William Gibson: No Maps for These Territories

For an hour and a half, sci-fi author William Gibson sits in the backseat of a limo, talking in a stoner-like monotone, seemingly making up every other word as he deconstructs the modern world, which he views as both post-human and post-geographical. Mark Neale's claustrophobic documentary would be a “geeks only” affair, if what Gibson had to say didn't make so much sense. The inventor of the term “cyberspace” is on a 1999 road trip around North America, but we never see him get out of his car: his connection with the outside world (as far as we can see) is limited to a computer, a cell phone, and the cameras rigged throughout--exactly the kind of virtual space that fuels his fiction. Gibson discusses his earliest writings, including the genesis of the landmark Neuromancer (as celebrity guests Bono and The Edge read passages), but mostly he wants to give his impressions of a post-modern society in which television, the Internet and ever-expanding technology mean that people are seeing more of the world than ever, even if they aren't seeing it with their own eyes. Neale spices up the backseat interview format by tossing in a constant frenzied stream of background visual information--stock footage and camera tricks--to replicate Gibson's intellectual process even as his corporeal form remains stable. The DVD includes an additional 70 minutes worth of deleted interview clips and behind-the-scenes footage. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (D. Fienberg)