When Neuromancer by
was first published it created a sensation. Or
perhaps it would be more precise to say that it was used to create a sensation,
for Bruce Sterling and other Gibson associates declared that a new kind of
science fiction had appeared which rendered merely ordinary SF obsolete.
Informed by the amoral urban rage of the punk subculture and depicting the
developing human-machine interface created by the widespread use of computers
and computer networks, set in the near future in decayed city landscapes like
those portrayed in the film
Blade Runner it claimed to be the voice of a new generation. (Interestingly, Gibson himself has said he had finished much of what was to be his body of early cyberpunk fiction before ever seeing Blade Runner.) Eventually it was
seized on by hip "postmodern" academics looking to ride the wave of
the latest trend. Dubbed
the stuff was being talked about
everywhere in SF. Of course by the time symposia were being held on the subject,
writers declared cyberpunk dead, yet the stuff kept being published and it
continues to be published today by writers like
K. W. Jeter
and Rudy Rucker.
Perhaps the best and most representative anthology of cyberpunk writers is
Mirrorshades., edited by Sterling, the genre's most outspoken
But cyberpunk's status as the revolutionary vanguard was almost immediately
challenged. Its narrative techniques, many critics pointed out, were positively
reactionary compared to the experimentalism of mid-60s "new wave" SF.
One of the main sources of its vision was
William S. Burroughs'
like Nova Express,
(1964), and the voice of Gibson's narrator
sounded oddly like a slightly updated version of old Raymond Chandler novels
like The Big Sleep, (1939).
Others pointed out that almost all of cyberpunk's characteristics could be found
in the works of older writers such as
J. G. Ballard, Philip K. Dick,
or Samuel R. Delany.
Most damning of all, it didn't seem to have
been claimed by the generation it claimed to represent. Real punks did little
reading, and the vast majority of young SF readers preferred to stick with
traditional storytellers such as Larry Niven,
and even Robert
Heinlein. Gibson's prose was too dense and tangled for casual readers, so it
is not surprising that he gained more of a following among academics than among
the sort of people it depicted.
comics and Max
Headroom brought more of the cyberpunk vision to a young audience than
did the fiction.
(Art by Heavy Metal artist Moebius.)
Yet Neuromancer is historically significant. Most critics agree
that it was not only the first cyberpunk novel, it was and remains the best.
Gibson's rich stew of allusion to contemporary technology set a new standard for
SF prose. If his plots and characters are shallow and trite, that mattered
little, for it is not the tale but the manner of its telling that stands out.
His terminology continues to pop up here and there. Whereas an earlier
generation borrowed names from its favorite author,
J. R. R. Tolkien, like
(a new-age music group), "Gandalf" (a brand of
computer data switch), and
(an early fantasy computer game),
there has been a proliferation of references to Neuromancer:
" Meat Puppets"
was a rock group, there was a computer virus called "
Screaming Fist," the Internet is commonly referred
to as "Cyberspace" or--occasionally--"the Matrix," and there
are several World Wide Web sites are named
produced his vision in a time when many people were becoming haunted by the idea
of urban decay, crime rampant, corruption everywhere. Just as readers of the 50s
looked obsessively for signs that Orwell's
was coming true, some readers keep an eye out for the emergence of cyberpunk's
nightmare world in contemporary reality. The fiction may not be widely read, but
through movies and comics it has created one of the defining mythologies of our
The vision of Neuromancer was too confining for a writer of
Gibson's originality, and after a couple of sequels--( Count Zero
and Mona Lisa Overdrive )--he turned to other experiments, such as
his "steampunk" collaboration with Bruce Sterling: The
Difference Engine, depicting an alternative Victorian Age in which huge,
steam-driven computers were developed. In 1994 he returned to Cyberpunk with Virtual Light and in 1995 published another novel set in Japan, Idoru.
Note that Gibson's related story
Johnny Mnemonic was made into a 1995 film.
Official site of the forthcoming Neuromancer film.
