1. Cabinet - page 1
1. Cabinet - page 1
William Gibson published most of this opening Chapter as the first three Fragments of a Hologram Bill -on his blog entitled
- Cabinet
- Hold the Coprophagia
- Cricket
Mentions of characters from the previous novel Spook Country such as Hollis Henry and Reg Inchmale and Hubertus Bigend (who also featured in the earlier Pattern Recognition, establishes Zero History as the third novel in, what is presumably, a trilogy.
See Zero History blog for William Gibson's Twitter clue:
"Bigend Books" trilogy by William Gibson
It was very interesting to find that there was a real life Private Members' Club in some 18th Century aristocratic town houses on the north side of Portman Square in London:
See Inchmale's club in Portman Square
and the London CyberPunk Tourist Guide article Home House Club, Portman Square for a few photos of the exterior.
At the north west corner of Portman Square, where it meets the southern end of Gloucester Place are three 18th Century town houses, which have been converted into a luxurious private members club.
The Home House Club (pronounced "hume", after the Scottish / Berwickshire aristocratic clan, to whom at least one British Prime Minister Sir Alec Douglas-Home was related) occupies Numbers 21, 20 and 19 Portman Square. The entrance to Number 21 is on the western, Gloucester Place side of the block, and Numbers 20 and 19 are on the main Portman Square façade.
This real life club, may have influenced the fragment of cyberpunk literary author William Gibson's next novel, mentioning as it does the character of Inchmale, who appeared in Spook Country
See some discussion on the official William Gibson board discussion forum
Inchmale's club in Portman Square, which speculates on a fragment of text (which may, or may not actually end up in a novel) released by the author on his blog on 1st January 2009.CABINET (HAPPY NEW YEAR) posted 12:09 AM
Inchmale's club, in Portman Square, was called Cabinet. It was a peculiarly narrow place, apparently occupying half of the vertical volume of a townhouse whose expensively forgettable façade reminded her of a sleeping face.
[...]
Apart from a futuristic architect designed House bar at Number 21,
the interior decoration evokes 18th Century aristocratic opulence, including
Named after a former resident of House No 20 who had an apartment here after the Second World War during his tenure as Master of the Queen's Art Collection.
[...]
This blurb conveniently forgets to mention Anthony Blunt's espionage career as a KGB spook, linked to the notorious Philby, Maclean and Burgess spy scandals, which rocked the British intelligence services in the 1950s and 1960s, and which was covered up by the establishment for many years, and which led to the stripping of his knighthood, when it was eventually made public. The treachery of the Cambridge Five spy ring has been hugely influential on British spy fiction, drama, tv and films.
Latitude: N51:30:59 (51.516433)
Longitude: W0:09:24 (-0.156541)More images of 21, 20, 19 Portman Square:
The Question raised in the WGB thread about whether "Inchmale's club" implies his Membership of, or Ownership of the Club is answered in this initial Chapter:Cabinet,so called, of Curiosities, unspoken. Inchmale had become a member shortly after they,
[...]
Inchmale had argued that joining Cabinet would ultimately prove cheaper than a hotel.
(page 2)
down the stairs with the widdershins twist
(page 3)Widdershins means anti-clockwise, but evokes connotations of contrariness - see the Wkipedia article Widdershins
Inchmale, on first pointing it out to her, had suggested that she adopt it as a totem, her spirit beast. He claimed tat he already had, subsequently discovering he could magically herniate the disks of unsuspecting music executives at will, causing them to suffer excruciating pain and a profound sense of helplessness.
A herniated disk usually refers to a "slipped disk" in ones spine, but given the music business context, I initially took it mean that Inchmale could magically cause music disks (CD or DVD) to cause music executives pain.
This is another use of the imagery of Voodoo style magic or shamanistic religion, which William Gibson has explored in previous novels, such as Count Zero and Spook Country
William Gibson playfully sets up another self-referential feedback loop, between his text and an external reference source like Wikipedia (or even a classical Dictionary) which is reminiscent of his then fictional Wikipedia entry for Hubertus Bigend in Spook Country. which, of course, ended up as part of the real wikipedia entry for Hubertus Bigend.
Most readers will have to look up the definition of Echolalia
According to Wikipedia:
Echolalia is the automatic repetition of vocalizations made by another person
Holly Henry does exactly that, when remembering Inchmale's description of the ornate bed, the Piblokoto Madness bed (keep a watch out for this phrase in future chapters)
pages 5 and 6
The Piblokoto Madness bed, Inchmale called it. "Intense hysteria," she recited now, from memory, "depression, coprophagia, insensitivity to cold, echolalia".
[...]
"Hold the coprophagia," she added.
[...]
"Echolalia," she said,
[...]
"Intense hysteria," she said.
[...]
"Coprophagia." Briskly, as if announcing a busy department in a large hospital.