[faulty attributions?]
Don’t you hate it when you can’t track down a citation? Amazon’s full text search of books shows that William Gibson’s Neuromancer certainly doesn’t contain the words “the street finds its own use for things” or any sentence, in fact, with the words street, use or uses and things in it. The line is all over the web, though, always attributed to Gibson, and usually to Neuromancer. Where it is not. And me, well, I like the line, which makes me think of Neuromancer, and I want to use it!
March 25th, 2005 at 01:29
Could be that Amazon’s search is less than reliable. I can’t believe Gibson didn’t use the word “street” at all in that book.
March 25th, 2005 at 02:06
Oh, he used street a lot, just not close to “use” and “things”, that’s all :)
March 25th, 2005 at 02:51
The quote is actually from an article Gibson wrote called “Academy Leader” in the collection Cyberspace: First Steps. Transcript here.
March 25th, 2005 at 06:01
That’s from his second novel, too. Count Zero. I think it’s the scene where Turner is out in the desert, talking to the Asian doctor from the medical lab.
March 25th, 2005 at 08:11
Martin GL is quite right: “The street tries to find its own uses for things, Mr. Turner.” (p. 69 of the Amazon link above). Since Count Zero came out first (1987), Gibson must have been quoting himself in the “Academy Leader” article. Of course, either would do nicely for a reference. :)
March 25th, 2005 at 14:36
You guys are awesome! Thank you so much!!!
March 25th, 2005 at 21:44
There’s a nice connection between that sentence and Stephen Jay Gould’s notion of “exaptation” as an evolutionary principle (e.g. wings became an instrument for flight not by design but because of a collateral use). Although perhaps the connection is an instance of exaptation, too.