Part One: Chiba City Blues
In the eighties, the American image of Japan underwent a profound
transformation. For generations it had been on the margins of our imagination:
as the exotic land of cherry blossoms and geishas, later as the war machine
sending out kamikaze bomber pilots in World War II, and later still as the
source of every sort of cheap, shoddy, imitative gadget. All of these were
shallow images, of course. Japan industrialized not long after northern Europe,
and Western influences had been strong for centuries. But the success of brands
like Sony and
Toyota changed everything. Japan suddenly became perceived as the
cutting edge of modernity. Whereas the rest of the world had looked toward the
U.S. for innovation in the past, young Americans began to think of Japan as the
future, and it became a frequent setting for science fiction. Not that the new
image was any more profound or less stereotyped, but it was certainly different.
in this novel has developed into a small section of the megapolis.
"The Zone" is the decayed inner core of Chiba City. Today Japan has
half the population of the U.S. crowded in the area of California. Urban sprawl
is a reality.
The opening image of the book, comparing nature to technology, sets the tone of
the narrative. "Case," the name of the protagonist, could suggest
detective fiction, or it could suggest technology. His body--which he treats as
almost an alien entity with which he is not friendly terms--is a kind of case
for his mind and for the cyberspace with which it fuses, no more significant in
itself than the case of a computer CPU. The persistent cyberpunk obsession with
the mixture of flesh (called "meat" in the novel) and machinery is
introduced through Ratz's stainless steel teeth--unnatural looking but
commonplace in Communist Eastern Europe. Why is it significant that Ratz is
ugly? Ratz' reaction to the unexpected moment of silence is an old cliché,
but startlingly incongruous in this setting. Case's addiction to cyberspace is
certainly prophetic; someone half-jokingly set up a Usenet support group
for victims of cyberspace addiction:
A "coffin hotel" is a building
which rents out cheap sleeping space not much larger than a coffin. How is a
cyberspace cowboy similar to a traditional cowboy? Different? Case is a classic
illegal hacker; but his present dilemma is caused by a classic crime-novel situation, a
crook attempting to skim the proceeds from organized crime. Presumably the
Russians developed the mycotoxin (fungal poison) as a chemical warfare weapon.
It has blocked his ability to experience cyberspace. Why has he come to Japan?
What evidence of pollution is contained in the paragraph beginning "Now he
slept"? "Arcologies" are huge, self-contained cities enclosed in
a single building, imagined by
"Dex" is dexedrine, a
popular form of amphetimine. What characteristics make Case an anti-hero? What
does he do for a living? The possibility of an underground market for body parts
has been around since organ transplants became commonplace and has often been
treated in SF.
Where had he first met Linda Lee? Repeated references to war in Europe suggest
it has been devastated in the recent past, probably by nuclear weapons.
"Pachinko" is a very popular kind of Japanese gambling machine vaguely
like vertically-oriented pinball. "French orbital fatigues" would be
the uniform worn by French astronauts in orbit." "Yakitori" is
Japanese barbecued chicken, a common street snack. "Sarariman" is the
Japanese word for a businessman employed by a large corporation, formed on the
English words "salary" and "man." Compare with English
slang: "suit." What does it tell us that the Japanese industrial giant
seems to have absorbed the U.S. genetic engineering firm Genentech?
Although the computer images in the novel have had more impact, the biological
ones are almost as important. Why is the "sarariman" in danger in
Night City? "Gaijin" is an insulting Japanese term for Westerners. The
is the biggest Japanese organized crime syndicate, their Mafia. A VTR is
presumably a "videotape recorder," a "simstim" deck is a
kind of virtual reality machine to simulate stimuli, Manriki chains and shuriken
(sharp-pointed steel stars) are both familiar weapons from ninja movies. Hong
Kong is famous for its tailors who can cut and deliver a custom-made suit in
hours. Can you guess why the wearing of glasses would be an affectation rather
than something normal in this society? The pioneering Russian abstract painter
Wassily Kandinsky specialized in shapeless blobs, lines, and smears in bright
colors. More Kandinsky. Salvador Dali
frequently depicted "melted" watches and clocks
(for example, "The Persistence of Memory,
" 1931). Julius Deane uses
expressions ("boyo," "old son") which indicate a British
background. In the paragraph beginning"The cultivation of a certain tame
paranoia" he sees in a display window an elaborate alternative to a pocket
watch. What is it? "Shin" is Japanese for "death." A taser stuns its victims with an electrical shock, but is
not meant to be lethal. Even now it is common for Japanese to wear surgical
masks in public in an attempt to filter out the pollution, and gasps of pure
oxygen can be had from streetside vending machines. What is Case trying to sell
now? Why can Ratz crush a shatterproof plastic ashtray to shards in his hand?
