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February 16, 2005

Mnemonic

The Flea School for Wayard Expats continues a series in rhetoric and oratory. Today we are addressed by Johnny Mnemonic (1995).

Johnny Mnemonic: What the f*** is going on? What the F*** is going on?! You know, all my life, I've been careful to stay in my own corner. Looking out for Number One, no complications. Now, suddenly, I'm responsible for the fate of the entire f***ing world... and everybody and his mother is trying to kill me IF... IF my head doesn't blow up first.

Jane: Maybe this isn't just about you anymore.

Johnny Mnemonic: Listen. You listen to me. You see that city over there? THAT'S where I'm supposed to be! Not down here with the dogs and the garbage and the f***in' last months newspaper blowing back and forth. I've had it with them, I've had it with you, I've had it with all this! I want ROOM SERVICE! I want the club sandwich. I want the cold Mexican beer. I want a ten-thousand dollar-a-night hooker!! I want my shirts laundered... like they do at the Imperial Hotel... in Tokyo.

Given this film and The Matrix it is high Keanu Reeves content for some of my students this term. I assigned William Gibson's Johnny Mnemonic for my course in digital media and culture. Nothing beats cyberpunk for bricolage.

I put the shotgun in an Adidas bag and padded it out with four pairs of tennis socks, not my style at all, but that was what I was aiming for: If they think you're crude, go technical; if they think you're technical, go crude. I'm a very technical boy. So I decided to get as crude as possible. These days, though, you have to be pretty technical before you can even aspire to crudeness. I'd had to turn both those twelve-gauge shells from brass stock, on the lathe, and then load then myself; I'd had to dig up an old microfiche with instructions for hand- loading cartidges; I'd had to build a lever-action press to seat the primers -all very tricky. But I knew they'd work.

So, isn't it time Sci Fi Channel made a mini-series out of Neuromancer?

Posted by Ghost of a flea at February 16, 2005 05:54 AM

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Comments

So, isn't it time Sci Fi Channel made a mini-series out of Neuromancer?

Considering how well they did on their Dune series and Battlestar Galactica, they might actually manage to pull it off. A really good Gibson film has yet to be done. Johnny Mnemonic was promising, but in the end it unfortunately fell back on some tired SF movie conventions. (I haven't seen New Rose Hotel, but considering I've never heard of it until now, it probably is not that outstanding either.)

What I would love to see filmed is Gibson's ultimately rejected screenplay for Alien 3. Supposedly using it was a go until the studio realized its ambitiousness threatened to bust their budget. Gibson would have been a great follow-on after Aliens gave the movie series an upward trajectory (which sadly it didn't continue).

Posted by: Varenius [TypeKey Profile Page] at February 16, 2005 02:00 PM

I loved that William Gibson Alien III script too. I am surprised I have not heard of anyone wanting to resurrect it...

The first series of the new Battlestar Galactica is still being broadcast in Canada which is the main reason I have not written about it until now. So far it is a masterpiece. Possibly the greatest sf ever made for television (with the exception of Blake's 7, naturally).

Posted by: Ghost of a flea [TypeKey Profile Page] at February 16, 2005 02:45 PM