English 451

I’ve enjoyed reading the first 12 chapters of Neuromancer, but I do find myself having to reread several pages and having difficulty visualizing certain parts. In the first chapters, this was mainly due to the Japanese references as we had discussed in class. Moving to chapters 7-12, my confusion continued. First, when the team traveled to the resort in space, I had a hard time picturing what this resort was supposed to look like. I was most frustrated with the passage from pages 101-102 when Case has to negotiate a “free-fall corridor,” this makes me think of something like the International Space Station in reality, something that just does not seem to mix well with what I perceive as an expensive resort.

I was also thrown off a bit by the station being run by Rastafarians. The name Zion reminds me of the Old Testament, and Jewish history, something I do not generally associate with Rastafarians. This did remind me of the theme of cultural integration earlier in the novel seen with the ex patriots in Japan and with almost the entire east coast being a single metropolitan area. Just as Gibson made predictions on humanity’s relationship with technology, perhaps he also predicted that the world would become more integrated. This would go along with the idea of a global village.