"Wig"="crazy;" after old hipster jazz, "flipped his
wig," "wigged out." Flechettes" are darts
(flèche is French for "arrow"). Molly is an
extrapolation of the "tough dame" of Chandler-style mean-streets crime
fiction. Such femme fatale assassins are a mainstay of modern
futuristic fiction. Do they represent women's liberation? What is her
A "fletcher" shoots "flechettes" (see above). In the operation called
"Screaming Fist" (a typical karate film title) a team had been hired to
destroy a Russian computer network ("nexus") in Kirensk with a virus,
but Armitage failed and was caught. What does "ICE" stand for? What is an
"icebreaker?" Note how computers have altered the economy. Molly tells
Case that his surgery is being paid for in software.
originated as the
faithful defenders of feudal lords during the Kamakura period, but as Japan fell
into disorder, many of them roamed the country as "hired swords" and
as such are one of the most popular subjects for Japanese fiction, drama, and
Ninjas " are a
related group who tend to have a worse reputation, though they could be just as honorable as
"Working girl," is slang for prostitute, though when Molly uses the term it is at
first ambiguous, suggesting that she may be willing to work as a street samurai
for anyone. Later we learn the horrifying truth. Note the mechanical crab in the
courtyard. Endorphins are natural chemicals which provide pleasurable feelings
and suppress pain. If Case has been injected with "endorphin
inhibitors," clearly his tormentors have been trying to make him feel as
much pain as possible. Note that his surgery was carried out mostly without
incisions. To what is the sex Case experiences with Molly compared? Note how
Molly is presented as dominant, highly competent, and--most important--better
informed than Case. Such women are very common in contemporary action fiction.
Why do you think they are so popular with male readers? What is her job?
What is Case trying to find out from Deane? Note how "Watergated" has
become a verb, evidently meaning that the "Screaming Fist" conspiracy
proliferated in many directions. "Emp" stands for
"EMP"="Electromagnetic Pulse" weapons. Nuclear bombs
detonated at certain altitudes with certain characteristics can destroy
electrical circuits, effectively destroying the enemy's defenses. Arpanet, the ancestor of the Internet was first constructed in an attempt to work around this problem.
Here "emps" would seem to be a lower-level weapon aimed at
penetrations like "Screaming Fist." In a turkey shoot the birds are
released to be shot at, therefore a turkey shoot is a very easy form of killing. Screaming Fist was a turkey shoot because the Soviet military had been informed in advance that it was coming.
"Ivan" is the Russian government. Zaibatsus are the giant Japanese
corporations which traditionally employ their male workers for life. What is the
entertainment like at Sammi's arena? Why was Linda Lee killed? Note the
recurring question: "Who is behind all this?" This question
characterizes this sort of paranoid conspiratorial fiction.
Part Two: The Shopping Expedition
The New-York to Washington D. C. corridor is often discussed as an evolving
megapolis. Here the process has gone much further, to develop into "the
Sprawl." Note that the map described on the first page of this chapter
depicts not population density, but the frequency of the exchange of data: the
new definition of civilization. When a star "goes nova" it explodes.
is the Tokyo
airport, Schipol [or more correctly Schiphol] is in Amsterdam,
is in Paris.
The silent train they rode on is a
(magnetic levitation) vehicle of the kind which has been tested in
various places. A powerful electrical charge turns the rails into electromagnets
which actually lift the train above them a fraction of an inch, reducing
friction essentially to zero and allowing for great speed at a low expenditure
of energy. "The heat" is old gangster slang for "the cops:"
here, any form of law enforcement officer. How has Armitage tried to guarantee
that Case will not betray his employers? Krill is the tiny shrimp on which
baleen whales live. The Japanese process it into various fish and meat
imitations. It has been proposed as a source of protein for an over-populated
world. New York is enclosed by a dome, but typically Gibson introduces this fact
by observing its malfunctioning: a freak wind blowing a piece of newspaper along
The cerebral cortex is the most complex and vital part of the brain. A
"cortex bomb" would obviously be very ominous. The team is being
"Dixie Flatline's construct" is an electronic recording of the mind of
a dead "cowboy" (free-lance hacker specializing in penetrating
computer security systems) whose actual name was McCoy Pauley. His nickname
suggests death (alluding to a flat line on an intensive-care room monitor) because he
experienced brain death three times. We will learn more about the monstrous
Peter Riviera later.
