Nationality American Role Author Name Bruce Sterling | Period 1970s – present | |
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Spouse Jasmina Tesanovic (m. 2005) Education Art Center College of Design, University of Texas at Austin Books The Difference Engine, Schismatrix, Mirrorshades, The Hacker Crackdown, Islands in the Net Similar People | ||
Interview with bruce sterling
Michael Bruce Sterling (born April 14, 1954) is an American science fiction author known for his novels and work on the Mirrorshades anthology. This work helped to define the cyberpunk genre.
Contents
- Interview with bruce sterling
- Bruce sterling historical narrative futurism and emergent network culture 2010
- Writings
- Projects
- Neologisms
- Personal
- Awards
- Interviews
- References
Bruce sterling historical narrative futurism and emergent network culture 2010
Writings
Sterling, along with William Gibson, Rudy Rucker, John Shirley, Lewis Shiner, and Pat Cadigan, is one of the founders of the cyberpunk movement in science fiction. In addition, he is one of the subgenre's chief ideological promulgators. This has earned him the nickname "Chairman Bruce". He was also one of the first organizers of the Turkey City Writer's Workshop, and is a frequent attendee at the Sycamore Hill Writer's Workshop. He won Hugo Awards for his novelettes Bicycle Repairman and Taklamakan. His first novel, Involution Ocean, published in 1977, features the world Nullaqua where all the atmosphere is contained in a single, miles-deep crater. The story concerns a ship sailing on the ocean of dust at the bottom, which hunts creatures called dustwhales that live beneath the surface. It is partially a science-fictional pastiche of Moby-Dick by Herman Melville.
From the late 1970s onwards, Sterling wrote a series of stories set in the Shaper/Mechanist universe: the solar system is colonised, with two major warring factions. The Mechanists use a great deal of computer-based mechanical technologies; the Shapers do genetic engineering on a massive scale. The situation is complicated by the eventual contact with alien civilizations; humanity eventually splits into many subspecies, with the implication that many of these effectively vanish from the galaxy, reminiscent of The Singularity in the works of Vernor Vinge. The Shaper/Mechanist stories can be found in the collection Crystal Express and the collection Schismatrix Plus, which contains the original novel Schismatrix and all of the stories set in the Shaper/Mechanist universe. Alastair Reynolds identified Schismatrix and the other Shaper/Mechanist stories as one of the greatest influences on his own work.
In the 1980s, Sterling edited the science fiction critical fanzine Cheap Truth under the alias of Vincent Omniaveritas. He wrote a column called Catscan for the now-defunct science fiction critical magazine SF Eye.
He contributed a chapter to Sound Unbound: Sampling Digital Music and Culture (The MIT Press, 2008) edited by Paul D. Miller a.k.a. DJ Spooky. He also contributed, along with Lewis Shiner, to the short story "Mozart in Mirrorshades".
From April 2009 through May 2009, he was an editor at Cool Tools.
Since October 2003 Sterling has blogged at "Beyond the Beyond", which is hosted by Wired.
His most recent novel (as of 2013) is Love Is Strange (December 2012), a Paranormal Romance (40k).
Projects
He has been the instigator of three projects which can be found on the Web -
Neologisms
Sterling has a habit of coining neologisms to describe things that he believes will be common in the future, especially items which already exist in limited numbers.
Personal
In childhood, Sterling spent several years in India; today he has a notable fondness for Bollywood films. In 2003 he was appointed Professor at the European Graduate School where he is teaching summer intensive courses on media and design. In 2005, he became "visionary in residence" at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. He lived in Belgrade with Serbian author and film-maker Jasmina Tešanović for several years, and married her in 2005. In September 2007 he moved to Turin, Italy. He also travels the world extensively giving speeches and attending conferences.
Awards
Interviews
Sterling has been interviewed for documentaries like Freedom Downtime, TechnoCalyps and Traceroute.