This is a terrific appreciation of The Peripheral's dual timeline confabulation (I have liked Ossian's characterization as the Oirish wide-boy with the shady past, but I never twigged the Flann O'Brien references. Well spotted!). My one exception or addition to your reading concerns the meaning of "The Jackpot." You've pointed out that concatenation of 'disasters'---ecological, technological, socio-economic, ideological, institutional---is a 'winner' for the stratospheric elites who later form kleptocratic oligarchies. I think this is facially true: outside of the dual-timeline McGuffins, there aren't effective ways for the future's invisible 90% to challenge Klept hegemony (in the post-breakdown future, world population has been substantially reduced). However, if the Klepts have climbed the piles of bodies to become kings-of-the-mountain, there seems to be 'some' gladiators' regret. At least a few of the future oligarchs willingly assist the super-intelligent AIs that are gaming their pasts into 'better' alternate futures.
By contrast, I think 'The Jackpot' mainly means the full, multi-factor breakdown of our 'advanced' democratic expectations and classical liberal institutions. It's a bit like taking James T Reason's 'Swiss cheese' security model to an apocalyptic conclusion: individual catastrophic breakdowns are, perhaps, individually survivable. But The Jackpot occurs when all the individual failures happen at once. The boundaries that might have succeeded in minimizing one or two disasters have been incapacitated by other disasters. When all things fall apart, the only survival and the only game remaining are for klepto-oligarchs to use advanced technology to secure their own and their appendages' survival. Even the Klepts might regret that their successes required the annihilation of billions of ordinary people, but the Klepts have prevailed in their diminished societies, and, for these Randian 'visionaries', keeping your eyes on amassing more comparative power is the only remaining game in town. It's the sympathetic, remorseful minor elites who gamble on creating futures where more folks survive still enfranchised with the distributed benefits of the liberal Enlightenment.
Lovely bit of cultural criticism of a great book. Trying not to get my hopes up about the third novel in what was to be a trilogy. Gibson's not talking about it, which is probably good news for its quality and bad news for how soon we'll read it.
If it's not too much trouble, could you post a reference for the (broken?) link to the Somalia document about "enabling technicals"?
I really enjoyed both the book and the show -- shame they cancelled the show after just one season; I thought it had promise. The premise -- harvesting/manipulating the past timeline for resources -- was brilliant, even if borrowed.
And now, of course, those of us who have read this are staring forward and wondering when "the jackpot" will actually occur. Having read Kim Stanley Robinson's "The Ministry for the Future" and seeing India's sweltering temperatures right now, I can expect we will see something catastrophic before too long. I'm afraid having read "Parable of the Sower" by Octavia Butler, as well, either I'm suffering from doom syndrome, or I'm paying attention appropriately and thinking ahead -- I can't be sure which it is.
I missed my Tube stop on the London underground today, because I was so intently reading The Peripheral on the say so of this Substack post. Had to get off the train and go back the other way. Great book, thanks!
This review prompted me to pick up both a copy of "Cowboy Angels", as well as "The Peripheral".
If you haven't already, check out Daniel Suarez's "Daemon"[1] (and its sequel "FreedomTM") as another example of great social commentary masquerading as pulp science fiction.
For those interested in the exploitation by time travel theme, another excellent book is LAST YEAR, by Robert Charles Wilson, published in 2016.
Also, it strikes me that Gibson may be making a reference to the Heinlein story, "The Year of the Jackpot, which is a narrative of the day when all the disaster "cycles," anthropogenic and natural have their peaks constructively interfere. We do not see the outcome, but peak sunspots do not bode well.
Much as I love Gibson (every one of his sentences), I see that I haven't taken him seriously enough. Thanks for showing me how profoundly unsettling his reading of our current situation is.
