Advertence by Giuseppe Martella
I have used and edited the reader’s guideto Neuromancer by Paul Brians(to whom go my thanks) at the website listed below, which students are invited to visit for full content assessment. The numbers I have put in brackets refer to W. Gibson, Neuromancer (1984), London, HarperCollins, 1995 (which we hold in our Institute Library).Numbers marked in yellow indicate pages referred to or commented upon in detail during the lessons.
Study Guide for William Gibson: Neuromancer (1984)
Index
Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Chapter 7, Chapter 9, Chapter10, Chapter 11Chapter 12Chapter 13, Chapter 14, Chapter 15, Chapter 16, Chapter 17, Chapter 18, Chapter 19, Chapter 20, Chapter 21, Chapter 22, Chapter 23Coda
Introduction
When Neuromancer by William Gibson 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 "cyberpunk," 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 advocate.
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' quasi-SF novels 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, Harlan Ellison, 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, Anne McCaffrey 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. Heavy Metal comics and Max Headroombrought more of the cyberpunk vision to a young audience than did the fiction.
YetNeuromancer 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 "Shadowfax" (a new-age music group), "Gandalf" (a brand of computer data switch), and "Moria"; (an early fantasy computer game), there has been a proliferation of references to Neuromancer: 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 "Wintermute." (The rock group named "The Meat Puppets" existed before Gibson borrowed the term.) Gibson 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 Nineteen-Eighty-Fourwas 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 time. – The triumph ofintermediality!
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NB MostRelevantHyperlinks
William Gibson; Neuromancer
Gibson's short story Johnny Mnemonic(see Martella’s didactic materials),made into a 1995 film.
(May be) forthcoming Neuromancer film.
See alsoScience Fiction Research Bibliography.
Literature, Cyberpunk Sci-Fi, Cyberspace, Critical Theory: An Overview
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Excerptsdiscussed in detail in Martella’s classes: 9 (dead TV screen sky); 11-2 (the Fall);26-7, 67, cf. 302 (the Matrix and the City); 71-2 (Simstim: dis-embodiment); 167-8 (dreaming real: digital imagination); 288-9 (Split AI; Neuromancer), cfr. 306 (Matrix in question: room for human choice); 316: (Blank screen); 317(back to the Sprawl).
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The Novel
Part One: ChibaCity Blues
Chapter 1
9DL: The opening image of the book, comparing nature to technology, sets the narrative tone and subject. 11-2DL:"Case", the name of the protagonist, could suggest both detective fiction or technology, according to the term’s double meaning. His body--which he treats as almost an alien entity with which he is not friendly terms--is a kind of case, or shell, for his mind’s immersionsinto cyberspace(or the Matrix, the term suggesting the biotech intercourse: 26-7DL: “data made flesh”; cf. 67DL: “consensual hallucination”; 76: existential predicament: in the “wonderful ice…he lost track of days”; 78: a place for hacking; 81-2Q: immersion-penetration into; 84-5: manipulation of digital archives). Case’s bodyis no more significant for its owner than the case of a computer for a CPU. – Other significant passages: 9 Ratz’s prosthetic arm, contrasted with Case’s ‘artistic’ mind, sets the recurring low/high tech interplay in the novel. 14DL the stressed cyborg in the big post-modern consumerist city (“an experiment in social Darwinism”). 16 Post-modern (pm: from now on) landscape as déjà vu. 18-9 NightCity atmosphere similar to Blade Runner. 21-2 Julius Deane’s office pm eclectic furniture sets the contrast between literary and cyberculture (a “sort of clockwork typewriter” is waiting there for reassemblage). 26-7DLCase’s like elation through physical fear and through web surfing, sets the genre fusion of detective thriller and SF in this cyberpunk narrative. 30 Note that a “console cowboy”, free to roam the matrix, is compelled to sleep in “a rented coffin” (a very cheap and small room) in the physical world. 36-7 Case’s first meeting with Molly, the other protagonist of the story: as Case is the keen detecting mind, Molly is the tough girl of detective stories
"Miss Linda Lee" may be an allusion to the Velvet Undergroundsong "Cool It Down," which contains the lines "But now me l"m out on the corner/ You know I'm lookin' for Miss Linda Lee/Because she's got the power to love me by the hour." Where had Case first met Linda Lee? Repeated references to war in Europe suggest it has been devastated in the recent past, probably by nuclear weapons. Glossary: "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 always cooked on skewers. "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." "Gaijin" is a Japanese term for Westerners. The Yakuza is the biggest Japanese organized crime syndicate, their Mafia. A VTR is 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.
