Conclusions of Neuromancer

At the end of Neuromancer, William Gibson concludes Case and Molly’s relationship. Throughout the novel, the reader can never be sure if Molly and Case actually love each other, or whether their relationship is just a convenience. They might have been together simply to have a companion to talk to while they were whisked away on a questionable mission. Eventually Molly leaves Case, saying, “it’s taking the edge off my game” (257). The reader gets the sense that Molly did not see the relationship lasting long, therefore confirming the suspicions about her true feelings toward Case.

Case’s ‘homesickness’ is also resolved. As he was working with Armitage and Molly, he would continually see reminders of his home in Chiba City, Japan, such as the color of the Chiba sky within the Matrix or his vision of Ratz on the beach. When he actually gets the chance to return, he finds that the people of Chiba and the city itself have forgotten him. By not being tied down to this city and his old life there, Case can finally move on to the cowboy life he dreamed of. However, Gibson does not make it entirely clear if Case is truly happy back in the Sprawl with a new job and a new girl.

Molly and Case finish the job they set out to do, but the reader cannot be sure of the consequences. Case claims “Wintermute had won, had meshed somehow with Neuromancer and become something else” (258). The motive for the computer to ‘kill’ itself is somewhat revealed when it’s discovered that Wintermute had evolved into something better. Case encounters the new-and-improved Wintermute (again in the form of Finn) who claims “I’m the matrix” (259). But then the book concludes with Case seeing the distant figure of Neuromancer, Linda Lee and himself in the matrix. If Wintermute had combined with Neuromancer, how is Neuromancer still a separate entity? When Case sees himself alongside Linda Lee and Neuromancer, is it a memory the computer has used or is it an alternate self? Maybe it was an imprint of Case left behind from his trip to the beach. Case then hears “the laugh that wasn’t laughter” referring to the inhuman sound of the construct of McCoy Pauley (261). Was Dixie really erased or was he preserved somehow through Neuromancer? Finally, the very last line states that Case “never saw Molly again” (261). This suggests that she could be standing with the ghost figures in the matrix or maybe it is just a separate conclusion for Case’s relationship. Neuromancer might have ended, but Gibson leaves just as many questions unanswered as we had at the beginning of the novel.

Frameworks of Neuromancer

“There was a kind of ghostly teenage DNA at work in the Sprawl, something that carried the coded precepts of various short-lived subcults and replicated them at odd intervals” (57).

This passage shows the framework of behavioral patterns in Neuromancer. It describes how a certain culture or clique of society can be replicated and repeated in the next generations. If this is true, then what may seem to be the unique personalities of one group is actually a continuation of the past. It suggests that people have become predictable, because they are basing their qualities on past fads, instead of making up their own. There is no more room to alter, tweak or improve because there is already a template to go off of. And to suggest that this continuation is somehow imbedded in people’s DNA, takes away the idea of individual choice. People are left with no choice but to follow this pattern because it is derived from the fundamental, biological coding established way before consciousness.

“A few letter-writers had taken refuge in doorways, their old voiceprinters wrapped in sheets of clear plastic, evidence that the written word still enjoyed a certain prestige here. It was a sluggish country” (84).

Within the technological advanced world of Neuromancer, there is always new technology available, another new model or new edition being introduced. Therefore, anything used previous to the new fad becomes out-dated. Just like the Apple products in our society, the iPod mini cannot compare to the 3^rd generation of iPod nano’s or the new Shuffle that is voice activated. The “voiceprinters” described in this passage are an older technology used to transform speech into text. Along with the technology, the “written word” itself is old-fashioned. There is no longer a need for things to be written down because everything is digital. Even just using pen and paper for writing is no longer applicable. What is more unusual is that something as advanced as a “voiceprinter” in our reality, is an older model in Neuromancer. Through these ideas, the vast difference between modern day and the future becomes tangible.