William Gibson set to discuss new nonfiction collection Distrust That Particular Flavor

It’s common when reading a novel to wonder what the author “actually” thinks about the subject at hand. This is a kind of mental tic, a misplaced sense that fiction is a roundabout way of saying something that might have been stated straight up, without all the clutter of characters and story. The wrongness of it becomes clear whenever a novelist is asked to explain what he or she “really meant” and is forced to respond with a sigh.

But it’s also one of the attractions of an essay collection by a writer best known for fiction—especially when the writer is William Gibson, with his often uncanny views on our fast-mutating relationship with technology and pop culture. The Vancouver-based author of the classic 1984 novel Neuromancer and recent hits like Pattern Recognition, Spook Country, and Zero History has just come out with Distrust That Particular Flavor, a roundup of journalism and think pieces he’s published over the last 30 years, on topics ranging from the Internet’s flaws to the place of music in everyday life.

Gibson will bring the new book to a Vancouver International Writers and Readers Festival event on Wednesday (January 25), as part of the fest’s Incite series. The evening starts at 7:30 in the Alice MacKay Room of the Central Library. Admission is free, but registration is required.