"I'm not even sure what cyberpunk means," he told a contributor for the
Philadelphia Inquirer, "but I suppose it's useful as a tip-off to people that what they're going to read is a little wilder."
The surface features of Gibson's allegedly cyberpunk style--tough characters facing a tough world, frantic pacing, and bizarre high-tech slang--alienated some reviewers. "Like punk rock . . . Cyberpunk caters to the wish-fulfillment requirements of male teenagers," explained science-fiction novelist Thomas M. Disch in New York Times Book Review, "and there is currently no more accomplished caterer than William Gibson." In Science Fiction Review, Andrew Andrews criticized the "style and execution" of Count Zero, a novel typical of Gibson's work during the 1980s. "It is hodgepodge; spastic; incomprehensible in spots, somehow just too much," the reviewer declared. "I prefer a novel that is concise, with fleshy, human characters." Beneath the flash, however, some admirers detected a serious purpose. Writers like Gibson, suggested J.
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