Reading tonight about William Gibson. Quite a literary career he’s had. He’s turned out what appears to be pretty good work for several decades now…but it is fascinating to me that his most revered work was his very first novel.
What an odd feeling that must be; to have peaked in the eyes of the world—for whatever that’s worth, certainly—with your first-ever novel. On the one hand, you only need to have one masterpiece. On the other…you’re never going to match the peak of your FIRST EVER novel? Damn.
That antidote to all that, of course, is to leave the discussion of “best” and “masterpiece” to other people, and not concern one’s self with it beyond creating what you love and trying to make it as good as you can each time. I have that relationship with my own work, to be honest. As long as it’s good enough for me, I’m good. I can let it go. Let other people love or hate it all they want.
Granted…I’ve only put that into practice in a very, vereerrrryyyy limited capacity thus far. One book. That sold in the low thousands of copies (so far!)…so I don’t really know. I have no real idea what it must be like to receive the attention Gibson has had to navigate. But, the dude is still writing books, so clearly he’s handling it well enough.
Anyway…I finished Neuromancer this morning, like I wanted. It was great! Really enjoyed it. Looking forward to breaking it all down. Genuinely. I have to do it for my recertification as a Story Grid Editor…but I am definitely looking forward to it.
Onward!