How Cyberpunk Changed My Life.

Everyone has things that have changed their lives. Movies, people, television shows, days, etc. I imagine most people have books that have changed their lives as well. I know I certainly do. Heck, I have several. But there’s one in particular that I think applies most to my “adult” life. That book is Neuromancer.

I was sitting in my friend’s basement which served as his private pseudo-apartment in his parents’ house. We were watching bad stand up, messing around on the internet, and (full disclosure) drinking cheap bourbon mixed with copious amounts of honey to help it go down.

It was summer.

It was hot.

I’m not a typically sweaty person so I was relieved of the humiliation of melting even as the fan made its desperate attempt at circulating air. Whether it was the stand up, the bourbon, or the stifling heat I can’t be sure, but we had become rather stationary as people. We were dulled by it all. Laughing intermittently when something was actually funny but more often than not laughing when it was ridiculous how unfunny a joke was.

I leaned back and looked at the ceiling, looked at the door, and then looked at the precariously stacked tower of books on side table. “Anything good in there?” I asked, half to imply that he didn’t read anything good and half out of genuine curiosity because I knew that we read the same sort of thing.

“Ever read Neuromancer?” He responded without looking away from what he was doing. I shook my head and I don’t really know how he knew but I guess that’s the sort of thing friends know. “I’m trying read it now. Having a little bit of a problem. But I like it. I want to get through it really badly. You should read it so we can talk about it.”

“Okay,” I agreed because I’d heard of Neuromancer and I was always looking for books to read anyway. I didn’t need much convincing passed the fact that it was paperback and wasn’t a romance. I was kind of a cynic back then and would’ve scoffed if anyone tried to pawn a tawdry romance paperback off on me. Like, who did they think they were talking to? I was tough.

I picked up Neuromancer the next time I was by a bookstore. It wasn’t too much later. My friends and I had made Union Square our typical meet up spot and since I was always early and they were always late I spent a good amount of time browsing Barnes and Noble and the Strand. I don’t remember which store I bought it in. Probably Strand just because I didn’t have a job and was pretty much 100% broke 100% of the time. That was fine though because I was punk rock and not having cash is essentially part of the ethos.

When I say that I devoured that book I mean I devoured it. There was very little in my life up until that point that had so expertly combined all of my relevant angst and anger. Science fiction? Hackers? Drugs? Violent women kicking butt? It was everything I could have wanted. The prose was sparse, the tone dry, the characters the murkiest sort of grey.

It was my first introduction to cyberpunk and I never looked back. Up until then my favorite subgenre had been post-apocalyptic and dystopian. I liked things needlessly dark and without hope. Honestly, I still look for that in my entertainment. I like dark and gritty and tough. Neuromancer combined it all for me with the added bonus of sparking an interest in hard-boiled detective fiction.

So, yeah, one summer day a friend offhandedly suggested I read a book he was having trouble getting through… and it was a big moment for me. I began reading every cyberpunk thing I could get my hands on. I even switched the kind of short stories I was writing until slowly it wasn't atomic wastelands but urban sprawls with no morals.