One of SF's narrative difficulties is explaining future technology to the reader
in a setting in which such explanations should not be necessary. How does Gibson
justify providing his "info-dump" explaining the origin of the matrix?
"Dermatrodes" would be electrodes which attach to the epidermis, or
skin. A mandala
is a complex Buddhist symbol, often in circular form.
"Spiral arms" alludes the arms of distant
unreachable by any
current technology. Here they are a metaphor for unreachable distant centers of
power on Earth. The idea of a computer or network in which one can experience
virtual reality has been around in fiction for a long time, but was first
popularized in the movie Tron (1982).
The stolen module the Finn has brought will enable Case to experience the world
from inside Molly's body without leaving cyberspace--telepathy made
What distinguishes simstim addicts from cyberspace explorers like Case? Tally
Isham is a simstim star. What does Case experience about Molly's effect on other
people? Note the ironic use of the name "Memory Lane." The sockets
implanted in people's heads were to become a standard feature of cyberpunk.
"Softs"=software; the word is an abbreviation for "microsoft," an obvious allusion to the giant software corporation. The Hosaka computer can function somewhat like the
computer on the Starship Enterprise:
query it vocally and it will tell you what
it knows. The answer is given in multimedia form. Many Japanese women undergo
surgery to remove the epicanthic fold in the eyelid, giving them
"Western" eyes. What does it mean that people are now having
epicanthic folds surgically created? Dr. Rambali alludes to the fact that
terrorists depend on the news media to publicize their causes, but the media
concentrate so exclusively on their acts of terror that the message they are
trying to convey is usually suppressed. How have the Panther Moderns
short-circuited this process? "Panther" is short for the Black Panther
movement of the sixties and early seventies which advocated violent resistance
to racism. "Big Science" is a term for large, expensive research
projects such as the Human Genome Project or the recently-cancelled
Superconducting Supercollider; but the name here probably alludes to the title
of a Laurie Anderson
CD. Anderson's fusion of live theater and technology is
very suggestive of the kind of environment in which Neuromancer
Molly is trying to penetrate the Sense/Net headquarters in
Atlanta to steal the Dixie Flatline construct, assisted remotely by Case
interfering with Sense/Net's security software, the two of them linked by the
broadcast network created and run by the Panther Moderns. Case's mind is using
Molly's body. Why do you think Gibson chose
as media headquarters? A
"blackbox" is any kind of illicit electronic device which can bypass
normal circuits: the original permitted its users to make long-distance phone
calls without paying for them. Strobe lights are known to induce seizures in
certain people when pulsed at precisely the right frequency. How do the Panther
Moderns terrorize the people in the Sense/Net building?
Computer viruses are
written mostly to do simple kinds of mischief today; but in the novel viruses
are tools which can penetrate secure computers, retrieve information, and cover
their traces. Case's code name is "Cutter." Molly is "Cat
Mother." "Brood" is the Panthers. How did Molly break her leg?
How does Case fool the security system into letting Molly take the
"Lupus" means "wolf" in Latin, although it's
also the name of a disfiguring skin disease. Describe Lupus Yonderboy's
appearance. "Mr. Who" is an allusion to the long-running British SF TV
series, Dr. Who,
featuring an unnamed hero usually alluded to only as
"Doctor." Note that although this transaction is taking place in
BAMA, the currency is new yen. The "Doppler" effect makes sounds seem
to rise in pitch as the sound source approaches the hearer, fall as the recede.
Note how Linda Lee continues to haunt him. Here we are first given the name
Why is Molly able to dissect her crab "with alarming ease?" What is
"jive" and what is its function in this environment? Artificial
Intelligence ("AI") is a much-discussed concept which would involve
the creation of a complex computer system which would replicate the functions of
a human brain. Debates rage about whether such a construct would possess
consciousness, but research goes on toward developing AI. Molly and Case are
both bent on learning who Armitage is working for. The tip that Wintermute is
involved leads them to its parent corporation: Tessier-Ashpool S. A. "The
gravity well" is a concept describing the difficulty of getting objects and
people off the earth's surface into orbit, where space colonies
have been built.
