ncer EssaysNeuromancer Neuromancer revolutionized the way people look at technology.
Many people were scared of “cyberspace”. They felt it would change the way the world was run. Some even thought that meals would begin to be served in pill form, and the world be ruled by darn dirty primates. Throughout Neuromancer we see a very vivid dystopia. We see our first sign of the dystopia in chapter one. It begins with Case, whose name fits him very appropriately.
He treats his body as an object. He uses it just to log onto cyberspace. Case has been injected with a poison that keeps him from surfing through cyberspace. This has created a dystopia within Case. He used to make his living through cyberspace. He now injects himself with drugs in an attempt to try and find a cure.
Another way we see the dystopia through Case is the room he lives in. They are called coffins, which is a very appropriate name. These rooms are extremely small. Another sign of dystopia is when Case goes to Japan in hopes of finding a cure on Japan’s black market.
They have a big supplier of organs there. This demonstrates the struggle in Japan. In Case’s time there is such a high demand for organs that they will sell them illegally over the black market. The black market most of the time represents the scum of society. There crime runs rampant. People will get killed for their organs, just so someone can make a few extra dollars.
The next sign of this book being a dystopia is Ratz. He is supposed to represent the experiments that society is playing on the people. His body is composed of mostly artificial goods. Gibson named him Ratz too, because he represents the “lab rat” of the book. He is supposed to represent what society will do to you if you give in to it. He has no control over what he has become, just like the little “lab rat”.
Another sign of dystopia is the way the computers have changed everything. The computers run people’s lives in Neuromancer. It seems no matter where Case goes there is always someone watching him. Wintermute has the phones ring one time when Case walks by.
This demonstrates the power that the Ai’s have in Neuromancer. The artificial intelligence is another example of the dystopia in Neuromancer. When an AI is running thing in the world, there are problems. When the Tessier-Ashpool family created these beings in a hope to better have control over the world. The plan backfired on them and they went insane.
Neuromancer and Wintermute begin to battle over cyberspace. This created turmoil within the society. Throughout Neuromancer we see many signs of a dystopia. The society is flipped upside down.
Gibson struck fear in many eyes because of this book. He made people view cyberspace from a totally different perspective. Through the vivid dystopia that his mind created he changed the minds of a lot of Americans.
