The Gernsback Continuum

I'll start by sharing what Paul Brians had to say about "The Gernsback Continuum":

William Gibson: "The Gernsback Continuum" p. 457

Gibson originated cyberpunk in Neuromancer, but he cannot be pigeonholed in any one genre. However, this story displays one fairly constant aspect of his style: a dense allusiveness which demands a good deal of general knowledge, particularly of popular culture. Hugo Gernsback was the founder of the first science fiction magazines and in some ways the inventor of the modern concept of SF. The annual award for the year's best writing is called the "Hugo" in his honor. His main era of activity was the 20s and 30s, and this story is an affectionate look at the "alternate future" described in the pages of and depicted on the covers of his magazines. A common concept in SF is the notion of parallel worlds. For various reasons it is argued that an infinite number of variations on our universe may exist side by side, so that every sort of world that could exist, does exist. None of the scientific speculations about this theory involve being able to pass from one parallel universe to another, but that is of course the main point of interest in SF treatments of the theme. Gibson takes for granted that his audience is familiar with the concept, and then begins to play with it. The version of the world dominated by " American Streamlined Moderne" will be more entertaining if you are familiar with the style, which was especially prominent in the thirties and forties, promoted as futuristic, but now looking hopelessly though charmingly dated. If you' ve ever seen the old black and white movie serials of Buck Rogers or Flash Gordon you'll have some idea, but better sources are the two films mentioned in the story: Fritz Lang's silent Metropolis and Things to Come, based on a book and introduced by H. G. Wells. Ming the Merciless was, of course, the cruel ruler of the Planet Mongo and Flash Gordon's greatest enemy. How have modern times prevented the young girl from Virginia from being identified as a witch? What does the narrator's last speech mean?

I think what Brians wrote may explain my confusion in this story, I'm sure it would have been more interesting if I knew about the style, but that wasn't the case. I'm guessing the author was talking about a man in the 80s taking pictures for a woman obsessed with 30s-40s American culture, who then "sees" things from "The Dream" of the future people from back in the 30s-40s had. These things he saw may or may not have been there. Kihn advises that bad television/media will erase the "Art-Deco fruitoids" from his head and his visions, which amused me.

Definitely not my favourite story but I do have a favourite few lines from the first page of the story:
"my vision is naroowing to a single wavelength of probability. I've worked hard for that. Television helped a lot."

Sounds like my Dad, back in the day, lecturing us on watching too much of that damned "idiot box."

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