Written in 1984
·
Chapter
1
In Neuromancer, the reader is introduced to
a dystopian world filled with social decay, rampant drug use, and
ridiculous technology. The setting seems quite dark and forbidding, “the
sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.”
(Gibson 3) Case, who is the main protagonist of the novel, is introduced in a grungy bar
called the Chat. We learn that he is a washed up ex cyber-space ‘cowboy’
(someone who uses cyberspace to hustle for money) who was brutally maimed by
his former employers for stealing from them. He appears burnt out, and he
converses with the Chat’s bartender Ratz, who is an ugly and fat man with a dry
sense of humor. Ratz’s appearance correlates with the symbol of decay, “his
teeth a web work of East European steel and brown decay.” (3) Steel also seems
to be an important motif in the story because it indicates a kind of tangible
foreign presence throughout this futuristic world representing different
things. For example, Steel from East Europe is
used to support Ratz’s decaying teeth, Japanese steel is used to describe a
deadly shuriken, and German steel is used to describe a cigarette lighter that
looks like a surgical instrument.
Case has a witty and dead sense of humor, and he seems
somewhat suicidal over the fact that he can’t jack into cyberspace anymore. He
continues to drink away his sorrows and pop amphetamine pills (known as a
‘dex’) while conversing with Ratz about his problems. Case’s chemical
dependencies are an important theme in the story, as it shows how he has lost
touch with reality entirely. To Case, the ultimate state of altered reality is
cyberspace, also known as the Matrix. The Matrix is a very important symbol
used to emphasize the notion of disconnectedness, as it is referred to as a
“consensual hallucination.” (5) The theme of social decay is also apparent when
Chiba
Since the incident Case has become a
street hustler working in Night city in the Ninsei neighborhood of Chiba city
Japan, and he’s spent a lot of time and money wondering around ‘Black Clinics’
to try and reverse the neurological damage inflicted by his ex-employers. Treatments
specializing in nerve-splicing, implants, and microbionics are known as “black
medicine” (Gibson 6) which is another important symbol supporting the theme of
man’s overdeveloped sense of dependency on technology.
The city where Case lives is referred to as an ‘urban
sprawl,’ a place of immense social decay bathed in electronic light, “the bars
down Ninsei were shuttered and featureless, the neon dead, the holograms inert,
waiting, under the poisoned silver sky.” (7) Massive corporate entities
surround the city.
Case also converses with a Pimp known as Lonny Zone,
who’s also a drug abuser and hustler, another sign of social decay. At this
point Case is poor and helpless wondering around Chiba Night
City
Case remembers a girl by the name of Linda Lee, who
was one of his old girlfriends. He thinks back to the time he found her in an
arcade, where Gibson’s uses literary devices in the form of use of diction and
description of Linda;
Under bright ghosts burning through a blue haze of cigarette smoke, holograms of Wizard’s Castle, Tank War Europa, and New York skyline… And now he remembered her that way, her face bathed in restless laser light, features reduced to a code: her cheekbones flaring scarlet as Wizard’s Castle burned, forehead drenched with azure when
This unique use of literary devices in
reference to technology, humanity, artificial lighting, and imagery is present
throughout the novel, which helps to establish a fast-paced, paranoid
atmosphere. Later on Case meets up with Linda in some rundown coffee house. His
addictive personality is emphasized, “finally he’d seen the raw need, the
hungry armature of addiction.” (8) There is a symbolic concept associated with
fake looking and worn surroundings when Case is talking with Linda Lee in the
coffee place, “everything seemed to wear a subtle film, as though the bad
nerves of a million customers had somehow attacked the mirrors and the once
glossy plastics, leaving each surface fogged with something that could never be
wiped away.” (9) I believe that the notion of ragged and worn down surroundings
indicates the overuse and tearing away of what once represented usefulness and
convenience. Throughout the book there are constant reminders of how things
have degraded beyond any semblance of beauty that they might have once
represented. Both Linda and Case are heavy drug users, and they make no attempt
to hide this. It’s almost as if they’re both operating on permanent highs,
building up to an impending crash.
Night city is also described as “a
deliberately unsupervised playground for technology itself,” (11) meaning that all
things associated with the negative side of technology are deeply rooted. Case
is captivated by the image of Shuriken as well, which signifies deadly force
and the type of life he’s living because they’re fast, sharp, and reckless. He
visits a man named Julius Deanne, a 135 year old Welshman who’s had “his
metabolism assiduously warped by a weekly fortune in serums and hormones.” (12)
Julius (or Julie, as Case calls him) is an example of how extreme technology
has become. Julie is obsessed with well-tailored suits and preserved ginger,
perhaps indicative of his desire for perfection and preserving himself. He also
wears highly stylized “prescription lenses, framed in spidery gold, ground from
thin slabs of pink synthetic quartz and beveled like the mirrors in a Victorian
dollhouse.” (12) The notion of decadent style is portrayed heavily through
Julius. He also calls everybody ‘old son,’ “you seem to be clean, old son.”
