"The Gernsback Continuum" is a 1981

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

short story A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest ...

by American-Canadian author

William Gibson William Ford Gibson (born March 17, 1948) is an American-Canadian speculative fiction writer and essayist widely credited with pioneering the science fiction subgenre known as ''cyberpunk''. Beginning his writing career in the late 1970s, his ...

, originally published in the anthology ''

Universe 11 ''Universe 11'' is an anthology of original science fiction short stories edited by Terry Carr, the eleventh volume in the seventeen-volume Universe (anthology series), Universe anthology series. It was first published in hardcover by Doubleday (pu ...

'' edited by

Terry Carr Terry Gene Carr (February 19, 1937 – April 7, 1987) was an American science fiction fan, author, editor, and writing instructor. Background and discovery of fandom Carr was born in Grants Pass, Oregon. He attended the City College of San ...

. It was later reprinted in Gibson's collection ''

Burning Chrome "Burning Chrome" is a science fiction short story by Canadian-American writer William Gibson, first published in '' Omni'' in July 1982. Gibson first read the story at a science fiction convention in Denver, Colorado in the autumn of 1981, to an a ...

'', and in ''

Mirrorshades ''Mirrorshades: The Cyberpunk Anthology'' (1986) is a cyberpunk short story collection, edited by American writer Bruce Sterling. Contents * "The Gernsback Continuum" by William Gibson * "Snake-Eyes" by Tom Maddox * "Rock On" by Pat Cadigan * "T ...

'', edited by

Bruce Sterling Michael Bruce Sterling (born April 14, 1954) is an American science fiction author known for his novels and short fiction and editorship of the ''Mirrorshades'' anthology. In particular, he is linked to the cyberpunk subgenre. Sterling's first ...

. With some similarity to Gibson's later appraisal of Singapore for ''Wired'' magazine in ''

Disneyland with the Death Penalty "Disneyland with the Death Penalty" is a 4,500-word article about Singapore written by William Gibson. His first major piece of non-fiction, it was first published as the cover story for ''Wired'' magazine's September/October 1993 issue (1.4). ...

'', as much essay as fiction,Burning Chrome by William Gibson; Nader Elhefnawy at Tangent magazine
/ref> it depicts the encounters of an American photographer with the period futuristic architecture of the American 1930s when he is assigned to document it for fictional London publishers Barris-Watford, and the gradual incursion of its cinematic future visions into his world. The "Gernsback" of the title alludes to

Hugo Gernsback Hugo Gernsback (; born Hugo Gernsbacher, August 16, 1884 – August 19, 1967) was a Luxembourgish–American editor and magazine publisher, whose publications including the first science fiction magazine. His contributions to the genre as publ ...

, the pioneer of early 20th century American

pulp magazine Pulp magazines (also referred to as "the pulps") were inexpensive fiction magazines that were published from 1896 to the late 1950s. The term "pulp" derives from the cheap wood pulp paper on which the magazines were printed. In contrast, magazine ...

Plot summary

Assigned to photograph 1930s period futuristic American architecture by London publishing figures Cohen and Dialta Downes, an American photographer begins to enter the worlds of his subject with increasing vividness. Characterised by Downes as 'American Streamlined Moderne', a "kind of alternate America...A 1980 that never happened, an architecture of broken dreams", or what Cohen calls '

Raygun Gothic Raygun Gothic is a catchall term for a visual and architectural style that incorporates various aspects of the Googie architecture, Googie, Streamline Moderne and Art Deco architectural styles when applied to Retrofuturism, retrofuturistic scien ...

', his encounters with a world of California gas stations, fifth run movie houses likened to "the temples of some lost sect", a

utopia A utopia ( ) typically describes an imaginary community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book ''Utopia (book), Utopia'', describing a fictional ...

n 'continuum' of flying wings and air cars, multi-lane highways, giant

zeppelins A Zeppelin is a type of rigid airship named after the German inventor Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin () who pioneered rigid airship development at the beginning of the 20th century. Zeppelin's notions were first formulated in 1874Eckener 1938, pp ...

and

Aryan Aryan or Arya (, Indo-Iranian *''arya'') is a term originally used as an ethnocultural self-designation by Indo-Iranians in ancient times, in contrast to the nearby outsiders known as 'non-Aryan' (*''an-arya''). In Ancient India, the term ' ...

, distinctly American inhabitants, lead him to hallucination as the scenes of the period spill into reality. His US agent Kihn attributes this to what he calls 'semiotic ghosts', the remnants of mass culture in the

collective unconscious Collective unconscious (german: kollektives Unbewusstes) refers to the unconscious mind and shared mental concepts. It is generally associated with idealism and was coined by Carl Jung. According to Jung, the human collective unconscious is populat ...