Cyberpunk seldom depicts travel to other worlds, but takes high-orbit space
colonies for granted. An archipelago is usually a group of islands. What is the
meaning of the term here? "Spook" is slang for " spy."
Freeside is an orbiting space colony shaped like a spindle (or cigar). Explain
why it is "hard to keep track of what generation, or combination of
generations" is running Tesssier-Ashpool at any time? What does the slogan
"Travel was a meat thing" mean? What does a "joeboy" seem to
In this chapter we learn that "Armitage" is really Willis Corto, one
of the agents who tried to carry out "Screaming Fist." What does
seem to mean in this context? How was he used by the
military? How is Armitage another variation on the machine/human interface
theme? How does the pattern of Armitage's record suggest that he, like Case, is
just a hireling and not an integral part of whatever force is behind this
Why does the Mercedes talk to its passengers as it takes them into
What is the significance of the
existence of letter-writers? How many different kinds of mutual distrust can you
find in this chapter among the various characters? Riviera has had an implant
which allows him to project onto the retinas of his victims whatever he
chooses--far-fetched, but not so unscientific as mental telepathy. What is
significant about the horse that they see? How does Riviera deceive Case while
Terzibashjian captures him? A seraglio is a harem. According to Case and Molly,
who is probably responsible for rebuilding "Armitage" and sending him
on this mission? Alan Turing,
a pioneer theoretician of machine intelligence,
suggested that a computer might be made indistinguishable from a human being.
The "Turing heat" would therefore be police assigned the task of
preventing computers from reaching improper levels of intelligence and power.
"Shopping politicals"=betraying dissidents. How do we learn that
Germany was hit with at least one nuclear weapon during the war? What does the
last line of this chapter signify?
Part Three: Midnight in the Rue Jules Verne
The scene now shifts from Istanbul to Paris. Freeside is called "an orbital
Geneva" in relation to that city's emphasis on offering secret bank
accounts which are very attractive to those involved in illegal transactions.
What subliminal image does Riviera project to Case to symbolize his opinion of
Molly? Since they are taking a Japan Air Lines shuttle from Paris to the orbital
station called "Freeside" it is natural that koto music is playing the
background. Rastafarianism is a movement that originated in the 1930s in
Jamaica, which involves the hairstyle called "dreadlocks," the hope
for blacks to return to Ethiopia (identified with the Biblical Zion),
music, and the smoking of ganja (marijuana). It was inspired in part by the
movement founded by
who tried to purchase a fleet of ships (the
"Black Star Line") to transport blacks back to Africa during the early
1920s. They refer to White civilization, and the U. S. in particular as
"Babylon," the demonic city of Christian apocalyptic writing. God is
called "Jah," short for "Jahweh," which scholars think was
the original pronunciation of the Hebrew name for God (though in the scholarship
the "J" is pronounced as in German, as a "Y" sound). The
rasta dialect is used by the characters in this chapter. Without rotation, an
orbiting space station is in free-fall, and this creates an apparently
weightless environment familiar from televised orbital missions. However, if
such a station is spun around a central axis, centrifugal force pushes
everything toward the rim. The closer to the rim one is, the stronger the
apparent gravity is; whereas at the center of rotation, freefall weightlessness
prevails. Note the various visual games Riviera continues to play. What reveals
that Dixie Flatline is in fact bothered by knowing that he is dead? "Rue
[Street] Jules Verne
" is of course a tribute to the French grandfather of
science fiction. "Stepping Razor" is a 1977 song by Reggae great Peter Tosh (from his album Equal Rights). The lyrics of the opening verse and refrain indicate why Molly's razor implants would remind the rastas of the song:
If you wanna live
Treat me good
If you wanna live, live
I beg you treat me good
I'm like a stepping razor
Don't you watch my sides
I'm dangerous, said I'm dangerous
I'm like a stepping razor
Don't you watch my sides
I'm dangerous, dangerous
(Thanks to Thom Cosgrove for this note.)
Names spelled "Aerol" and "Maelcum" are
approximations of the rasta pronunciations of "Errol" and
"Malcolm." Dub is a form of Jamaican rap music, popular throughout the
Caribbean. Who has persuaded the rastas to cooperate with the team, and how?
