SOURCE: Farnell, Ross. “Posthuman Topologies: William Gibson's ‘Architexture’ in Virtual Light and Idoru.” Science-Fiction Studies 25, no. 3 (November 1998): 459-80.

In the following essay, Farnell explores the recurrent themes of place, space, form, and architecture within the context of posthuman topologies in Virtual Light and Idoru.

What would happen in the future came out of what was happening now.

(Gibson, Idoru)

In the intervening three years between the publication of Gibson's Virtual Light and his latest novel, Idoru, the critical silence has been deafening. The disappointment that greeted his first “post-Sprawl” novel was palpable and has been reflected in the absence of both academic and fan material devoted to it. It was easier to dismiss Virtual Light as a failure and to continue with the plethora of analysis devoted to the earlier cyberspace “trilogy.” But the publication of Idoru now allows us to read Virtual Light as its precursor, thereby...