I read the first 3 (all that were out at the time, ~1999-2000) at about nineteen years old by the recommendation of my girlfriend at the time. I wasn’t super-up on the craze otherwise, just vaguely familiar with the name. I continued through the three books (and eventually the rest) because I liked the books, and likewise, I think the primary reasons for the phenomenon are the books. Media attention and chance and other things certainly play a role, but people liked the stories, and that’s what mattered most.

The prose isn’t brilliant, but it’s good enough to not annoy most people, and the characters, the world, and the plots are just better than average, occasionally way better. So my answer to “why the phenomenon,” is a qualified, “the books are just really good.” (Qualified because things can be really good even if not perfect, universally appealing, or even if they have bad qualities.)

Trans rights are human rights. JK sucks.

For a book a lot of people read, Neuromancer is pretty confounding. In some ways, it doesn’t seem so crazy now-a-days, but that’s just the curse of prescient and influential works of art!

Dhalgren is out there! Love it.

As a kid I hated the Fear and Loathing movie and picked up the book and was hooked right away. (I’ve come around on the movie now too.) That was 25 years ago - might be time for a re-read!

Almost any time I start to say, “it’s interesting,” or “that’s actually interesting,” or similar in conversation it’s like my subconscious has warned people (and me now that I know I do it,) that I’m about to say something that’s interesting to almost nobody but me!