(12) This shows that he represents a sort of remnant of civility and properness
that seems to have vacated society. We learn that Julius is an
importer/exporter of antiques and fine goods, and that he appears to have a
seamless pink face. Case goes to him for information because Julie has
connections and he seems to know about everything that’s going on, and case
wants to find out about Wage’s plans, “Julie, I hear Wage wants to kill me.”
(13) Case is a highly paranoid person, and he thinks everyone is out to do him
harm. Julie tells him that Wage doesn’t want to kill him and more obscure
references are made about Julie’s belongings and his appearance.
In a fit of paranoia, Case believes
someone is after him and he takes off into the night, so he goes off to rent a
gun. Gibson seems to describe every object in extreme detail, perhaps
indicative of a highly paranoid state of drug-induced perception, “A Japanese
girl in a sleeveless black t-shirt glanced up from a white terminal, behind her
head a travel poster of Greece
Case picks up a weapon and travels
through an arcade. He believes he’s being followed and he begins to run while
everything around him turns into a blur of holograms and light. It turns out
that nobody was following him, and he ends up crashing through the arcade
causing damage and problems along the way. He returns home, which is a place known
as ‘CHEAP HOTEL,’ because “if the place had another name, Case didn’t know it.”
(19) This goes to show that Case is completely lost in the surroundings of
reality because he does not care about them. All that matters to him is getting
jacked back into the matrix, and it pains him to know that he can’t. Instead,
he wonders around stoned on drugs in an attempt to reclaim any sense of himself
by cutting loose street deals just to survive. Inside Cheap Hotel, coffin like living
quarters that symbolize the dehumanization of technology. A life of rapid
degeneration of society brought upon by rampant body altering black clinics and
drugs are literally manifested by the tomb in which Case sleeps. Case sets up a
deal to sell some stolen RAM and heads out at sunrise to Ratz’s bar. Strong descriptions
are used to describe the falseness of Wage’s face, “it was a tanned and
forgettable mask. The eyes were vat grown sea-green Nikon transplants.” (21) No
character seems to be their real self, as if they’re shielded behind a façade
of artificiality.
Case thinks Wage is going to kill him
when he comes into the bar, but Ratz threatens him with a riot shotgun so no
trouble erupts. He begins to feel the burden of his endeavors, “Case felt the
weight of the night come down on him like a bag of wet sand settling behind his
eyes.” (23) His condition seems to be steadily deteriorating. Case explains
that “towns like this are for people who like the way down,” (23) in regards to
Ninsei.
Case returns home to cheap hotel to
find that his Coffin-like apartment has been broken into. He enters the room
and finds a woman threatening him with a flechette pistol. The woman tells Case
that Linda took some of Case’s hardware, and she is described by having
“mirrored glasses. Her clothes were black, the heels of black boots deep in the
temperfoam.” (24)We find out that her name’s Molly, and that she’s been
following Case the whole time. She is offering him a job and wants him to work
for her boss. Gibson has portrayed her as strong and independent character,
“because if you try to fuck around with me, you’ll be taking one of the
stupidest chances of your whole life.” (25) She possesses “ten double-edged,
four-centimeter scalpel blades,” beneath her nails, which are retractable and
deadly, another sign of how technology has been twisted into a form of death-dealing
and menace.
·
Chapter
2
Case is taken by Molly to the Chiba Hilton hotel where
he meets a man named Armitage. It turns out that he’s an ex-special forces
agent from a war that had happened not too long ago. He reveals a piece of
information with which Case is not comfortable with, “we invented you in Siberia , Case.” (28) Armitage mentions ‘Screaming Fist,’
which is the name of a series of virus programs used in the war. Case learns
that “the prototypes of the programs you use to crack industrial banks were
developed for Screaming First.” (28) Case’s programs are referred to as
icebreakers, and they are designed to break “ICE,
intrusion countermeasures electronics.” (28) Armitage hints that he wants
to use Case’s exceptional abilities, but Case reminds him that he cannot do so
because of his injury from his former employers. Armitage mentions that “our
profile says you’re trying to con the street into killing you when you’re not
looking,” (28) hinting at Case’s suicidal tendencies. Then Armitage makes a
very intriguing offer, “what would you say if I told you we could correct your
neural damage, Case?” Case replies with “I’d say you were full of shit.” He
clearly has trust issues on every level, and he feels that nobody is worth
trusting anymore.
