![]() I am amazed at how William Gibson managed to save one of the most important details of the novel to the very end, which is “‘the other AI in Tessier-Ashpool’s link-up’” (Gibson 120) with whom the AI Wintermute wants to merge to increase his power, but it is unable to do so without physical human aid to break barriers in the company. The protagonist Case finds this artificial intelligence named “‘Neuromancer’” (Gibson 243) by physically entering a virtual world called the Matrix. This is the major detail that not only helped the plotline resolve successfully for Case, but it also compelled me to continue reading and enjoying this suspenseful, action-packed story. Another enjoyable aspect is how the various dialogues of characters allow me to understand their personalities and help me vividly imagine the situation while being in their shoes. For instance, Case’s sidekick Maelcum uses a lot of slang in his words: “‘Now you tell me, mon, who i not t’ kill’” (Gibson 248). From this quote, I can physically depict that Maelcum wears punk-like clothes and has a strong English accent, and I imagine that he is a very outgoing, confident person. The main theme of “Neuromancer” is that when recruiting teammates and making friends, you should always be wary of who to trust as you may be betrayed. Betrayal is demonstrated during the rising action of the novel, when Case gets dumped by some of his teammates. For example, Case’s ex-boss Armitage hired a guy named Riviera, a drug addict who can conjure holograms through medical implants. Eventually, he embarasses Case’s sidekick Molly by hosting a drama performance based on her dark past at a dinner event and leaves their team, causing her “‘to hate him real bad’” (Gibson 149). We learn that he gets recruited by Tessier-Ashpool “‘[o]n the invitation of [their founder’s daughter,] Lady 3Jane’” (Gibson 149) and eventually thwarts Molly’s plans of obtaining a secret code to merge Wintermute with Neuromancer: “‘No word for you, Molly’” (Gibson 219). Armitage did not carefully plan the right people to hire, leading to the group’s trouble. I can relate to this theme through my experience of finding teammates for Hack The North 2019, a 36-hour innovation event hosted at the University of Waterloo. A week before the hackathon, I found a talented Grade 12 IB student who initially agreed to join my team. A couple of days later, he sent me a message, explaining that he had found another team to join. This caused me to become frustrated, since he rejected his spot on my team only two days before the actual event, and recruiting coders was already a tedious task. This relates to Riviera’s betrayal of Case and his teammates, which happens only a few days after his recruitment. Furthermore, I can relate this theme of betrayal to the attempted assassinations of Adolf Hitler during World War 2. One example of an unsuccessful murder was planned by one of his lieutenants named Claus von Stauffenberg. He planted a bomb in a conference room where Hitler hosted a meeting with his Nazi officers; however, Hitler survived the incident and Stauffenberg was executed by firing squad. His hatred towards the dictator was mainly fueled by his discriminatory laws toward the Jews. This connects with “Neuromancer” since Riviera loses hope in Case’s team near the end of the novel, saying that Armitage is “underestimating [him]” (Gibson 219). Lastly, I have watched various films of the Star Wars trilogy, which connects with a different theme in “Neuromancer” - in technologically-advanced societies, crime is common and many people yearn for more power. The main conflict in the Star Wars series is a society vs. society conflict between a “light” side and a “dark” side of a supernatural power known as the Force; the dark side is trying to take over the entire universe and destroy all members of the light side through sheer numbers of troops called “clones” and better technology, including lightsabers and powerful spaceships. In “Neuromancer,” the novel takes place in a sci-fi world where hacking is the main industry and the already-powerful artificial intelligence Wintermute is hungry for more influence over the world. Therefore, the conflicts and settings in both media are very similar to one-another. In conclusion, I have wholeheartedly enjoyed reading my ISU novel due to the intense, descriptive plotlines and I can relate it to many aspects of my life, around the world, and in other media.