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. Chiba City (13) in this novel has developed into a small section of the megapolis. "The Zone" is the decayed inner core of ChibaCity. Today Japan has half the population of the U.S. crowded in the area of California. Urban sprawl is a reality.
Chapter 2
44-5 Cyborg sex in a ‘rented coffin’: Molly’s wombis like the matrix to Case (45). 50-2Q: Cyborg deadly duel.
"Screaming Fist" (a typical karate film title, though Gibson probably got it from the title of a 1977 song by the Vancouver punk band The Viletones) a team had been hired to destroy a Russian computer network ("nexus") in Kirensk with a virus, but Armitage failed and was caught. "ICE" stand for “intrusion countermeasures electronics”: thus an "icebreaker" is a sort of computer virus used by hackers or “console cowboys”. Samurai 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 film. " Ninjas " are a related group who tend to have a worse reputation, though they could be just as honorable as samurai. "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. Endorphins are natural chemicals which provide pleasurable feelings and suppress pain. 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 killed? (Her name is probably derived from that of a woman mentioned in the lyrics of the Velvet Underground Song "Cool It Down.") Note the recurring question: "Who is behind all this?" This question characterizes this sort of paranoid conspiratorial fiction.
Part Two: The Shopping Expedition
Chapter 3
57 Back into the Sprawl (or BAMA, the “Boston-Atlanta Metropolitan Axis”), and to his old hacking job, Case feels at home.
Sprawl - 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. Narita is the Tokyo airport, Schipol [or more correctly Schiphol] is in Amsterdam, Orly is in Paris. The silent train they rode on is a maglev (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. "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.
Chapter 4
71-2DL, 82: Simstim, “simulated stimulation”, is a mechanism allowing Case to virtually live and feel through Molly’s body. It is a very uncanny experience of the female body: a case of re-embodiment contrasted with Case’s cyberspace dis-embodiments
Panther Moderns(74-5: youth countercultures; cf. 87) "Panther" is usually short for the Black Panther movement of the sixties and early seventies which advocated violent resistance to racism, but in this group is named after the San Francisco rock band "The Panther Moderns" led by Gibson's friend and fellow cyberpunk author John Shirley. Molly is trying to penetrate the Sense/Net headquarters in Atlanta to steal the Dixie Flatline construct (cf. 91, 99, 130), 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 stressed mind is using Molly's wounded body. (82-9; 88: Wintermutenow appears for the first time; cf. 91ff)
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Chapter 5
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. - Freeside is an orbiting space colony shaped like a spindle (or cigar).
Chapter 6
In this chapter we learn that "Armitage" is really Willis Corto, (108: the shifting of personaeis an integral part of Gibson’s narrative) one of the agents who tried to carry out the "Screaming Fist" war operation.
Chapter 7
What is the significance of the existence of letter-writers? (108: paper sheets as cultural left outs) How many different kinds of mutual distrust(the triumph of simulation!) can you find in this chapter among the various characters? Riviera(a sort ofkinky high-techwizard) 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?(112: animals as naturalleft outs)- 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.
Part Three: Midnight in the Rue Jules Verne
Chapter 8
The scene now shifts from Istanbul to Paris. Freeside is called "an orbital Geneva" (125) in relation to that city's emphasis on offering secret bank accounts which are very attractive to those involved in illegal transactions. - 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: 127), reggae music, and the smoking of ganja (marijuana: 131). It was inspired in part by the movement founded during the early 1920s by Marcus Garvey (136, 7sgg), who advocated a return of blacks to Africa. He created a fleet of ships called "The Black Star Line," though it was never used for emigration purposes. Rastas 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: 134-6 (…and out of the Babel of tongues they hear the Word of Wintermute….) - 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. - "Rue [Street] Jules Verne " is of course a tribute to the French grandfather of science fiction. - "Stepping Razor" (134) 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: