Count Zero

Count Zero
Count Zero by William Gibson is the second book in his Neuromancer trilogy. After finishing Neuromancer as a Mercury Retrograde Reread, I hopped right into Count Zero.

I can’t locate the exact place, but it was in the author’s notes somewhere, either online, or in the back of the books, that he mentions that his first “treatment” for a proposal – the idea that eventually turned into Neuromancer, those first 40 pages were the beginning of the second book, Count Zero.

I’m also thinking, may be me, but in some respects, Count Zero is actually a tighter text than its older sibling.

I was wondering if I’d ever actually read this copy, the book that was sitting on my shelf. Must’ve, though, as there’s an underlined passage about halfway through it, some reference to an allusion to something I don’t recall.

Then, the topic veers. Hold onto the handrails. See: it’s about killing common garden pests, advice, I thought, about killing armadillos:

>> Usually have to hit them in the head, and I’m not sure but they might have
>> second brain in their tail, more like an autonomous motor system.
>
> No, sugar, you’ve got your mammals mixed up. That’s men…and I’ve never heard
> it called a tail before.

The web writer’s weekend coffee group was a little subdued, as apparrently a number of folks were worrying through details.

I was not in a band. I was never in a band. And the name they came up with sounded like a 90’s name, not hair metal from the 80’s.