Neuromancer ending

At the end of Neuromancer, Gibson answers many of our questions, but seems to purposely leave some unanswered. One facet of the story that I felt he closed up was the part about Wintermute. All throughout the story Wintermute tells Case of his "other half" which we do not meet until the very end of the story. His other half is Neuromancer, an AI construct found on the Spindle in Villa Straylight under the control of Tessier Ashpool corporation. At the end of the story Wintermute and Neuromancer are rejoined and they become the most powerful AI "alive" and search through space for another AI in the Alpha Centauri star system.

Another loose end that is tied up in The story is of Corto/ Armitage. WE find that the surreal Armitage mentality is stripped away to reveal the true man beneath all of the augmentations, Corto. It is in a way unfortunate that Corto is killed by Wintermute because he just wants to live, but Wintermute cannot have him running around spilling his secrets.

One part of the story that I do not feel was wrapped up was the part about Flatline Dixie's consciousness. I feel that the story could have done a little better job explaining exactly what happened to him. The story ends with Flatline's consciousness disappearing, thought to be destroyed. But at the very end as the story pans through space, the sound of disembodied laughing is heard. Which is a characteristic of Flatline. Which leads many to believe that Dixie worked out a deal with Neuromancer/Wintermute to exist inside the construct.

Frameworks of Neuromancer

"Fads swept the youth of the Sprawl at the speed of light; entire subcultures could rise overnight, thrive for a dozen weeks, and then vanish utterly." (56-57)

In this passage, everyday life is paired with technology, which is one of our frameworks for this novel. just the way that Gibson expresses the speed of fads is interesting. In today's society, we think things go quickly and are short lived. But what he is trying to say is that in this future world, everything goes super quickly. This is why he chose something like a fad. When this book was written, fads and trends were running rampantly through American society. I feel that he is in a way mocking the society of the seventies. Also, he says that entire sub-cultures could rise overnight. When I hear this, I think of fads again, the most prevalent of which was the "Beanie Babies" deal. It was entire sub culture that hit America in the nineties. But even that took multiple months, even years to catch on.

The second motif that I find obvious in this section is about the genetic mutations and various gene splicings and biological alterations. The part in the section where Case and Molly go talk to the man with the scanner is by far the most prevalent instance of this. They go and speak to the man about all the different genetic alterations that Molly has undergone and the lack of alterations that Case has done. Another part of this is,"You have fifteen toxin sacs bonded to the lining of various main arteries Case." (45-46). This part shows the biological advances of the future society. They are sophisticated enough to make little sacs of toxin which they can place on specific parts of the body.