Close Reading and Mapping in General

Cindy Lee

Professor Frey

English 103

November 2, 2011

Close Reading and Mapping in General

Reading "Neuromancer" has made me realize the importance of close reading. I used close reading a lot on the science fiction book called "Neuromancer" because of the fact that the book was not understandable for me to read. This book was the first science fiction book that I have ever read which is why this book was very new for me to manage with. But even though this book was difficult to read and that I’m not really into science fiction, close reading and mapping helped a lot to get through the book without that much hectic confusion and hesitation.  

Mapping is important in science fiction because “mappings discover new worlds within past and present ones …” (Corner 214).  To me, mapping means something that already exists and I just need to search for it by asking people or looking for it online. But for mapping in science fiction, it means to find information that’s given in each chapters and creating the place with those clues. Mapping out the clues that the book has given us gives us further information on where the story is leading to and where we are at while on the journey with the characters. We map through the story for some clues by finding out the places in the story, knowing the characters in the story, understanding what the antagonist is after, what the area on a geographical map looks like, finding the ageographical areas in the story, researching the streets and alleyways mentioned in the story, etc. It’s not given to us that easily in the reading; it’s for us to figure out on our own. “Mapping engenders new and meaningful relationships amongst otherwise disparate parts. The resultant relational structure is not something already ‘out-there’, but rather something constructed, bodied forth through the act of mapping” (Corner 129). Mapping is an act of close reading by helping us understand the story by analyzing the clues and the definitions in the reading.

Close reading helps one to understand the plot of the story. Using close reading on the book gives us more ideas on what the story is about and what we need to know the general facts on what’s going on. Without close reading, one will get lost in a science fiction or a fictional book. It's like mapping but close reading is more of knowing the terms, knowing the context clues given, the story line of the book, and the way the characters play in the story. It helps us to write a summary of a story with more details and a better understanding of the story for the readers and the listeners. I probably read over each chapter more then two times to get a better understanding of the story. But that didn’t help out a lot. After the professor went over close reading, I read the book over again and took out words that I didn’t understand, looked them up on the Internet or a dictionary, and replaced those words with the ones that I know. I took out phrases from each chapter and asked myself what it could mean by combining them with other phrases that seemed close with the phrase. With this it helped me have a better understanding of the story.

It was hard to visualize what Chiba City looked like in “Neuromancer” while reading the book at home or on my way to somewhere in the subway. But in class, when the professor taught us about mapping out and close reading, I could finally start seeing what Chiba City looked like by close reading the characters on their behaviors and the way they are represented in the book, finding the areas that are mentioned geographically and ageographically, mapping out where the stores and buildings that Case or other characters has been to, characterizing the automobiles that the characters take, etc. “Long affiliated with the planning and design of cities, landscapes, and buildings, mapping is particularly instrumental in the construing and constructing of lived space” (Corner 10). This is exactly what I did with mapping out Chiba City.

Close reading and mapping out Science Fiction in general has its way in words, phrases, and sentences in the reading to map out what will happen next in the chapters, what we know now from it, and what we need to understand to solve it. The author would write a science fiction book knowing that he doesn't know what will happen next in the chapter and making it an open ended part for the readers to figure out on their own. With mapping and close reading, it will help us guide through the end and get a better understanding on where we are within the story.

Citations:

Corner, James. Mappings: the Agency of Mapping: Speculation, Critique and Invention. Print.






THIS IS THE RIGHT ESSAY TO WRITE !!! 

For Wed: Finish Reading Neuromancer

Close Reading Respons: Due Wed, Nov. 3

In 1-2 pages, use close reading to discuss one of the following topics.  Your response should have a working claim that is generated based on your close reading. (Think of this response as the generating a set of observations and relationships that might be used to generate a map of Neuromancer.)

1.     Molly’s body as it moves through and creates space. Focus on the technological alterations of her body, and consider the way that these affect how she inhabits the various spaces of Neuromancer. How does it extend her body into space differently than a non-altered body?  How doe these alterations create a different mode of interacting with the world--a different “skin” through which to mediate sensory input and spatial relationships? Look at specific moments in the text that refer to Molly’s embodied experience of the world and analyze the text to support your reading.

2.     Case’s navigation of geographical and ageographical space: Consider how Case’s experience of the two spheres (physical, embodied space & the “non-space” of the matrix) inform each other. How is the physical world in which he exists as a body (“meat”) marked by the un-space of the matrix? And vice versa? In what way are they connected? Disconnected? Look at specific moments in the text that refer to Case’s embodied (or disembodied) experience of the world and analyze the test to support your reading.