Have you read William Gibson's All Tomorrow's Parties? ... And can you help me?

[project2501]

Just checking whether there are people who read (and like) William Gibson's work. I am translating his latest novel All Tomorrow's Parties and want to check some things...

Not being an English native speaker, I have some problems with apparently trivial things.

Note: I do understand English well enough, I just don't get the meaning in the context - so I don't need you to explain the general meaning of the words, just to put the whole expression in other words... or something.

****** Here come the questions****

Why is the 9th chapter called „Sweep Second“?
13 - Secondhand daylight – secondhand?
45 – Jack Move
68. The Absolute At Large


- speaking of the bridge in San Francisco:
He asks to be taken to the bridge. The cab draws up before a rain-stained tumble of concrete tank traps, huge rhomboids streaked with rust, covered with the stylized initials of forgotten lovers.
???tank traps

AND – for those being from California (but not only for them, of course) – in Virtual Light, Idoru and ATP Gibson mentions NoCal and SoCal (officialy separated as two different countries) – is it invented by him or is NoCal and SoCal common name? I mean – would the proper translation be the Czech equivalents for “Northern California etc.” or is it better to use “NoCal” as to stress the independence?

thanks

T.
project2501@centrum.cz

[lemming]

Hi project2501,

I have indeed heard people from Southern California refer to themselves as being from SoCal. I think translating it either way would be okay, but so would making up your own compound words with abbreviations for the Czech words for north and south. "No" and "So" aren't standard contractions but they're easily understood to native speakers.

As for the others, I haven't read the book. Secondhand usually refers to something that's been used before, by someone else (i.e. secondhand clothing). A tank trap sounds like military terminology... The others I can't even guess at.

lemming