0 Comments
Blog #3 - Conflicts, Character Development, Themes, and Predictions About Resolution (pg. 136-199)10/6/2019 ![]() The plot is starting to rapidly escalate to the climax at this point of the novel and the conflicts become more extreme. The most dominant conflict is the protagonist’s person vs. self conflict, where Case’s health becomes worse and worse even though he made a deal with his boss, Armitage, to heal himself. Armitage mentions that he equipped Case with fifteen toxin sacs that slowly dissolve over time; if Case completes his mission, he will “‘inject [him] with an enzyme that will dissolve the bond without opening the sacs … Otherwise, the sacs melt’” (Gibson 45-46), damaging his nervous system again. Case can feel the dissolving of the sacs later in the novel, which he describes as “‘a slow poison’” (Gibson 195). I predict that Case will eventually obtain a remedy for his condition, but not from his own boss, as we learn of his tragic fate. Another emerging conflict is a person vs. person conflict, where Case encounters the betrayals and mental breakdowns of a couple of his teammates. For example, Armitage has transformed back to his old maniacal self, Corto, and starts to hallucinate and lose hope in their mission. He tries to escape to Finland through an escape pod, but in reality, Case sees “Armitage’s endless fall around Freeside, through vacuum colder than the steppes” (Gibson 199), causing his death. This conflict will most likely not get resolved as it seems improbable for Case’s affected teammates to revert back to their original personalities, leaving Case and only a few others to follow through with the mission Wintermute assigned to them. This leads into my next point, which is that the characters in “Neuromancer,” more specifically the protagonist, will not go through much more development. Case remains static throughout the novel; he only values the well-being of those who matter most to him, including Molly, and puts himself in dangerous situations in order to fulfill his hacking needs. Case has to enter a cyberspace world called the Matrix to do his hacking, but in order to do so, he has to “flatline,” a term for blacking out. He flatlines many times throughout the novel, but he gets used to it, as shown through this conversation with his friend Maelcum: “‘You dead awhile there, mon.’ ‘It happens,’ he [Case] said. ‘I’m getting used to it’” (Gibson 181). Long-term flatlining can cause major health problems as it shuts down your brain momentarily, but Case does not seem to mind the consequences throughout the novel, albeit his poor pancreatic condition. The principal theme of deciding who to trust appears very often in the plot. We learn that Wintermute has both a light and dark side to it. First of all, he aids Case with his missions by hacking into various building systems, with an example demonstrated here: “The door had opened for him, even though he’d had the wrong chip. That was Wintermute, manipulating the lock the way it had manipulated the drone micro and the robot gardener” (Gibson 179). However, we also get informed of his dark side as he plays a role in Armitage’s death. Case’s friend Maelcum realizes that Wintermute has “‘override[n the] ejection failsafe’” (Gibson 199), causing Armitage’s faulty escape pod to launch and kill him. Therefore, Case faces a self-conflict of deciding who to really trust - not just with Wintermute, but also his closest sidekicks. In conclusion, I envision that Case will continue with his missions and his bond with Wintermute, but many more sacrifices of his friends will follow with his journey. ![]() The most prominent conflict in “Neuromancer” is a person vs. person conflict. The protagonist, Case, and his sidekick Molly doubt their trusts with their employer, Armitage, and want to learn his true identity. They eventually find “‘[s]ome data base of his’” (Gibson 76) and Molly tells Case to “‘[c]rack it’” (Gibson 76). By hacking into the database, they learn that Armitage is actually an ex-agent of the mission Screaming Fist named Willis Corto, who was badly injured during the mission and became a lunatic; he was diagnosed with schizophrenia and after his treatment, he was given the name Armitage to hide his past. This leads into an ongoing person vs. machine conflict - Case learns about an artificial intelligence named Wintermute, created by a rich enterprise named Tessier-Ashpool and who has gone out of control from government regulations and is controlling Case’s entire team to recruit more hackers and conduct illegal acts. The narrator explains that this AI is like “a little micro whispering to the wreck of a man named Corto” (Gibson 125). Wintermute has the power to let Case’s employer follow through nefarious tasks, and this tempts Case to hack into it. However, Case learns to cooperate with Wintermute as he believes that