-Miley for everyone.
RE: "If this is another trilogy..." He said in an interview that it would *not* be a trilogy, although he acknowledged with the concept of "stubs," there's plenty of openings for more writing. But if you take that approach, he said, then you could theoretically argue that the Bridge trilogy was a stub, that Bigend's world was a stub, etc. Not what he wanted.
I was disappointed that it won't be continued (unless he is playing us), because I wanted the Chinese server to turn out to be [first novel's big ending/spoiler]. Right?!
posted by easement1 at 7:02 AM on November 26, 2014
RE: "If this is another trilogy..." He said in an interview that it would *not* be a trilogy, although he acknowledged with the concept of "stubs," there's plenty of openings for more writing. But if you take that approach, he said, then you could theoretically argue that the Bridge trilogy was a stub, that Bigend's world was a stub, etc. Not what he wanted.
I was disappointed that it won't be continued (unless he is playing us), because I wanted the Chinese server to turn out to be [first novel's big ending/spoiler]. Right?!
posted by easement1 at 7:02 AM on November 26, 2014
No. 2: Clovis "managed to extract an archipelago of data, before her flight to the U.K." I just now came across this passage and remembered this question.
posted by MonkeyToes at 5:56 PM on November 26, 2014
posted by MonkeyToes at 5:56 PM on November 26, 2014
To elaborate on my guess at #2: Clovis grabs the data and flees. The new military government is said to have wiped out massive amounts of data without explanation; it makes sense that a military administration would not want to admit to such a huge security breach, and lets the populace assume it's a deliberate move by the government. Flynne simply misreads the secret history. That it's a large but partial data wipe chimes with a theft of a particular chunk ("archipelago") of data. (Interestingly, "The Big Data Archipelago" is a thing.)
posted by MonkeyToes at 6:08 AM on November 27, 2014
posted by MonkeyToes at 6:08 AM on November 27, 2014
This thread is closed to new comments.
What was the identity of the peripheral body Flynne uses in the future? She and several other people remark that it looks familiar. I feel like it was remarked on enough times that we were supposed to be able to get it, but I think I'm just dense and missed it.
I believe it was just meant to indicate that the peripheral was modeled on a celebrity from future world. Possibly meant to indicate it was unique and therefore expensive, unlike the Peripheral PR dude's Canadian friend uses to visit him.
More of a long shot, but at one point they mention that the US became a military dictatorship for a short period and was randomly deleting huge swathes of data and no one ever knew why. Was this supposed to be an indication of something deeper, or just background world-building?
I took this to be background world-building.
posted by edbles at 8:03 AM on November 25, 2014