![]() ![]() The Peripheral shows Gibson as a mature writer who has adopted a synthesis between the sides of him that are focused on sci-fi and the ones that wish to be more literary, i.e. ![]() Gibson synthesizes these three into a vision of continua, or branches of reality created by historical events, and the possibility of communicating between them to avoid certain things become inevitable in one of them. Plato says history is cyclic Hegel says it is dialectic Nietzsche with his “eternal recurrence” makes us think what it would be like to re-live our lives time and again. But these are merely a way to get us into a more interesting concept. In this book, which seems inspired by recent events, the peripherals (perhaps inspired by the 2009 movie Surrogates) compare to drones and other forms of remote presence which are increasingly popular. ![]() ![]() The term “peripheral” after all refers to something we plug into our computers to interface with the world, normally mice, modems, printers and similar devices. The Peripheral shows us a book with a dual symbolism to its title: ostensibly about the use of remote-controlled biological androids, or “peripherals,” for people to live through, it takes on another meaning as well. As with all postmodern books, and Gibson finds his inspiration in Thomas Pynchon as much as in sci-fi, a title can possess multiple meanings. ![]()
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