The Boston Diaries

The ongoing saga of a programmer who doesn't live in Boston, nor does he even like Boston, but yet named his weblog/journal “The Boston Diaries.”

Go figure.

Wednesday, February 01, 2006

The Color of Television

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

–William Gibson, Neuromancer (1984)

I saw that it made the Top 100 Best First Lines from Novels (link via Jason Kottke) and it struck me that today's kids will get a vastly different feel from that opening line than I did when reading the book as a kid.

Why?

Because the color of television, tuned to a dead channel, has changed in the past twenty-two years. Twenty-two years, the color of television, tuned to a dead channel was:

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

–William Gibson, Neuromancer (1984)

And the color of television, tuned to a dead channel, these days:

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

–William Gibson, Neuromancer (1984)

I don't think Mr. Gibson envisioned a bright blue sky for the opening of his book.

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[The future's so bright, I gotta wear shades]

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