Case ventures out into a yard with Molly to discuss
the deal. There’s an ever-present Asian style to their surroundings, “white
boulders, a stand of green bamboo, black gravel raked into smooth waves.” (29)
Molly’s appearance is also described,
She hooked the thumbs in the belt loops of
her leather jeans and rocked backward on the lacquered heels of cheery red
cowboy boots. The narrow toes were sheathed in bright Mexican silver. The
lenses were empty quicksilver, regarding him with insect calm. (30)
Lacquered and silver objects are present throughout
the story, and I believe they are a symbol representing the fake sheen of what
the future represents. Everything’s fine and shiny on the outside, but it’s
entirely fake and for aesthetic purposes only. Case refers to Molly as a
“street-samurai,” which is an interesting comparison of something modern vs. something
considered traditional. To accompaniment of steel with the company it was
manufactured in is also a symbol, “she lit it for him with a thin slab of German
steel that looked like it belonged on an operating table.” (30) I believe that
this is to describe how certain countries produce things of steel as a tangible
representation of their presence in foreign countries. At other times steel is
described as being cold and possessing an odor, “cold steel odor. Ice caressed
his spine.” (31) Steel seems to be a mystical element of solidness and
paranoia. It’s shiny and useful but somehow dangerous, just as the shiny
shuriken from the first chapter is described.
Another important literary device in
Gibson’s storytelling is the use of poetic style description. An example of
this is when Case is undergoing neurosurgery to repair his damage,
Hold
still. Don’t move.
And Ratz was there, and Linda Lee,
Wage and Lonny Zone,
a hundred faces from the neon forest,
sailors and hustlers and
whores, where the sky is poisoned
silver, beyond chain link
and the prison of the skull. (31)
Where the sky faded from hissing
static to the noncolor of
The matrix, and he glimpsed the
shuriken, his stars. (31)
These bizarre poetic allusions create
a depressing fantasy-like feeling in regards to the decay and strangeness that
is omnipresent in Ninsei. Molly threatens Case when he tries to move during his
treatment, “You don’t lie still, I’ll slit your fucking throat. You’re still
full of endorphin inhibitors.” (31) This is an example of her dominant
personality. Case finds out that his blood and pancreas has been changed, and
that his liver has been repaired. His immediate reaction is to want to go
“punch deck” into the matrix, which demonstrates his impulsiveness, but Molly
reminds him that “Your nervous system would fall out on the floor if you jacked
in now.” (32) They then discuss Armitage for a moment and how he’s out selling
drugs. Molly tells him that they’re going to head off to Amsterdam ,
Paris
The
images came pulsing back, the faces, fragments of
neon arriving and receding… his orgasm
flaring blue in
a timeless space, a vastness like the
matrix, where the
faces were shredded and blown down
hurricane corridors. (33)
Even intercourse has been somewhat
dehumanized by the influence of technology, as if it has almost replaced some
human emotions. In this techno-fetishistic society, almost everything is
related to shiny technological advancement wrapped in bright neon.
Case and Molly head over to the Chat
where Ratz is tending the bar. Case tells Ratz to tell Wage that he’s got his
money to prevent any further confrontation with him. Case tells Molly that he’s
got to take care of some business before they leave, but what he really wants
to do is get information on Armitage to see what he’s all about. Molly picks up
on this, “You’re going up there to check us out with your smuggler.” (34) By
smuggler she means Julius Deane. Julie’s bizarre appearance is described again,
“Deane’s shirt was candy-striped cotton, the collar white and rigid, like
porcelain.” (34) Case asks Julie to find out about Armitage, and he finds out
that he’s got a temporary arrangement with the Yakuza, and a group called ‘the
sons of the neon chrysanthemum.’ Case asks about the war, which turns out
lasted only 3 weeks, and was ended by the ‘Screaming Fist’ operation that Case
unknowingly participated in. Julie describes it as “Great bloody postwar
political football, that was. Watergated all to hell and back.” (35) This is a
clear reference to the Watergate scandal, which underlines the idea of
political abuse and corruption. We find out that Julie was not in the war, but
he says “Wonderful what a war can do for one’s markets,” (35) indicating that
he profited from the conflict.
Case pays Wage off and walks along
with Molly back to Ratz’s. It’s started that “he’d sensed it. Linda’s death,
waiting…” referring to Case’s ex-girlfriend who stole from him. This provides
foreshadowing for later events involving Linda. Case tries to take some of his
octagonal pills of amphetamine but Molly informs him that his new pancreas and
plugs in his liver prevent him from getting high anymore, “You’re biochemically
incapable of getting off on amphetamine or cocaine,” to which Case responds
“Shit.” He tries eating a dozen octagons and nothing happens, showing that this
bothers him greatly due to his heavy addiction to them. Gibson’s description of
a place called ‘Sammi’s’ further develops a dystopian, corroded feeling of the
future,
Sammi’s was an inflated dome behind a
portside warehouse, taut gray fabric reinforced with a net of thin steel
cables. The corridor, with a door at either end, was a crude airlock preserving
the pressure differential that supported the dome. Fluorescent rings were
screwed to the plywood ceiling at intervals, but most of them had been broken.
