[Air-l] Re: Recent Cyberculture Novels...

[JASON NOLAN]

I didn't see anyone mentioning Jeff Noon. Then again he's not the 
biggest thing in North America. In my cyberculture cosmology the 
trajectory is Gibson > Stephenson > Noon.

His major works: Vurt, Pollen, Automated Alice, Nymphomation, 
Cobralingus, Needle in the Goove, Pixel Juice (short stories), 
Falling Out of Cars are simply astounding. Cobra's actually written 
in a form of code. Noon is the only cyberwriter I would gush 
endlessly over. I'm putting together an annotated bibliography of 
research on him (though it is presently in rough notes), and will be 
republishing Noon's short story "Chromosft Mirrors (v.4.2)" in _The 
International Handbook of Virtual Learning Environments_ that Joel 
Weiss and I are editing.

His world is very much a restructuring of _Through the Looking 
Glass_, as Celia Hobart (Alice's doll) actually is credited with 
having invented the Vurt Feathers (cyberspace). And stylistically 
Noon is heavily influenced by early JG Ballard (1950s, 1960s).

Noon can't be missed, though he's hard to find. Check on amazon for 
used copies. I'm collecting a class set of Vurt... slowly.

J