the AI will help him later on if he successfully completes his tasks. Case himself does not go through much development as he shares most of the traits as his former self before being hired by Armitage. For instance, he continues having an addiction to drugs, especially “‘[e]xtremely powerful central nervous system stimulants’” (Gibson 133). Furthermore, he continues being traumatized by his past events and maintains a sharp bitterness towards his enemies. For example, after a failed attempt to hack into Wintermute, Case blacks out and visions his dead girlfriend Linda Lee and the person responsible for her death, Julius Deane, who is actually controlled by Wintermute inside the dream. Although being a different personality, Case “[shoots] him in the mouth with the .357” (Gibson 121) after their conversation. This dream continues to haunt Case, depriving him of his sleep: “Each time the image of Deane’s shattered head struck the rear wall of the office, Case [is] aware of another thought, something darker, hidden, that rolled away, diving like a fish, just beyond his reach. Linda” (Gibson 125). As I read more through the novel, the plot becomes more suspenseful but also a bit more confusing. Gibson continues leaving cliffhangers and hints of foreshadowing at the end of his chapters and paragraphs, including this example: “A man’s face filled the screen. The eyes were Armitage’s” (Gibson 82). This quote foreshadows that Case will get to learn about Armitage’s true identity after successfully hacking into the database. However, the complex language and science vocabulary combined with the slang in the characters’ dialogues make the plot a bit difficult to follow along, such as the part where Case blacks out and meets Wintermute in his dreams. Overall, I enjoy “Neuromancer” very much and I am anxious to get to the climax. ![]() One noticeable aspect of the science-fiction novel “Neuromancer,” by William Gibson, is how descriptively the author writes about his idea of a technologically-advanced, but dystopian, society. For example, he introduces the story by describing how its world is filled with "wealthier thieves [and] employers who [provide] the exotic software required to penetrate the bright walls of corporate systems, opening windows into rich fields of data" (Gibson 5). Gibson explains that data theft is a booming industry in the black market when the technology is sophisticated. I also enjoy the suspense and cliff-hangers Gibson creates at the end of his paragraphs, including this example: “‘Compared to what you’ll eventually be up against, this is an arcade toy’” (Gibson 60). This quote makes the audience wonder about the thrilling events that happen later in the story. The protagonist is a hacker named Case who tries, but fails, to steal data from his ex-employers, and they cripple his nervous system as a consequence, preventing him from doing further hacking and leading to his poverty. This is an example of how mischievous and unsympathetic Case is towards others. However, he is quite determined and ambitious as he tries to find a remedy to his health issues, leading to another hacking opportunity. He has “known with a clenched and absolute certainty [that] he [will] find his cure” (Gibson 6). Similarly to Case, I spend a lot of time finding solutions to my problems, especially when bugs appear whenever I code. In the past, I have been punished often for causing harm to my sister, usually in the form of loud scolding and sometimes spanking. This relates to Case’s punishment in a less extreme manner, so this connection helps me feel pathetic towards him. One of this book’s reoccurring themes is that one cannot trust anyone but themselves. Not only do Case’s ex-employers learn this moral, but Case also goes through betrayal when his girlfriend, Linda, steals his vehicle and his RAM which he plans on selling through the black market: “She just want[s] a ticket home, and the RAM in his Hitachi [will] buy it for her” (Gibson 23). Later into the plot, Case gets hired by another employer named Armitage, who claims to have taken part in a hacking mission called Screaming Fist. However, one of his agents, Molly, doubts his profile, explaining that “[h]e doesn’t look like any of the pics of the guys who got out” (Gibson 51). Another major theme in the novel is that as technology gets more advanced, people become more greedy and crime increases. Case describes his hometown, Night City, Japan, as a “deranged experiment in social Darwinism, designed by a bored researcher who kept one thumb permanently on the fast-forward button” (Gibson 7). The “fast-forward button” symbolizes advancement in technology, while the “deranged experiment” represents the chaos in the city. Overall, I enjoy this book because of its suspense and science-fiction genre, albeit some of the confusing science terminologies used. |
|