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.