“The present tense made him nervous.”

— William Gibson

Source: Sprawl trilogy, Neuromancer (1984), Chapter 3 (Case)

Last update June 3, 2021. History

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William Gibson 117

American-Canadian speculative fiction novelist and founder … 1948

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Context: I’m trying to capture what was visceral in the books, which is your first-person present tense narrative, and that’s gonna require a certain amount of subjectivity. In order to be in Katniss’ point of view and in her shoes — what being in a character’s point of view is, is restricting the information that the audience has to what that character has, and not being writer omniscient. I’m not cutting from place-to-place, I’m moving in this serpentine, destabilized path as Katniss wanders through this world. That’s not only true in the shooting style, it’s also true in the editing style. … This was a very conscious decision to create a very subjective style because the books are so subjective, they’re first-person and they’re urgent and you see the world as she sees the world, so that was the reason for it.

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“The present tense made him nervous.”

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