This is a terrific appreciation of The Peripheral's dual timeline confabulation (I have liked Ossian's characterization as the Oirish wide-boy with the shady past, but I never twigged the Flann O'Brien references. Well spotted!). My one exception or addition to your reading concerns the meaning of "The Jackpot." You've pointed out that concatenation of 'disasters'---ecological, technological, socio-economic, ideological, institutional---is a 'winner' for the stratospheric elites who later form kleptocratic oligarchies. I think this is facially true: outside of the dual-timeline McGuffins, there aren't effective ways for the future's invisible 90% to challenge Klept hegemony (in the post-breakdown future, world population has been substantially reduced). However, if the Klepts have climbed the piles of bodies to become kings-of-the-mountain, there seems to be 'some' gladiators' regret. At least a few of the future oligarchs willingly assist the super-intelligent AIs that are gaming their pasts into 'better' alternate futures.
By contrast, I think 'The Jackpot' mainly means the full, multi-factor breakdown of our 'advanced' democratic expectations and classical liberal institutions. It's a bit like taking James T Reason's 'Swiss cheese' security model to an apocalyptic conclusion: individual catastrophic breakdowns are, perhaps, individually survivable. But The Jackpot occurs when all the individual failures happen at once. The boundaries that might have succeeded in minimizing one or two disasters have been incapacitated by other disasters. When all things fall apart, the only survival and the only game remaining are for klepto-oligarchs to use advanced technology to secure their own and their appendages' survival. Even the Klepts might regret that their successes required the annihilation of billions of ordinary people, but the Klepts have prevailed in their diminished societies, and, for these Randian 'visionaries', keeping your eyes on amassing more comparative power is the only remaining game in town. It's the sympathetic, remorseful minor elites who gamble on creating futures where more folks survive still enfranchised with the distributed benefits of the liberal Enlightenment.
Lovely bit of cultural criticism of a great book. Trying not to get my hopes up about the third novel in what was to be a trilogy. Gibson's not talking about it, which is probably good news for its quality and bad news for how soon we'll read it.
If it's not too much trouble, could you post a reference for the (broken?) link to the Somalia document about "enabling technicals"?
The Amazon TV series of the Peripheral was a surprisingly good given the other disastrous adaptations of Williams Gibson’s books
And I truly regretted that it only lasted one season. I was heartbroken when it wasn’t renewed.
That's because it's showrunner's we're Christopher Nolan and his wife Lisa Joy.
I meant to type Johnathan Nolan and not his brother's name. Sadly Substack is not allowing me to delete my error.
I wonder how Peter Theil absconding to Argentina will impact the Jackpot.
I really enjoyed both the book and the show -- shame they cancelled the show after just one season; I thought it had promise. The premise -- harvesting/manipulating the past timeline for resources -- was brilliant, even if borrowed.
And now, of course, those of us who have read this are staring forward and wondering when "the jackpot" will actually occur. Having read Kim Stanley Robinson's "The Ministry for the Future" and seeing India's sweltering temperatures right now, I can expect we will see something catastrophic before too long. I'm afraid having read "Parable of the Sower" by Octavia Butler, as well, either I'm suffering from doom syndrome, or I'm paying attention appropriately and thinking ahead -- I can't be sure which it is.
Tulpagotchi
Agency could have used a better editor. Gibson rewrote it after the 2016 election and switched publishers during the process.
I missed my Tube stop on the London underground today, because I was so intently reading The Peripheral on the say so of this Substack post. Had to get off the train and go back the other way. Great book, thanks!
isn't it so well done? Dumps you in at the deep end, but once you surface it just keeps hitting.
This review prompted me to pick up both a copy of "Cowboy Angels", as well as "The Peripheral".
If you haven't already, check out Daniel Suarez's "Daemon"[1] (and its sequel "FreedomTM") as another example of great social commentary masquerading as pulp science fiction.
[1] https://daniel-suarez.com/daemonsynopsis.html
For those interested in the exploitation by time travel theme, another excellent book is LAST YEAR, by Robert Charles Wilson, published in 2016.
Also, it strikes me that Gibson may be making a reference to the Heinlein story, "The Year of the Jackpot, which is a narrative of the day when all the disaster "cycles," anthropogenic and natural have their peaks constructively interfere. We do not see the outcome, but peak sunspots do not bode well.
Nice, just bought it.
Much as I love Gibson (every one of his sentences), I see that I haven't taken him seriously enough. Thanks for showing me how profoundly unsettling his reading of our current situation is.