Case: The Antihero

For those of you who are unaware of what an antihero is, it is someone who would not normally be considered ‘hero material’. The scrawny, washed-up, drug addicted, suicidal cyberhacker that goes by Case is not somebody that you would think would be the focal point of a novel. Case who had not entered cyberspace for over a year because he got caught stealing for his employers regains the ability after befriending Armitage. Throughout the novel Case is rekindled with his love of the matrix and at the end of the novel his life had flipped in almost everyway possible. Antiheros are becoming more and more popular in the ‘post-postmodern’ era because the character can be easily relatable to a large audience in today’s society especially in the 10-30 year old range.

How many heroes where glasses?

Technology in Neuromancer

“You have time to do what I'm hiring you for, Case, but that's all. Do the job and I can inject you with an enzyme that will dissolve the bond without opening the sacs. Then you'll need a blood change. Otherwise, the sacs melt and you're back where I found you.” (Gibson 46).

“They all seemed to have carbon sockets planted behind the left ear, but she didn't focus on them. The counters that fronted the booths displayed hundreds of slivers of microsoft, angular fragments of colored silicon mounted under oblong transparent bubbles on squares of white card- board. Molly went to the seventh booth along the south wall. Behind the counter a boy with a shaven head stared vacantly into space, a dozen spikes of microsoft protruding from the socket behind his ear.” (Gibson 57).

After thinking about all the technology that is incorporated in the novel it was interesting to find that Gibson for the most part casts a negative shadow on the technology. Or at least he shows that although it may be beneficial there are downsides as well. The first quotation is during a scene following Cases surgery. In this case the surgery was a good this because it did save Case’s life however Armitage puts toxic sacs in Case’s system, which obviously demonstrates how easily technology can be used for ‘evil’ purposes in a futuristic setting. The second quote talks about microsofts in Neuromancer. In Neuromancer the people have slits behind their ears where they can insert chips that can give them abilities that would otherwise take hours upon hours to master. Once again this can be viewed as a good and bad thing. Good in the sense that people can gain new skills without having to put in the hours of practice, but bad in an ambiguous fashion because if anybody could say learn fly a plane then that takes away from the personality of someone who has worked hard and has had the passion to fly plane. This is just one example but in essence microsofts take away the ‘unique-factor’ that make us who we are.

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Ambiguity in Neuromancer

“A year here and he still dreamed of cyberspace, hope fading nightly. All the speed he took, all the turns he'd taken and the corners he'd cut in Night City, and still he'd see the matrix in his sleep, bright lattices of logic unfolding across that colorless void.” (Gibson 4-5).

“He realized that the glasses were surgically inset, sealing her sockets. The silver lenses seemed to grow from smooth pale skin above her cheekbones, framed by dark hair cut in a rough shag. The fingers curled around the fletcher were slender, white, tipped with polished burgundy. The nails looked artificial.” (Gibson 24).

Technology has progressed so much since this novel was written in 1984 but there has been two constant that has been associated its addictive qualities and how it takes away from human personalities. The first quote happens within the first few pages of the novel and right off the bat the reader notices how much technology is a part of everyday living in this futuristic setting.  Much like someone of today’s era Case is constantly thinking about going into cyberspace and has trouble living without it. The second quotation is an example of how we are becoming more and more like/dependent on technology. The quote is describing Molly’s appearance and it is fitting that the first thing that Case notices are her inset glasses rather than her physical features.

What is the first thing you notice?

Imagery in Neuromancer

“Shadows twisted as the holograms swung through their dance. Then the fear began to knot between his shoulders. A cold trickle of sweat worked its way down and across his ribs. The operation hadn't worked.  He was still here, still meat.” (Gibson 37).

When Gibson talks about people who are

100% human he wants you to think of them as meat. 

In other words just flesh and nothing more.

“But the dreams came on in the Japanese night like livewire voodoo, and he'd cry for it, cry in his sleep, and wake alone in the dark, curled in his capsule in some coffin hotel, his hands clawed into the bedslab, temperfoam bunched between his fingers, trying to reach the console that wasn't there.” (Gibson 5).

Although these quotes have no relation as far as the content is concerned, both quotes demonstrate the type of atmosphere the characters live in through the use of imagery. The key word in the first quote is meat.  It is there to better describe a person that has not had any biomechanical surgery. It is referenced throughout the novel and gives the reader the understanding that people that have not had any biomechanical surgery are often the lessers of their society. In the second quote Gibson uses dark imagery by using words such as night, voodoo, dark, and coffin to give the reader the impression that the surrounding is somewhat grungy.

What Makes Us Human?

Could we see an breakthrough in AI

technology in the near future?

One of the main themes that constantly arises in the novel is the question of what is it that makes us human? In the novel there are many different personalities. They include humans, ROM constructs, RAM projects and artificial intelligences. All of them have the ability to communicate and think, however they all different in special ways. In the novel humans aren’t different. Humans are humans.  RAM constructs think that they are real, however they are not. Case has to make a decision in the novel to be with a RAM construct of a past lover for the rest of his life but thinks better of it and decides not to because at the end of the day the RAM construct was not the person he fell in love with. ROM constructs are similar as they are not real people they are recordings of the personalities of dead people. In the novel Cases close friend the Dixie Flatline helped Case throughout the novel even though he passed away.  Although still being alive (well sort of) Dixie does not enjoy life. He is stuck his body at the time he died. In other words he cannot gain new experiences. Much like a Read-Only-Memory document on a computer Dixie cannot be changed. Near the end of the novel Dixie gets his wish and gets erased, no longer existing. Then there are the Artificial Intelligences or AIs for short. They can be beneficial but can also be detrimental. In the case of Wintermute, its intelligence is through the roof but it lacks personality, which is essentially what makes humans. However Wintermute can use other people personalities when talking to people.

Women of the Future

William Gibson portrays women in his futuristic world much differently than the majority of authors. A prime example is in a secondary character named Molly. She acts as the protagonist’s sidekick but not in the typical sense. Often she is the one who is getting into physical altercations while Case is doing his work in cyberspace. Molly’s personality is much like her appearance. With her razor-retractable fingernails and her glass implants for eyes she is rugged and has no remorse, as she is not faced after killing people for financial gain or for fun. Although her personality is a bit extreme it is a good example of how the personalities have progressed over the decades.

“The eyes are said to be windows to the soul.  Many emotions and states of mind are conveyed by the eyes.  Molly, however, does not relinquish this power of perception to others. The lenses were empty quicksilver, regarding him with an insect calm.” (Gibson 30).

This quote further exemplifies how the other characters perceive Molly’s emotions. If you look into her eyes she is emotionless which is quite the opposite of women from the modernist era. 

Although this is not Molly this would be what her facial
expression would typically look like.

My Favourite Quote

In a book that was filled with technical vocabulary and a storyline that had to be followed closely because of it’s complexity. It was refreshing that the book finished with such a simple generic back and forth between Case and Wintermute to put an end to the novel.

“So what's the score?  How are things different?  You running the world now?  You God?'

“Things aren't different. Things are things.” (270)

Indeed, Things are Things

In the quote Case is resting in bed while Wintermute showed up on a projection screen. Wintermute merged with Neuromancer and become the Matrix. Case was unaware of what this meant for the world. Wintermute (the AI) answers things are things, which is insinuating that everything is the same as what it was before Wintermute became the matrix.