The air was damp and close with the smell of seat and concrete. (36)
Inside Sammi’s is a crowd of spectators observing
holographic representations of knife-fighters amid a “strata of cigarette
smoke.” Case is with Molly at this point and they travel through the area, and
Molly leaves to get some food while Case stares at the extremely violent
contest of the knife-fighters. This shows how brutal futuristic entertainment
has become, and how clearly desensitized people are towards it. Case’s longing for the thrill of the matrix
is emphasized at this point as well, “Seven days and he’d jack in. If he closed
his eyes now, he’d see the matrix.” (37) His desire to be connected to
technology is intrinsically linked to the existence of his being.
Case then suffers a massive pang of paranoia,
believing that the operation hadn’t worked and that it had all been some dream.
He then sees Linda amidst the crowd and he follows her. As he chases her “the
ghost line of a laser branded across his eye,” indicating that someone with a
laser sighted weapon has targeted him. A thin boy with spiked blond hair begins
coming after him with a razor in hand, and just as he’s about to slit Case’s
throat Molly shoots him with her explosive fletchettes, “the face was erased in
a humming cloud of microscopic explosions. Molly’s fletchettes, at twenty
rounds per second.” (38) The crowd is apparently oblivious to the shootout, as
they are too transfixed on the knife-fight going on. Case gets up and heads
over to Linda’s body. She’d been killed by the boy’s laser, yet it doesn’t seem
to affect him, “Case walked on, feeling nothing.” (38) Molly asks him about his
and he shakes his head, and she tells him that he killed her over the RAM she’d
stolen from Case. What this implies is that technology seems to be valued above
human life, and it doesn’t seem to affect Case that she’s was killed, although
he does seem to care on some level when he asks “Who sent them?” Molly hands
him a bag of preserved ginger, a symbol of Julius Deane, which proves that he
ordered the killing.
They head to the port where Armitage
is waiting with a hovercraft. The chapter ends with “The last Case saw of Chiba
Part Two: The Shopping Expedition
·
Chapter
3
Case, Molly, and
Armitage arrive at a place called BAMA, the Boston-Atlanta Metropolitan Axis,
which is an urban sprawl. To explain the area, you could “program a map to
display frequency of data exchange, every thousand megabytes a single pixel on
a very large screen. Manhattan and Atlanta
Somewhere down in the Sprawl’s
ferro-concrete roots, a train drove a column of stale air through a tunnel. The
train itself was silent, gliding over its induction cushion, but displaced air
made the tunnel sing, bass down into subsonics. Vibration reached the room
where he lay and caused dust to rise from the cracks in the desiccated parquet
floor… sunlight filtered through the soot-stained grid of a skylight. (44)
The reader gets the feeling that this urban metropolis
is choking under decay and dust. Case’s description of Molly also indicates his
technological association with humanity,
He lay on his side and watched her breathe,
her breasts, the sweep of a flank defined with the functional elegance of a war
plane’s fusilage. Her body was spare, neat, the muscles like a dancer’s (44)
His room is described as “empty… blank walls, no
windows, a single white-painted steel fire door. The walls were coated with
countless layers of latex paint. Factory space.” (44) Case’s existence is
frequented by temporary living quarters that don’t seem quite real or
significant in any way. They are just objects with little relevance because the
only real thing in his world is virtual reality. He talks about his travels in Amsterdam and Paris
The colour burgundy, perhaps a symbol of something old
like wood, is also prevalent, “scratching her stomach with burgundy nails.” (45)
Burgundy
The concept of beauty is also
described as being engineered and affordable in the description of Armitage,
“The handsome, inexpressive features offered the routine beauty of the cosmetic
boutiques, a conservative amalgam of the past decade’s leading media faces.”
(45)
Armitage mentions to Case that “You
needed a new pancreas. The one we bought for you frees you from a dangerous
dependency,” to which Case responds, “Thanks, but I was enjoying that
dependency.” (45) This goes to show Case’s addictive, stubborn personality and
unwillingness to change his destructive behaviour. Armitage then drops a
bombshell. He tells Case that “You have fifteen toxin sacs bonded to the lining
of various main arteries… They’re dissolving.” (46) He explains that he has
enough time to do his job, and when he does he will inject him with the cure
and replace his blood. This is to ensure that Case does the job, because if he
doesn’t, he’ll die. This doesn’t seem to bother Case because he’s suicidal
already.
