Classical Jazz 2005: Home

My Review of The Miracle Worker

Many years ago, on Amazon.com, I was searching for the latest books by William Gibson when I discovered an interesting coincidence: The Miracle Worker was also written by William Gibson. However, not the William Gibson I was looking for.

Just to honor the goddess of perversity, I decided to adopt the persona of a cyberpunk fan and write a review of The Miracle Worker.

Not a CyberPunk Book

This book is not a CyberPunk book. I thought it was and bought it, but it turned out to be about some deaf, dumb, and blind chick. This book does not mention computers, exotic drugs, or bleak urban decay. It may be a good book if you like deaf, dumb, and blind people - but I'm not into that.

Every once in a while Amazon deletes the review, but I keep putting it back. It has been interesting to see the effect my review had on other reviewers.

Some tried to be helpful in pointing out my mistake:

A good play by a non-cyberpunk

I read the play in sixth grade for school, and liked it. Vivid, clear, what else can I say? I also like William Gibson's cyberpunk works. However, the William Gibson who wrote The Miracle Worker is not the same William Gibson who wrote Neuromancer. They're two different men. In fact, the script writer was born in 1914 and the cyberpunk writer was born in 1948.

Not the same Gibson, May 31, 2005
Reviewer: conservative_in_denver (Denver)

If you're looking for cyberpunk reading material, be warned: this is NOT the same William Gibson of Neuromancer fame, though a brief perusal of the Amazon description should have told you this.

William Gibson, the cyberpunk novelist, was born in 1948; this play by William Gibson, the playwright (b. 1914), was first produced in 1959. To the idiots leaving 1-star / negative reviews of this item without having read the description, you got what you deserved. A quick perusal of Gibson's own website gives you a concise list of the books he's written.

Fair enough.

This guy got into the spirit of things:

A welcome addition to the cyberpunk genre
Reviewer: Shantell Powell "The ShanMonster" (Kitchener, ON, Canada)

The Miracle Worker is the astonishing tale of a blind and deaf cypherpunk named Helen who overcomes her disabilities with the help of a chopshop worker-turned-doctor named Anne. Helen lost her sight and hearing in a hacking session gone horribly wrong. She flatlines, but Anne brings her back from certain death.

A fter a lot of soul-searching, Helen is able to netrun once again. Anne develops specialized wetware, turning Helen into a cyborg.

Helen's first interactions with Black ICE in this new form are nailbitingly tense. It's only with the help of Anne that Helen is able to confront her own personal daemons.

The Miracle Worker is a welcome addition to the cyberpunk genre, and I highly recommend it. William Gibson is to be commended.

Ha, that was good.

I managed to enrage a 14 year old:

You !#$!@#$!@#s!
A Kid's Review

Before I start the unpleasentries, I would just like to state that I enjoy reading this play, and am currently reading it again for my High School English class. Now, on with the beatings . . . You idots! Going on about "CyberPunk" and all that crapola!!!

If you had any shred of brains in those empty heads of yours, you would have checked to see if this was in fact a "CyberPunk" book. I highly doubt that you've never heard of this play before, and I charge you not to scoff at others who enjoy this sort of literature! If you really don't like it, then say so, instead of comparing to some "CyberPunk" book. If you have read the book and honestly don't like it, then my humble apollogizes for my ranting.

~An Appalled 14 Year Old BiP

Wow, what a potty mouth. Sure, I'll let my son say "shit" and "fuck," but if I ever hear him say "crapola," then the belt is coming out.

 

 

 

 

 

it pays the bills dept

here is something I hope is doing no evil.

could be worse dept

there could be more of them