Neuromancer Comes To An End

Throughout this whole book I have been extremely confused. Although my mind is still having some trouble wrapping itself around the context each time I turn the page I have begun to understand a little better after finishing the whole book. I understand now that Molly and Case are trying to break into the base of a family corporation in order to help two Artificial Intelligences combine into a greater whole. The Turning police was something that I understood from the time they were introduced playing the role of trying to stop Molly and Case in the event that AI, if joined together, could become too powerful.

Something that I do wonder though is if the two AI’s were destroying anything in order to come together wouldn’t it be better to finally have them complete instead of losing lives over it? I am rather confused by the final ending and during the whole book because we are never told whether or not these two AI’s being together would do anything interesting or good. The ending did no clarifying for me about the need for Wintermute and Neuromancer to become a greater whole.

The ending opens up more questions when Gibson suddenly throws in the only curve ball of the conclusion; there is another equally powerful intelligence. Is this supposed to be an after thought or a reason to read another book that might come out? I am rather confused by the importance in this idea.

Femininity's Framework

In Neuromancer, Gibson slyly introduces the strength of femininity. His strongest character for this framework is Molly. Our first evidence in the second section of Gibson’s novel is, when Chase meets Molly and tells her of Lupus’ message. He simply shows her a word written on a napkin. Quickly Molly quiets Chase as they head off to visit Finn in order to talk with electronics jamming eavesdropping; “ ‘Lupus Yonder boy. He had a message.’ He passed her a paper napkin with W I N T E R M U T E printed in red felt pen in his neat, laborious capitals. ‘He said –‘ but then her hand came up in the jive for silence (p.69).” I think this is an important part of the book when looking at femininity because Chase found important information and knew he had to go to the women, Molly, to figure it out. She is the one who understood they could not discuss things where they were and she is the one who understood that wintermute is a computer that can think for itself.

Another passage in Neuromancer that I found important in thinking about femininity was during the attack of Riviera. “She spat into the pond. ‘God knows. I’d as soon kill him as look at him. I saw his profile. He’s a kind of compulsive Judas. Can’t get off sexually unless he knows he’s betraying the object of desire. That what the file says…He’s done eighteen in three years. All women age twenty to twenty five (p. 92).” Here Molly discusses not only understand more than her male colleagues but also having equally great discussed in the man they are catching. It is fascinating because it is nauseating and completely undignified for women to be attacked in such a manner by a man. This is ironic because Molly, strength in the eyes of feminitity, is discussing a man who brings worthlessness to women. Ironically Molly is the only one who is able to see through Rivera’s illusions and is able to knock him out.

Consequently, I think these passages would make a feminist proud while reading Gibson’s Neuromancer.

Neuromancer

Neuromancer moves from different cities, neighborhoods, unknown places almost every other page. We can recognize just after reading the first chapter. The novel starts out in Night City where he reflects on wishing he stilled lived in cyberspace. The novel than turns to Case’s memory of life in cyber space when he was 22. It turns back to Case being in Chiba and then begins to describe Tokyo Bay, “…where gulls wheeled above drifting shoals of white Styrofoam. Behind the port lay the city, factory domes dominated by the vast cubes of corporate arcologies…(p. 7).” Case then travels west of ‘Chat’ (a neighborhood) and into a teashop. The story then flashes backs to an Arcade where Case met Linda Lee. Clearly, William Gibson’s story Neuromancer change in geography is quite frequent. While reading I was able to count nineteen different changes in location, the reasoning for Gibson’s quick change in geography I am not yet sure.

While changing settings so often Gibson does give the reader very descriptive descriptions of the places he describes. For example when he telling us about Julius Daniels offices, “Magnetic bolts thudded out of position around the massive imitation-rosewood door to the lft of the bookcase. Julius Deane import export was lettered across the plastic peeling self-adhesive capitals (pg.13).” Although I was often confused between Gibson’s quick switching of setting I was indulged by his great use of description. When describing cyberspace he uses a memory of who he was at the time, “He’d operated on an almost permanent adrenaline high, a byproduct of youth and proficiency, jacked into a custom cyberspace deck that projected his disembodies consciousness into the consensual hallucination that was the matrix (pg. 5).” He goes on to tell us that he really is no one here in Night City. I think he compares not settings but who he is when he is in either cyberspace or externalspaces. Again, with Gibson’s descriptive strength we can get a feel for what cyberspace was like for Case.

An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge

There are three parts to this story. Part one describes the setting of the execution and up to when the plank is removed from beneath Farquhar’s feet. The second part of the story is about Farquar’s background and what act he committed in order to be hung. We find out in that section that the person who informed Farquar of the Union Army coming across the bride was actually a Union soldier trying to provoke Farquhar. The last section picks up where the first section left off, the execution.

I think the order in which Ambrose Bierce tells his story is very interesting. He does it in an order that could definitely confuse a reader. He begins with a man being hung, something that could quickly bring a reader in. The reader is then explained to that this man, Peyton Farquhar, has a miraculous escape and will come home to his family. At the very last lines of the short story the reader realizes they have been fooled this whole time and the escape was only imaginary seconds before his death. I think the order in which he choices to tell the story is very clever because the reader thinks one thing, but the truth is another. When the reader finally finds out what is going on they are shocked. It was an enjoyable story to read because I never knew what I would find out next.