He and Molly travel outside, where it
is summer in the Sprawl. The concept of mass consumerism is indicated here,
“the mall crowds swaying like wind-blown grass, a field of flesh shot through
with sudden eddies of need and gratification.” (46)
Armitage has supplied Case with an
advanced computer system known as a Ono-Sendai, and series of hacking tools. ‘I
saw you stroking that Sendai
In an effort to determine if the toxin
sacs in Case’s blood are real, Molly takes him to a strange place in a Manhattan
…dense tangles of junk rising on either
side to walls lined with shelves of crumbling paperbacks. The junk looked like
something that had grown there, a fungus of twisted metal and plastic. He could
pick out individual objects, but then they seemed to blur back into the mass:
the guts of a television so old it was studded with the glass stumps of vacuum
tubes, a crumpled dish antenna, a brown fiber canister stuffed with corroded
lengths of alloy tubing. An enormous pile of old magazines had cascaded into
the open area, flesh of lost summers staring blindly up as he followed her back
through a narrow canyon of impacted scrap. He didn’t look back. (48)
There is a notion of eternal obsolescence from all the
old decaying technology and books. If something isn’t cutting edge it simply
collects dust and piles up into mountains of waste. It’s almost as if this
society is so quick to irresponsibly discard the junk it once found useful in
the name of progress, and it now surrounds them. It has simply become something
to avoid and forget about. These are important themes in the book.
Here we meet ‘the Finn,’ who is the
owner of the place containing all that old technology. He is described as having been ‘designed in a
wind tunnel. His ears were very small, plastered flat against his narrow skull,
and his large front teeth, revealed in something that wasn’t quite a smile,
were canted sharply backward.” (48) Molly asks him to scan case for any sign of
the toxin sacs in Case. He seems to be obsessed with time and money, “that’s
fine by the Finn Moll. You’re only paying by the second.” (49) He finds nothing
though, but his scanners aren’t very advanced so they’re not sure.
Molly informs Case about the job they
need to do. Basically, a legendary hacker by the name of Dixie Flatline, who is
dead, has had his ‘construct’ locked vault in a library owned by a company
named Sense/Net. A construct is basically someone’s mind stored in a computer
program, and Molly tells Case that he needs to retrieve it from this locked
vault. Case seems very suspicious and paranoid about the situation, “Yeah, it’s
all weird. You’re weird, this hole’s weird, and who’s the weird little gopher
(in reference to the Finn) outside in the hall?” Molly outlines the details of
the plan and Case accepts it, because he really doesn’t have any other choice.
As Case flips through TV channels, he
stops on a show that describes the matrix in what is possibly one of the most
important passages in the novel.
‘The matrix has its roots in primitive
arcade games… in early graphics programs and military experimentation with
cranial jacks.’ On the Sony, a two-dimensional space war faded behind a forest
of mathematically generated ferns, demonstrating the special possibilities of
logarithmic spirals; cold blue military footage burned through, lab animals
wired into test systems, helmets feeding into fire control circuits of tanks
and war planes. ‘Cyberspace. A consensual hallucination experienced daily by
billions of legitimate operators, in every nation, by children being taught
mathematical concepts… A graphic representation of data abstracted from the
banks of every computer in the human system. Unthinkable complexity. Lines of
light ranged in the nonspace of the mind, clusters and constellations of data.
Like city lights, receding…’ (51)
It turns out that this information is
being shown on a kid’s show. What’s interesting is that these descriptions
define our current internet system, yet in 1984 a widespread internet did not
exist. This passage underlines Gibson’s main concepts of cyberspace and the
matrix. His prediction on how computers would evolve is a strikingly accurate
portrayal of current technology. The comparison of Cities to the matrix is also
an important motif because it demonstrates the ideas of vastness, complexity, artificial
light, and a virtual or artificial existence.
At this point it has been 8 days since
Case left Ninsei, and he is about to jack into cyberspace for the first time
since his operation. When he looks at his ‘deck’ (the device used to jack into
cyberspace), he doesn’t really see it, seeing instead the “shop window on
Ninsei, the chromed shuriken burning with reflected neon.” (52) It is clear
that he relates experiences involving computers with strong, exciting images is
in life. He then closes his eyes and jacks in with poetic description,
And in the bloodlit dark behind his eyes,
silver phosphenes boiling in from the edge of space, hypnagogic images jerking
past like film compiled from random frames. Symbols, figures, faces, a blurred,
fragmented mandala of visual information… And flowed, flowered for him, fluid
neon origami trick, the unfolding of his distanceless home, his country,
transparent 3D chessboard extending to infinity. Inner eye opening to the
stepped scarlet pyramid of the Eastern Seaboard Fission Authority burning
beyond the green cubes of Mitsubishi bank of America, and high and very far
away he saw the spiral arms of military systems, forever beyond his reach. And
somewhere he was laughing, in a white-painted loft, distant fingers caressing
his deck, tears of release streaking his face. (52)
It’s almost as if Case belongs in the matrix, since it
appears that his ability to jack into it again has renewed his life’s purpose.
It can be argued that his body is a metaphorical ‘Case’ of obsolete flesh and
blood for his paranoid, matrix-craving mind. This would represent another
important literary device.
