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I’m looking for my copy of Idoru. I need to know the magnitude of the earthquake in the cyberpunk novel, which was written in the mid 90s and is about post-millennium, post-earthquake Tokyo being rebuilt by nanotechnology. The buildings appear to rise on their own. The sun is setting and the buildings are growing. Already the business world in the real world wants to know the economic cost of this disaster. It will certain be astounding. Sony has closed its factories and is not sure when they will reopen.

Japan plays a central role in the high-tech and consumer electronics industries, home to heavyweights such as Sony, Toshiba, and Nintendo. Many U.S. and European tech companies also have significant offices and operations in Japan.

Alll those companies are still in the earliest stages of assessing their status in the initial hours after the magnitude 8.9 earthquake struck.

Sony has stopped operations at six of its factories in the Tohoku region of northeastern Japan, according to a Bloomberg report.

The real Russians are offering a helping hand. The fictional Russians in Idoru developed the construction robots. I lived to see Gibson’s post-earthquake Tokyo.

Charles Mudede—who writes about film, books, music, and his life in Rhodesia, Zimbabwe, the USA, and the UK for The Stranger—was born near a steel plant in Kwe Kwe, Zimbabwe. He has no memory...

3 replies on “The Return of Idoru”

  1. This is so self-centered; shut the fuck up.

    My little bother lives in Tokyo. I’m worried about him, but Tokyo wasn’t destroyed–the north is in far worse shape–your Mel Gibson novel didn’t fucking happen. Shut up.

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