Burning Chrome

Short story by William Gibson

"Burning Chrome"

Short story by William Gibson
Country| Canada
Language| English
Genre(s)| Cyberpunk
Publication
Published in| Omni, Burning Chrome
Publication date| July 1982
Chronology

"The Belonging Kind"  |
"Red Star, Winter Orbit"

|

"Burning Chrome" is a science fiction short story by Canadian-American writer William Gibson, first published in Omni in July 1982. Gibson first read the story at a science fiction convention in Denver, Colorado in the autumn of 1981, to an audience of four people, among them Bruce Sterling (who Gibson later said "completely got it").[1] It was nominated for a Nebula Award in 1983[2] and collected with the rest of Gibson's early short fiction in a 1986 volume of the same name.

## Plot

[edit]

"Burning Chrome" tells the story of two freelance hackers—Automatic Jack, the narrator and a hardware specialist; and Bobby Quine, a software expert. Bobby becomes infatuated with a girl named Rikki and wants to become wealthy in order to impress her. Jack has acquired a powerful Russian "icebreaker" program that can penetrate corporate security systems. Bobby suggests that they use it to break into the system of a notorious and vicious criminal known as Chrome, who handles money transfers for organized crime, and Jack reluctantly agrees to help. The break-in is successful, and Jack and Bobby empty Chrome's bank accounts, but they discover afterward that Rikki had been working in a brothel with ties to Chrome. She uses her earnings to buy a set of cybernetic eye implants for herself and go to Hollywood; however, Jack uses his money to switch her plane ticket to Chiba City, where Rikki has always dreamed of going. He buys her a return ticket as well but she never uses it. The news leaves both men devastated, as they have grown to love her, and Jack never sees her again.

## Connection to other works

[edit]

The story was one of the first of Gibson's to be set in the Sprawl, and functioned as a conceptual prototype for Gibson's Sprawl trilogy of novels.[3]

Bobby Quine is mentioned in Neuromancer as one of the mentors of the protagonist. The Finn, a recurring character in Gibson's Sprawl trilogy, makes his first appearance in this story as a minor figure. The events of the story are referenced in Count Zero, the second entry of the Sprawl trilogy.

## Reception

[edit]

The word "cyberspace", coined by Gibson, was first used in this story, in reference to the "mass consensual hallucination" in computer networks.[4]

One line from the story—"...the street finds its own uses for things"—has become a widely quoted aphorism for describing the sometimes unexpected uses to which users can put technologies (for example, hip-hop DJs' reinvention of the turntable, which transformed turntables from a medium of playback into one of production).

Gibson wrote a screenplay for a film adaptation to be directed by Kathryn Bigelow, but the project did not come to fruition.[5]

The BBC did an hour-long version of the story, first broadcast on BBC Radio 7 (now BBC Radio 4 Extra) on 19 October 2007 and read by Adam Sims.

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Mark Neale (director), William Gibson (subject) (2000). No Maps for These Territories (Documentary). Docurama.
2. ^ The Locus Index to SF Awards. Archived February 7, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
3. ^ Wills, David (1995). Prosthesis. Stanford: Stanford University Press. p. 83\. ISBN 978-0-8047-2459-3.
4. ^ Prucher, Jeff (2007). "cyberspace". Brave New Words: The Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction. Oxford University Press. p. 31\. ISBN 978-0-19-530567-8. OCLC 76074298.
5. ^ Gibson, William (May 1994). "William Gibson Interviewed by Giuseppe Salza" (Interview). Interviewed by Giuseppe Salza. Cannes. Archived from the original on 2011-10-11. Retrieved 2007-10-28.

* v
* t
* e

William Gibson

* List of works
* List of awards and nominations

Novels|

| Sprawl trilogy|

* Neuromancer (1984)
* Count Zero (1986)
* Mona Lisa Overdrive (1988)

|

Bridge trilogy|

* Virtual Light (1993)
* Idoru (1996)
* All Tomorrow's Parties (1999)

Blue Ant trilogy|

* Pattern Recognition (2003)
* Spook Country (2007)
* Zero History (2010)

Jackpot series|

* The Peripheral (2014)
* Agency (2020)

Other|

* The Difference Engine (with Bruce Sterling) (1990)
* Archangel (2016)

Short stories|

* "Fragments of a Hologram Rose"
* "Johnny Mnemonic"
* "The Gernsback Continuum"
* "Hinterlands"
* "New Rose Hotel"
* "The Belonging Kind"
* "Burning Chrome"
* "Red Star, Winter Orbit"
* "The Winter Market"
* "Dogfight"
* "Skinner's Room"
* Burning Chrome collection

Nonfiction|

* Agrippa (A Book of the Dead)
* "Disneyland with the Death Penalty"
* No Maps for These Territories
* Distrust That Particular Flavor

Television|

* "Kill Switch"
* "First Person Shooter"

Characters|

* Molly Millions
* Bobby Newmark
* Rei Toei
* Cayce Pollard
* Hubertus Bigend

Story elements|

* Cyberspace
* Megacorporation
* Locative art
* Intrusion Countermeasures Electronics
* Raygun Gothic

Derivative works|

* Neuromancer video game
* Johnny Mnemonic film
* New Rose Hotel film
* Node Magazine
* William Gibson: A Literary Companion
* The Peripheral TV series

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