A "g-web" would be a retaining net able to absorb the impact of
acceleration and deceleration as the tug maneuvers. Such impact is measured in
"g's" or Earth gravity equivalents. To experience 2 gs, for instance,
is to be feel a force equal to two times Earth's gravity. Rastas avoid saying
"we," using "I and I" instead. A "frog" company
would be French. Gibson has no hesitation about using rather dated slang in his
narrative mixed with futuristic locutions. When Case's attempt to penetrate
Wintermute is repelled, where and when does his mind seem to take him? Where is
he really? What does Wintermute reveal to Case about its true nature?
The description of the plants tumbling over the balconies of Freeside strongly
suggests traditional images of the Hanging Garden of Babylon. The blue sky
overhead is artificial, a recording made in the French sea resort of
does the pseudo-death of Deane haunt Case so much? How does Case react to trees
and grass? What bizarre style does he encounter worn by three Japanese wives?
Why is Case so puzzled about being sent the Kuang Grade Mark Eleven icebreaker
virus? What is Dixie Flatline's theory?
"Vigntième Siecle" is French for "Twentieth
Century," now a "period." Here we first encounter Lady 3Jane
Marie-France Tessier-Ashpool. Why does Peter Riviera's show upset Case so much?
Of the expensive shops, Gucci is Italian, Tsuyako is Japanese, Hermès is
French, and Liberty is English. What does Case learn about Linda from Wintermute
in this chapter? Wintermute seems to be behaving like an old-fashioned melodrama
villain: manipulating the protagonist by endangering the woman he cares about.
The girl in Case's cubicle is a "meat puppet," a prostitute who has
had her conscious mind artificially disconnected from her body by a "neural
cutout" so that she can carry out her duties on "automatic
pilot." Why was Molly so furious at Riviera's sadistic fantasy performance?
"Snuff" refers to film or performances involving the killing of women
for the sexual pleasure of sadists. Snuff films have a long-standing status as
an urban legend--nobody has ever found an authentic commercial example--but they
are commonly cited as the quintessence of pornography. So Molly's boss was
planning to have her killed. Why did she kill the Senator? This story makes
clear what Molly has to gain by remaining an outlaw. What is Molly's theory
about how Wintermute is manipulating her?
Why has Gibson invented the term "nighted"? "Le Monde" is
French for "The World." "Old money" means wealth combined
with social status in old families such as the Rockefellers. "Old
credit" would be mean the same in a culture where physical money no longer
has a function. Remember that Case is using the name "Lupus" now.
(traditional Japanese paper-folding) cranes have come to be symbols of
peace because of their association with the anti-nuclear bomb campaigns in
Japan. What do you think is the significance of Cathy's crane? Examine the
metaphors in the paragraph describe the Case's sensations when the drug hits;
can you see any pattern in them? What do they have in common? Why is the zodiac
on Freeside referred to as a "loser's" zodiac? Cath had hoped to
seduce Case with this drug. What goes wrong with her plan? What is Case's
attitude toward his anger the next morning? "Turing"="Turing
police," defined above.
Part Four: The Straylight Run
Case learns for the first time what his real mission is, from the police. What
is it? "Good cop/bad cop" is a familiar routine in which one
interrogator is angry and threatening while the other feigns sympathy. The
suspect is meant to shrink from the first into the "protective" arms
of the other and reveal his or her guilt. The "Recording Angel" is a
mythical being who records all deeds good and bad to decide who makes it into
heaven. Case's surgical implant procedure, evidently designed by Wintermute, was
so innovative it enabled the illegal clinic in Chiba City to capitalize on the
knowledge involved to get rich. How has this fact led to Case's arrest? Why does
Michèle say that Case has no "care" for his species? Why will
it be difficult for Sense/Net to protest the destruction of the Dixie Flatline
construct? Since both the pilot of the biplane and the gardening robot have
struck, to whom is Case speaking in the last lines of this chapter?
When Case loads the Chinese icebreaker software, Dixie Flatline observes from
outside it that it appears invisible--reassuring for the team. Dixie's
description of the way the virus works is a well-written example of SF
pseudo-science talk: a set of metaphors that make a kind of sense without any
real technical explanation. When Case finds himself facing what appears to be the Finn back in Metro Holografix, who is he really talking to? For the reference to the burning bush, see Exodus 3:2-6. An old philosophical puzzle asks, "If a tree falls in the forest where there's no one to hear it, does it make a sound?" How is Wintermute able to recreate people and places Case knows? In what sense is the imaginary vacuum tube part of Wintermute's DNA? What threat does Wintermute claim to want to protect humanity from? A "folly" is the sort of fantastic architectural construction built in late 18th-century England to suggest medieval or classical ruins. The explanation given by the jeweled head of the Villa Starlight is another example of an "info-dump." What is the source of this one? "Semiotics" here refers to the meaning of the patterns of the Villa. Why does Wintermute need the team to penetrate past the head? Wintermute's last speech is highly ambiguous. Can you puzzle a meaning out of it? In Exodus Chapter 3, God speaks to Moses from within a burning bush.