During the short story where the imaginary escape begins the point of view also changes. I think this is really important and affects the way the reader relates to the short story. At first the story is told in third person and it is almost told from a point of view of someone at the hanging. Although you feel bad for Peyton Farquhar you do not get to build any relationship off of his feeling because you are only watching him. Then when the point of view changes the reader suddenly feels a connection with Farquhar. At one point Farquhar explains that he is in pain but keeps going because of the thought of his family, something we can all relate too. Towards the end of the story, because it was still in first person, I felt so happy for Fraquhar when he saw his wife in the window. I think the point of view changing only made the ending more shocking because we began to feel for Fraquhar and then split seconds later he is shot. The change in point of view also allows us to suddenly take part in his hallucinations.

Poetry in Pop Culture

Romeo and Juliet - The Killers. This is the music video of the Killer's song, Romeo and Juliet. The whole song refers to Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare's most famous poetic characters. I think this song really brings out Shakespeare's poem to people who may not be that into it. It helps people understand, in our cultures language, what shakespeare was saying.

Link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87cLyBR1JTo&feature=related

The Simpsons - The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe

This episode of the Simpsons I think really brings out Edgars Allen Poe's poem because it is very clear that this is a poem being read and it is not just hidden in the lines of the show. I do think though that it does not enhance the show as much as other lines from famous poems that are more sneaky. It amazes me to see such a popular showing using such old poetry, thus proving to me how talented poets really are.

Link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9_6IODy0mU

nature vs. technology

Brautigans poem, “All Watched Over By Machines Of Loving Grace” explains to us the harm of technology. I think it does not become clear until the last stanza, where we are free of our labors. Being free or our labors is not what we all truly want. If none of us had some structure we could not enjoy the pleasurable things as much. He suggests we will all be ‘watched over by machine of loving grace’. I interpreted this in two ways. One, being taken over by this technology could end up killing the good in all of us. The machines of loving grace could be the technology machines trying to keep us alive, like the ones in the hospital. Ultimately if we all end up on the heart tracers, eventually we will all have a straight line. I also interpreted this as our lives simply being taken over by technology. We are becoming so consumed by it that we don’t enjoy the natural things. In each stanza he wants this world of cybernetic and nature to come sooner and sooner until eventually in the last stanza Brautigan believes ‘it had to be now’ and then it seems to all have fallen downhill from there. Maybe that sudden rush of technology was not good to be mixed with nature so quickly.

On the other hand, it appears that Brautigan could believe technology is what the world needs. In each stanza he implies that they need it as soon as possible, ‘and the sooner the better!’ or ‘right now, please!. He also compares mammals and computers in a world together as being ‘like pure water touching clear sky.’ That was convincing to me that Brautigan believes these two things can live in a world peacefully.

“All Watched Over By Machines Of Loving Grace” is a poem about irony, or so I believe. On the outside it appears to be dashing towards technology, but really if torn apart and thought more about it is about the world being anti-technology. Brautigan, writing this poem almost seven decades ago, would have only wished to see the technology we all have now like the iphone or the wii. At the same time I think he would have been the same kind of person my grandfather is, telling me every time he see’s me about how he never had what I had when he was a child and instead of play on the computer they used to fish or bike and he never had too communicate with his friends as much, but still he had the same great relationships that I have. The last two stanzas, and all watched over by machines of loving grace, convinced me that this poem was about anti-technology because it finalized the end result and our lives have ended up being ‘watched’ or taken over by these machines. Looks like Brautigan was right.

Imagery used in Design

Design by Robert Frost

I found a dimpled spider, fat and white,

On a white heal-all, holding up a moth

Like a white piece of rigid satin cloth--

Assorted characters of death and blight

Mixed ready to begin the morning right,

Like the ingredients of a witches' broth--

A snow-drop spider, a flower like a froth,

And dead wings carried like a paper kite.

What had that flower to do with being white, 
The wayside blue and innocent heal-all? 
What brought the kindred spider to that height, 
Then steered the white moth thither in the night? 
What but design of darkness to appall?--
If design govern in a thing so small.

Fat and white, White heal-all, Rigid, Death and blight, Witches’ broth, Spider, Froth, Dead wings, Night, Darkness, So small

The imagery in this poem, such as death and blight, witches’ broth, dead wings, night and darkness, to name a few, is very gloomy and disturbing. That imagery definitely goes along well with the theme of the poem; everyday life is a hardship of its own and even down to the little insect it is natures calling that it will be killed. I believe the questions towards the end question life itself. If the littlest insect of all is being killed then so will be greatest of mankind. Questioning the cycle of life, or better yet the cycle of death, is a good place for dark imagery and that is what we see here. Another use of imagery that Frost uses in this poem was a lot less obvious to me the first few times I read it. Of course his use of the word white caught my eye but I just could not put my finger on what he was trying to do. Of course until I realized the twisted meaning of the poem. The color white before each object symbolizes their innocence during this whole event of ending the moth’s life. When Frost begins to ask rhetorical questions it becomes obvious of the use of white imagery when he asks, “what had that flower to do with being white” and in the second stanza he called the flower a white heal-all but now it’s an “innocent heal-all”. When clicking on the heal-all link I was able to find out more about heal-all flowers then I knew before. There is irony in the heal-all image because it is a medicinal flower but in Frosts poem it is where death occurs. Not only does death occur on a medicinal flower but Frosts use of white also allows us to see the heal-all as an innocent object throughout the dark event. Through his obvious dark images and his irony of using white innocent images Frost gives great imagery reflecting the poems true meaning that the cycle of life is death no matter how small, in this case, or large the living object is.