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"I never saw why I had to give up science in order to write, or the other way around, so I didn't!"
- Gregory Benford
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| Graffiti-Eating Finish | ||
| A wall covering that maintained itself, eating any graffiti placed on it. |
William Gibson's environments tend to oscillate back and forth between gritty urban realism and (often computer-generated) perfection. Sometimes, real world objects are given the same degree of perfection as computer-generated objects.
| The store on Sunset had a finish that ate graffiti. The gang kids would come and tag it; twenty minutes later these flat, dark, vaguely crab-like patches of dark blue would come gliding out around the corner… They seemed to be embedded, a few millimeters down into the surface, which was a sort of non-glossy gel-coat affair, but able to move around under there. Smart material, he'd heard that called. And they'd glide up to the tag, whatever artfully abstract scrawl had been sprayed there to declare fealty or mark territory or swear revenge… and start eating it. |
| From All Tomorrow's Parties,
by William Gibson. Published by Putnam in 1999 Additional resources -
|
Imagine - a clean convenience store! Actually, of course, this is just the Lucky Dragon global chain protecting its brand image.
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'... it was as if the upper part had been removed, like a cut deck of cards.'
Sumomo will get those office workers into good shape!
'... who let their handbag computers carry all the conversation.'
'Thus it came about that the search for a planetiferous sun near a white dwarf star was not unduly prolonged...'
'He led me down the Hall of Portraits to the ego-likeness of the Duke Leto Atreides.'
'It's picking up diphenyl compounds and tetrahydrocarbons...'
'MacIntyre bent down without a word and picked up the wide skis necessary to negotiate the powdery ash.'