, and advises immersion in a

pulp Pulp may refer to: * Pulp (fruit), the inner flesh of fruit Engineering * Dissolving pulp, highly purified cellulose used in fibre and film manufacture * Pulp (paper), the fibrous material used to make paper * Molded pulp, a packaging material ...

diet of pornography and TV. In references to the architecture of

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

, the

Hitler Youth The Hitler Youth (german: Hitlerjugend , often abbreviated as HJ, ) was the youth organisation of the Nazi Party in Germany. Its origins date back to 1922 and it received the name ("Hitler Youth, League of German Worker Youth") in July 1926. ...

and period sci-fi like

Flash Gordon Flash Gordon is the protagonist of a space adventure comic strip created and originally drawn by Alex Raymond. First published January 7, 1934, the strip was inspired by, and created to compete with, the already established ''Buck Rogers'' adve ...

Fritz Lang Friedrich Christian Anton Lang (; December 5, 1890 – August 2, 1976), known as Fritz Lang, was an Austrian film director, screenwriter, and producer who worked in Germany and later the United States.Obituary ''Variety'', August 4, 1976, p. 6 ...

and

H. G. Wells Herbert George Wells"Wells, H. G."
Revised 18 May 2015. ''

modernist Modernism is both a philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new forms of art, philosophy, an ...

vistas of the 'golden age' are contextualized in period political visions as the protagonist clings to a familiar and preferred

postmodern Postmodernism is an intellectual stance or mode of discourseNuyen, A.T., 1992. The Role of Rhetorical Devices in Postmodernist Discourse. Philosophy & Rhetoric, pp.183–194. characterized by skepticism toward the " grand narratives" of moderni ...

present. Having completed the job, Barris-Watford's hired photographer retreats to San Francisco and books a plane to New York, still trying to rid himself of the nightmare vision in the current disasters of global news. An attendant tells him that the world scene “could be worse.” The photographer replies, “Or even worse, it could be perfect.”

Critical reception

In a review of ''Burning Chrome'' for Tangent magazine, Nader Elhefnawy observes Gibson's disposal of the idealised futures of the 1930s, comparing his critique to that of Moorcock and Pynchon: Bruce Sterling declared: Thomas Bredehoft, writing on Gibson's treatment of cyberpunk, cyberspace and the recurrence of agent Kihn in the author's fiction, suggests that the media and dystopian realities in which Kihn urges Gibson's character escape the idealism of his visions are symptomatic and in part caused by the worlds he photographs. He draws parallels between Gibson's descriptions of 1930s futuristic design, the author's encounters with computer technology, and the cosmeticism of a vision of technology infused throughout Gibson's work and particularly in ''

Neuromancer ''Neuromancer'' is a 1984 science fiction novel by American-Canadian writer William Gibson. Considered one of the earliest and best-known works in the cyberpunk genre, it is the only novel to win the Nebula Award, the Philip K. Dick Award, and ...

''. Comparing the language of drug narratives, Gernsback's worlds of the future and cyberspace, he suggests a cyberpunk born of the dual influences of the golden age of the 1930s and 40s and the New Wave, arguing that the futurist utopianism derided in the likes of Gernsback is in fact one feature of a 'Gibsonian' cyberspace itself. Peio Aguirre has compared The Gernsback Continuum to the concept of

hauntology Hauntology (a portmanteau of ''haunting'' and ''ontology'') is a range of ideas referring to the return or persistence of elements from the social or cultural past, as in the manner of a ghost. The term is a neologism first introduced by French ...

Jacques Derrida Jacques Derrida (; ; born Jackie Élie Derrida; See also . 15 July 1930 – 9 October 2004) was an Algerian-born French philosopher. He developed the philosophy of deconstruction, which he utilized in numerous texts, and which was developed t ...

Aguirre, Peio. 2011
Semiotic Ghosts: Science Fiction and Historicism
Afterall: A Journal of Art, Context and Enquiry, (28), 124-134.

Adaptations

"The Gernsback Continuum" was adapted during 1993 as ''Tomorrow Calling'', a short TV film by Tim Leandro for

Film4 Productions Film4 Productions is a British film production company owned by Channel Four Television Corporation. The company has been responsible for backing many films made in the United Kingdom. The company's first production was ''Walter'', directed by ...

.The William Gibson Aleph
/ref> Originally shown on

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...

, the film was also presented at the British Film Festival, 4–10 October 1996.

Footnotes

External links

"The Gernsback Continuum"
at the William Gibson Aleph
Burning Chrome and The Gernsback Continuum
reviewed at Tangent magazine, 2007
The Gernsback Continuum in full
archived from American Heritage.com
Getting Out of the Gernsback Continuum
by Andrew Ross, in Critical Inquiry Vol.17, No.2, 1991

T. A Bredehoft in Science Fiction Studies Vol.22, No.66, 1995 {{DEFAULTSORT:Gernsback Continuum, The Cyberpunk short stories Short stories by William Gibson