The meeting with Wintermute this time "killed" Case temporarily. When
he reestablishes simstim contact with Molly, Wintermute informs her of the
connection on her implanted ocular display which normally acts as a digital
clock. This trick is what she reacts to when she says "Cute." The words
in ALL CAPS in the rest of this chapter are similar displays. Molly uses her
tongue to flip a control in her mouth that switches her vision from perceiving
normal light to some kind of substitute which works in the dark. What is a
" as Molly defines it? Molly's story about Johnny reveals that
she and Case have something important in common. What is it? Why do you think
the ordinarily very private Molly is telling him this story? "Fancy
dress" is British for costumes of the sort one would wear to a costume
party. Note how compact discs, invented shortly before this novel was written,
are treated here as antique technology. The combination of hypodermic and spoon
indicates heroin use. The heroin is melted over heat in the spoon, then injected
via the hypodermic needle. What is the symbolism involved in the rerouting of
Molly's tearducts? The Egyptian Pharaohs had their servants killed and buried
with them. Ashpool has been in a sort of suspended animation for the last thirty
years, forever on the brink of death but never dying, an idea that was earlier
explored in Philip K. Dick's brilliant novel Ubik. What does
Case see in the face of the dead 3Jane? (It turns out later that this is not the
real 3Jane, by the way.) What is suggested by the fact that a fiberoptic cable
is connected to her neck? The theme of a rich, self-indulgent family, fallen
into decadent madness, is a cliché of popular fiction, and can be found
in Gibson's model, Raymond Chandler.
What does Molly like about her relationship with Case? His computer completes
the search Case had directed it to make for the name "General Girling"
and the result is displayed by Dixie Flatline on Molly's optic implant since
Case is jacked into her brain at present. Since the display is not very wide,
only a few letters can be shown at a time. The crazed Armitage is trying to
order the Rastas around, but they refuse because this is a "Babylon
war"--a struggle involving outsiders, not really their concern. "Rude
boy" is rasta slang for a tough gang member. Maelcom boasts that he is
tough enough to defy the Zionite leaders and stay with Case.
"Rocksteady" is one variety of Jamaican pop music, a predecessor to
reggae. We learn why Riviera was important, to seduce 3Jane into giving up some
of the secrets of how to penetrate Straylight to Armitage/Corto. When the latter
next shows up, he has flipped back into the past, into the ill-fated
"Screaming Fist" run. Why is Case so upset about Armitage falling
apart? The maddened Armitage/Corto has not only killed a man in order to destroy
one of the computers being used on the run, but he has set the escape pod that
he is in to separate from the ship without closing its seals; he imagines he is
escaping Russia for Finland, but in fact he is hurled into the vacuum of space.
What makes the Tessier-Ashpool corporation more vulnerable than the
zaibatsus? Who is ultimately behind the deaths of Armitage and
Ashpool? What motivates Dixie Flatline to work for Wintermute? The way the books
in the Straylight library are described suggests that books are antique
rarities. The Dada artist Marcel Duchamp created a large sculpture out of glass
and paint depicting some chocolate-grinding machinery and molds and gave it the
characteristically surrealistic title "La mariée mis à
nu par ses célibataires, même" -- The Bride
Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even. The object was badly cracked when
it was being moved early in its history, and the lines of the shards have become
a familiar part of the work of art. Knowing how Molly hates Riviera, her message
to him to be delivered by Case is ominous. Why would spacial disorientation hold
a peculiar horror for cowboys?
