Cyberpunk- a postmodern and science fiction genre noted for its focus on "high tech and low life"
Science Fiction- genre of fiction dealing with the impact of imagined innovations in science or technology, often in a futuristic setting.
This story takes place in Chiba City, Japan, during a historical time of the future. But as it being a science fiction, the story turns out as Japan --they would do anything to stop those that gets in the way-- creating a new generation of technologies that other countries have never noticed or developed called the Cyberspace or the Matrix. It is a computer access that manipulates the digital world. Case is the protagonist of the story. He was 24-years-old throughout the story, but when he was twenty-two, he used to be a cyberspace cowboy, a rustler, or a talented illegal computer hacker. He was caught stealing from his employees so for his punishment, he was "trapped to a bed in a Memphis hotel, his talent burning out micron by micron, he hallucinated for thirty hours. The damage was minute, subtle, and utterly effective." His central nervous system was damaged with mycotoxin so he won't be allowed to remember or be able to use his intelligence anymore to hack into the computer or his addiction, the cyberspace. He was one of the few peoples that had the skills to be able to get any data on any system of the matrix and operate any changes to it. But because of his wrong doing of what he promised that he wouldn't break, he lost everything that he only wanted. He tries to look for a cure so he can go back into cyberspace and live his dream on that. After his nervous system was damaged, he lived his life miserably, poorly, suicidally, and a drug addict. But after realizing that he can't give up on Cyberspace, he goes around searching for the cure. He goes to a bar called the Chatsubo that's owned by Ratz. Ratz has some skills where he can break almost anything with his bare hands. While he goes searching around, he looks for a girl named Linda which he met before at an arcade. But while searching for her, he bumps into Molly who in the end of the chapter, said that she needs Case.
The ideas from the essay provides a context for reading the novel by telling the readers more depths of the story on what the person who's writing the context thinks of the story. It helps the readers understand more in easier terms of the story if they have a harder time reading it on their own. Like for me, I surfed through the Internet looking for the meaning of the words and some phrases that I didn't understand in the chapter.
This chapter confused me very much. There were terms that was hard to understand which I kept looking up on online to see what the romanized Japanese words meant. There were quite a lot of Japanese terms used in this chapter. There are also scientific terms that I never heard of before which I tried to ride it in the text for more meaning to it but because the text was all over the place, Internet helped me a lot to understand the chapter. Also there were phrases that confused which I'm not sure how to explain it. There are also shifts in sentences where there's a topic on one place and changes to another and goes back to it which confuses me on where I'm at.
In Gibson's essay "Life in the Meta City", he talks about his definition of a city by "choice", "ageographical", and "Disneyland". In a city "you never know whom you might meet.. In a small town, you're less lively to encounter people or things or situations you haven't encountered previously" (88). This tells the reader about one part of life in any city that could happen to anyone. You might see the same people almost every single day in a country or somewhere small that you grew up in. But in a city, you might meet a random celebrity walking around for just that night, you might encounter someone you've never met before asking for help, or you might never be able to find people you know unless you made an actual appointment to meet up with them.
Gibson talks about what he believes in what a city is: why it's a city and how it's actually a city (the concept of the city). He talks about his choice of the city on how there are more choices then small towns or places that isn't a city. The city is a place where there's a choice to change it: it's like a 'chance'. You can change parts of the city by adding another building, changing the name of a company, taking out the building, closing down the company, etc. But like Disneyland or London's Eiffel Tower, they can't change it. It's already an expected place.
In the city, you have more "choices", a chance. They would have a lot more choices then small towns. You can do whatever you want in the city, live however the way you want, and be at their "experientially richest" (89).
Cities are reduced in choice by Disneylanding themselves. It will become too perfect, there will be no more growth, and there will be a reduction of choice. But the visitors are expecting certain disneyfication in the city.but "of every Disneyland: you can't repurpose a theme park" (88).
There's some way we inhabit the city. No matter where you go you map out where you were at before and remember where you traveled around in the city as if you lived there before. The city can be "ageographical and largely unrecongnized meta city that is the Internet" (89).
In Class:
1. What does Gibson mean when he says "cities scan be at their experiential richest during periods of relative disjunction" (89)?
Experience of artists, storytelling, inspiration, (if the city isn't perfect there's always a way to create new buildings, places, fun), low rent, minimal policing (graffiti art around places unexpected).
2. What, according to Gibson is the "risk of Disneylanding" that threatens the life of a city?
Eliminates any possibility for anything else -makes it boring, corporate city, single ownership, over control, reduction of choice, permanent- static vision according to a specific time. The city has to be retro-fitted, not open-ended, got to change all the time.
3. What does Gibson mean when he says "the future of cities will consist of two different modalities combined within the geographical and largely unrecognized meta city that is the Internet" (89)?
Two Different incarnation -Anarchy of Choice and Disneyfied
Ageographical/Metacity -mapped and experienced through Internet
-Hopstop
-DishFinder
-GPS
-Yelp
International CommerceLocal News
4. How do your answers to these questions frame your reading of Neuromancer?
Concerning of the city and the future of the city. The explanation in the story helps the reader map out what Chiba City might look like and the protagonist to find his destination.
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