The Finn visits Case in his apartment and goes over
some upgrades for his Ono-Sendai to help him with his mission. He installs a
flip-flop switch, which is a device that allows access to “live or recorded
simstim (simulated stimulation) without having to jack out of the matrix.” (53)
He states that it’s to access Molly’s ‘sensorium,’ which would psychologically
place him inside her mind. This is another example of how the limits of
technology have been pushed to such an extreme way, to the point that you can
experience what it’s like to be in another person’s body.
·
Chapter
4
The plan is set to retrieve Dixie ’s
construct from Sense/Net, but first Molly must get some additional help. Case
uses the simstim unit, another form of highly advanced technology, to enter
Molly’s senses, “for a few frightened seconds he fought helplessly to control
her body. Then he willed himself into passivity, became the passenger behind
her eyes.” (56) Molly heads to a place
known as Memory Lane
Soon after, Case makes an important observation about
society, “Fads swept the youth of the Sprawl at the speed of light; entire
subcultures could rise overnight, thrive for a dozen weeks, and then vanish
utterly.” (58) This thematic concept of fads correlates with the frequent
obsolescence of technology. What’s popular at one moment is very quickly
replaced by new and more interesting things.
An important group of people known as the ‘Panther
Moderns’ is explained here. Case is told that he has to work with them on his
mission, and he watches a program them;
There is always a point at which the
terrorist ceases to manipulate the media gestalt. A point at which the violence
may well escalate, but beyond which the terrorist has become symptomatic of the
media gestalt itself. Terrorism as we ordinarily understand it is innately
media related. The Panther Moderns differ from other terrorists precisely in
their degree of self-consciousness, in their awareness of the extent to which
media divorce the act of terrorism from the original sociopolitical
intent…”(58)
It is clear that the Panther Moderns
are some form of terrorist organization with a political purpose. After Case
meets them he referrers to them as “mercenaries, practical jokers, nihilistic
technofetishists.” (59) Case meets a Modern named Angelo, who’s described as
having bizarre appearance, “His face was a simple graft grown on collagen and
shark cartilage polysaccharides, smooth and hideous. “ (59) This ties in with
the motif of an engineered appearance, since people in this society to not
accept their natural image.
Case spends the next several days
cutting into Sense/Net’s ice, and he looses track of time completely while in
the matrix. He has dreams about Ninsei and Linda Lee, which are very confusing
to him, “Once he woke from a confused dream of Linda Lee, unable to recall who
she was or what she’d ever meant to him.” (59) Case has become so absorbed in
his mind and the matrix that he can barely remember or care about the people he
once cared about. It takes him a total of 9 days to break into Sense/Net, and
the hackers (Panther Moderns, Case, and Molly) start their plan.
Molly is designated to be the one who
breaks into the Sense/Net building, and her nickname for the operation is ‘Cat
Mother,’ a clever wordplay on the fact that she has retractable razor claws. The
rest of the hackers are stationed in various locations around the US
Soon after Molly breaks a leg while
fighting her way through to the construct and she administers endorphin analog
to kill the pain. She completes the mission with Case’s assistance and begins
to leave the building. A brigade of riot police are stationed behind barriers
outside with orders to kill anyone who’s leaving because of the Blue Nine
threat, which they don’t realize was a hoax by the Moderns. Molly is shocked to
find bodies of Sense/Net employees stacked three deep in the lobby way as she
stealthily goes to leave. It turns out that the Panthers knew this was going to
happen all along, and plan to use video footage of the slaughter to support
their cause of anarchy. Meanwhile, Case is being observed by the Panther Modern
leader, Lupus Yonderboy, “his hair was pink. A rainbow forest of microsofts
Case leaves the building and thinks
over the whole ordeal. His paranoia seems to be growing again, and he can’t
make sense of the situation. Then Lupus sneaks up behind him and delivers a
message. The message is ‘Wintermute,’ and nothing more. This message appears to
act as foreshadowing to later events.
·
Chapter
5
Molly undergoes surgery to repair her broken leg in
“some giant version of Cheap Hotel, each coffin forty meters long,” (71) which
is another reference to the motif of graveyard-like buildings filled with
coffins. Case meets up with her and tells her about Lupus’s message,
‘Wintermute.’ Molly doesn’t seem to want to discuss it, so they grab lunch and
head back to the Finn’s place. The Finn’s room is described again with the same
feeling of technological decay,
Case felt like the stuff had grown,,, it
was changing subtly, cooking itself down under the pressure of time, silent
invisible flakes settling to form a mulch, a crystalline essence of discarded
technology, flowering secretly in the Sprawl’s waste places. (72)
This time it’s correlated with organic
properties like a flower, as if the discarded junk of society is somehow
threatening to outgrow the new. Molly hands the Finn a piece of paper with some
writing on it, and he seems to become excited over it. He and Molly begin
discussing Wintermute, and Case is completely lost about what’s going on and he
tries to butt in on their conversation. The Finn explains that Wintermute is an
artificial intelligence with Swiss citizenship, and it was built for the
Tessier-Ashpool S.A Company, “It’s got limited Swiss citizenship under their
equivalent of the Act of ’53… Built for Tessier-Ashpool S.A… Wintermute is the
recognition code for an AI. I’ve got the Turing[1]
Registry numbers.” (73) They discuss the idea that Armitage’s personality is in
fact an artificial intelligence, “If Yonderboy’s right… this AI is backing
Armitage.” (73) They postulate that Wintermute is running him. This is all very
confusing to Case, who has no idea what they’re talking about, but the Finn
explains about Tessier-Ashpool
S.A.