Run Run Shaw owned one of the busiest film studios in the world in
churning out hundreds of martial arts films for distribution throughout Asia.
and Clint Eastwood
are pioneering "bad-ass heroes" of action
movies East and West, respectively. Riviera encases Molly's hands in a variation
of old paper "Chinese handcuffs": the more you struggle, the tighter
you're trapped. As in classic hardboiled detective fiction (like The
Maltese Falcon) , the lines of alliance are constantly shifting, and you
never know whom you can trust. Cray manufactures the world's most popular
supercomputers. Using their brand name for a little commonplace monitor raises
the ante on the technology. Molly reveals that she had her own agenda when she
killed Hideo and tried to kill Riviera. Why has Riviera decided to ally himself
with 3Jane against the team?
Chairman Mao Tse Tung's
most famous saying was
"Power comes out of the barrel of a gun." How did Riviera prevent
Molly from really killing the two men at the pool?
With Molly crippled, Case and Maelcum have to penetrate Villa Straylight
themselves to complete the mission, and to rescue her. How do the life-support
systems of the Villa Straylight symbolize the role of the corporation itself?
What does "decanted" usually mean? (Look it up.) What does it mean
when 3Jane says "I was decanted?" Why does she use the present tense
when she says "He strangles her in bed?" 3Jane's mother's idea of
blending the family with artificial intelligences to achieve a sort of
immortality is an old SF theme. 3Jane reveals an important fact about the AIs,
which holds the key to the novel: Wintermute is only one of two AIs. When Molly
abruptly sees her mutilated face, it is of course Peter taunting her again.
When Case next jacks in, he is sent by Neuromancer back to Lady Marie-France Tessier's
recorded memory of a summer in Morocco, where she isolated herself in the bunker
that Case moves into with the simulacrum of Linda Lee.
Japanese Zen gardens consist of a few well-placed rocks
and sand raked in elaborate patterns. Case discovers that the AI manipulating
him at the moment is not Wintermute; it is the other one. What is the point of
Case's complaint about the food? The tan Case has acquired on Freeside is an
expensive luxury. What is Linda's reaction to it? When Case feels himself drawn
down to the "meat" level by the projection of Linda Lee, he defines
the latter in terms of information: spiral DNA molecules and pheromones,
molecules which convey messages through smell. His seduction from the world of
the Net down into the flesh is highly ironic, of course. Why?
"Event horizon" refers to the border of a black hole and is used here
to refer to the limit of the illusion the AI has constructed. It was widely
believed in ancient times that you could only summon up and control a spirit
whose secret name you had learned. There is a famous scene in Goethe's
in which the protagonist tries and fails to identify the
demon Mephistopheles. The name "Neuromancer" is a variation on
"necromancer," a magician dealing in evil spirits and death
("neuro"=nerves, artificial intelligence,
"mancer"=magician). "Romancer" is yet another pun.
The Coriolis force, which causes movement to deviate slightly from a straight
line on rotating bodies (like the Earth) is exaggerated in the rapidly spinning
spindle. Case thinks 3Jane may spare Molly because he has experienced the
latter's attraction to her through the simstim rig. A ROM construct would be
fixed, whereas RAM is indefinitely expandable. Why does
Riviera's blinding of Hideo fail to defeat him? How has Molly gotten her revenge
on Riviera? In an electronic world, old-fashioned mechanical locks are
In what ways is Neuromancer different from Wintermute? How are the dwarfs'
quarters in the palace of the Duke of Mantua like the Villa Straylight for the
Tessier-Ashpools? Case needs to energize himself with hate to succeed in
breaking through the final barriers. Whom does he hate? Again the Jamaican
"dub" music welcomes him back to Freelight.
Coda (Chapter 24)
Why does Molly leave Case? The shuriken, so prominent throughout the novel, was
never used. What does Case think it symbolizes? Why did Wintermute want to fuse
with Neuromancer? What does this metaphor represent: "a series of warm
blinks strung along a chain of winter"?
is the nearest star
to Earth. So what does it mean that Wintermute/Neuromancer has found recorded
evidence of another AI there? Michael or Mikal is not a really rare name for a
woman; so it's difficult to know if we are supposed to read anything into the
name. Constructs of Case, Riviera and Linda will exist forever in the AI's mind. Why do you
think male authors so frequently imagine highly desirable but dangerous women
like Molly who get devastatingly involved with their protagonists and then
Notes by Paul Brians, Department of English,
Washington State University, Pullman 99164-5020.
First mounted May 1994.
Version of November 7, 1999.
Thanks to Timothy Larreau for suggesting links.