Snipits

What it means to be human

 

Pg. 74

“It was disturbing to think of Flatline as a construct…”

So can a machine completely take the place of a person? Are the qualities of a person imitatable by a machine?

 

Pg. 70

“Molly took his place, extruded the blade from her index finger…”

This seems to be a sign of cyborgic technology. She seems to embrace and accept the fact that a machine is built into her.

 

Pg. 82

“Case watched the sun rise…”

Interesting use of “shell” at the end of this quote. The sentence also brings up the idea of childhood.

 

Pg. 87

“What he imagines, you see.”

This seems more of a superhuman power than something that can be accomplished solely by living flesh.

 

Pg. 89

“The back of the fallen man’s jacket…”

This intense description of Riviera dehumanizes him. After reading, the reader is left with a sense of objective body parts rather than one whole human.

 

Pg. 93

“Those little sacs are starting to show wear…”

This statement from Armitage reminds readers that Case has been heavily altered, to the point where he may be considered no longer human but a modified form of a human being.

 

Pg. 102

“The man opened his mouth to speak…”

This was trippy. A fish swam out of his mouth…then he grew two new arms and hands to go along with his original pair.

 

Pg. 103

“I’m dead, Case.”

Interesting assertion from Dixie. How human is someone in Cyberspace? Are they still an actual being or are they just a collection of information bits.

 

Pg. 105

“Riviera say motionless…”

Is torture dehumanizing?

 

Subtleties

The first line in William Gibson’s Neuromancer establishes a very strange setting for the readers. Gibson describes the sky above the port of Chiba City as “the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.” Literally, it shows the reader a sky of gray, much like a snowy television when the signal is poor. It’s a cloudy night, maybe even foggy, with little to no natural light in the atmosphere. But, on another level, it could be describing the city as a whole. Gibson may be saying that the City can be at times very vibrant and lively, displaying many different “channels” of life, but on this particular night, Chiba City is very dull; there is little around to enjoy.

Later on, Gibson continues a very muggy description of the novel. This time, writing about Ninsei, He says the sky is “that mean shade of gray.” Again, continuing with the grayish picture of the sky, Gibson seems to be pushing an idea of monotony and boredom in the city. Everything is the same; nothing stands out. He adds that the air “seemed to have teeth tonight.” Not only is the atmosphere dull and uninspiring, it’s being described as dangerous. These two ideas might be related; the gray may be the cause or an effect of whatever seems to be harmful in the air. Again, on a more philosophical level, the author could be presenting a stronger statement. Gibson could be trying to subtly explain that boredom, the gray, could eat at a person’s soul, the air having teeth.