We find out that “The Finn was a
fence, a trafficker in stolen goods, primarily in software.” (73) The Finn
explains that he worked with another fence named Smith, someone who dealt with
art history programs and tables of gallery sales, and he goes to the Finn for
information about Tessier-Ashpool
S.A. Lot of cloning.” (75)
So basically, this information leads the group to be
suspicious of Armitage, who they believe is operated by the AI Wintermute,
which is apparently owned by Tessier-Ashpool S.A. Molly tells Case to crack a London
Hours later and Case is alone and thinking about Dixie
Flatline, who we find out was once Case’s mentor who taught him many tricks
about cyberspace, “it was disturbing to think of the Flatline as a construct, a
hardwired ROM cassette replicating a dead man’s skills…” (76) This shows that
perhaps he’s beginning to reclaim a sense of his own humanity through observing
some of the bizarre perversions that advanced technology has come to represent.
As Case begins reflect on more human-related experiences, this may develop into
a stronger theme later on. It is quite clear that in this society, the
degrading perversions of some technology have become widely accepted and
commonplace;
A pair of predatory-looking Christian
Scientists were edging toward a trio of young office techs who wore idealized
holographic vaginas on their wrists, wet pink glittering under the harsh
lighting. The techs licked their perfect lips nervously and eyed the Christian
Scientists from beneath lowered metallic lids. The girls looked like tall,
exotic grazing animals, swaying gracefully and unconsciously with the movement
of the train, their high heels like polished hooves against the grey metal of
the car’s floor. Before they could stampede, take flight from the missionaries,
the train reached Case’s station. (77)
What the office techs are doing would
clearly be repulsive and unacceptable in any public setting today. Just as
traditional Christians would probably try to uphold some sense of moral integrity,
the Christian Scientists seem to exhibit their distaste towards this act, but
don’t seem to do anything about it. I think the point being made here is that
without some form of social control or moral consideration, bizarre, morally
unsound perversions thrive.
As Case exits the train he’s also
bombarded with advertisements promoting cigars and other things, with pulsing
messages like ‘WHY WAIT?’ “He’d seen the ad, or others like it, thousands of
times. It had never appealed to him.” (77) It could be argued that Case’s
contempt for society, the ads, the social decay, and the moral degradation
surrounding him has allowed him to develop a sort of impervious sense of
disconnection form it all. Just as with his desire to withdraw into the matrix,
it is also possible that his suicidal feelings are related to his desire to
escape the madness surrounding him.
While walking back to the loft, Case
has memories about Flatline and his early days in a bar that catered to
cyberspace cowboys and the ‘joeboys’ that learned from them. Flatline is also
known as Pauley, “They’d all heard of Pauley, the redneck jockey from the
‘Lanta fringes, who’d survived braindeath behind black ice.” (77) One of Case’s
memories of Flatline reveals important aspects of his character;
Boy... I’m like them huge fuckin’ lizards,
you know? Had themself two goddamn brains, one in the head an’ one by the
tailbone, kept the hind legs movin’. Hit that black stuff and ol’ tailbrain
jus’ kept right on keepin’ on. (78)
Case referrers to him as “McCoy
Pauley, Lazarus of cyberspace…” (78) It is quite clear that Case looked up to
him, thought of him as a mentor, and as a friend. Case then inserts McCoy’s
construct into his ‘Hosaka’ (brand of computer) and starts conversing with him
as if he were a living being. McCoy’s memories seem to be intact as well when
Case asks him who he is, “Miami London
·
Chapter
6
The Flatline cooperates with Case to break into
Armitage’s London Russia Finland Utah
These actions also mark a profound shift in Corto’s
(who’s hinted at as being Armitage’s) character, who “seemed to grow obsessed
with the idea of betrayal...” (84) His presence in high-profile crime became
prolific. Later, it seems that he was admitted to a French hospital where he
was diagnosed as being schizophrenic. He was then sent to a government
institution and became the subject of an experimental program designed to cure
him through the application of cybernetic models. Case finds out that “He was
cured, the only success in the entire experiment,” (84) but the records end. It
is probable that at that point he was cured with, or began to be controlled by,
the artificial intelligence Wintermute during the experiments.
Armitage then phones and informs Case and Molly that
they have to go to Istanbul
The landscape of the northern Sprawl woke
confused memories of childhood for Case, dead grass tufting the cracks in a
canted slab of freeway concrete… Case watched the sun rise on the landscape of
childhood, on broken slag and the rusting shells of refineries. (85)
These descriptions, in correlation
with his possible feelings of humanism, could hint at the fact that he’s
beginning to have a better understanding of life. Things are starting to make
sense for him, as if a veil of confusion is being slowly removed.
·
Chapter
7
Case and Molly arrive in Istanbul
Armitage gives Case a call while they enter their
hotel room. Case asks to have more information about his assignment, but
Armitage tells him that he knows all he needs to know, and tells him to meet a
man named Terzibanshjian later and hangs up. Molly laughs at the fact that Case
pronounces the name of the man they’re about to meet as ‘Jersey Bastion,’ “You
got an ear for language, Case. Bet you’re part Armenian.” (89) She appears to
enjoy making fun of Case, which is a symbol of their close relationship.
At this point the group gets into a Mercedes and
drives through town after picking up Terzibanshjian, who’s been spying on a man
named Riviera He’s described as “a young man in a gray suit and gold-framed,
mirrored glasses.” (89) Most characters that Case encounters such as Molly,
Julius, and others, seem to all have mirrored glasses. The motif of mirrored
glasses represent that these characters are somewhat secretive and their true
consciousness is hidden from Case, who seems mostly oblivious to the fact.
However, there seems to be a growing part of him that does want the truth.
Terzibanshjian examines Molly’s face, stating that
“You particularly, must take care. In Turkey Riviera
Case, Molly, the Finn, and Terzibanshjian exit the
vehicle and enter into a densely crowded bazaar, where “a thousand suspended
ads writhed and flickered.” (91) Along the way, the Finn points something out
to Case that seems quite remarkable, “Hey Christ… looka that… It’s a horse,
man. You ever see a horse?” The embalmed horse seems strange to them, and “the
thing’s legs had been worn black and hairless by decades of passing hands.”(92)
Case replies that he had never seen one, which alludes to the idea that a great
majority of animal life has become extinct. I believe that this world that has
become so dependant on electronics that the animals of which it used to depend
on have become obsolete, and therefore extinct. This supports the theme of
discarding things that are no longer considered beneficial.
They head down an old alleyway in search of Riviera Riviera Riviera Riviera
Later on Case and Molly walk through a courtyard
discussing Armitage, “do you think he knows he was Corto, before?” (95) Molly
asks him to investigate Wintermute (the AI supposedly controlling Armitage) but
Case says it can’t be done because it’s too complex. Case then changes the
subject to discuss Riviera
I’d soon kill him as look at him…He’s a
kind of compulsive Judas. Can’t get off sexually unless he knows he’s betraying
the object of his desire… he’s done (killed) eighteen in three years. (96)
Not only is Riviera Riviera Riviera Chiba
Part Three: Midnight in the Rue Jules Verne
·
Chapter
8
The location of Freeside is introduced at the start of
the chapter. It is referred to as a
…brothel and banking nexus, pleasure dome
and free port, border town and spa. Freeside is Las Vegas
and the hanging gardens of Babylon , an orbital Geneva
While on their way to Paris Riviera
The group then boards a shuttle
en-route to Freeside. Case seems to be somewhat afraid of flying, “he closed
his eyes and told himself the shuttle was only a big airplane, one that flew
very high.” (102) He’s then hit with space adaptation syndrome, which “was
worse than Molly’s description.” (103) He is then woken by the steward as they
enter JAL’s terminal cluster. His
cigarette addiction kicks in strong here, “eyeing a shred of Yeheyuan tobacco
that had drifted gracefully up out of his shirt pocket to dance ten centimeters
from his nose. There was no smoking on shuttle flights.” (103) This irritates
him greatly, but it might symbolize the idea that Case is beginning to resist
life-harming temptations. It turns out that they aren’t in Freeside yet, but
have stopped in an orbital station called Zion Zion Zion
…had been founded by five workers who’d
refused to return, who’d turned their backs on the well and started building.
They’d suffered calcium loss and heart shrinkage before rotational gravity was
established in the colony’s central torus… Zion ’s
makeshift hull reminded Case of the patchwork tenements of Istanbul
In Judaism, Israel
is most often designated as the land
of Zion Jamaica
in the 20th century, considers Zion
to be a utopian place of unity, peace, and freedom (considered Ethiopia
[1] Alan Turing was a
British mathematician who in the 50s who ran tests to determine if a machine
was intelligent and his name is used to describe aspects of AI in the novel.
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