But perhaps Case is the one who came out the best. When Wintermute challenges him by asking, "Who do you love?" (261), Case heads off to finish up the run with "a level of proficiency exceeding anything he'd known or imagined" (262). He was "beyond ego, beyond personality, beyond awareness... by the clarity and singleness of his wish to die" (262). Being forced to confront his own self-loathing unleashed all his potential and talent, and also the toxin sacs that had been threatening to take his abilities away again, which his brain took care of itself by producing the correct enzyme (268). It's kind of a twisted Wizard of Oz, where the professor needn't do anything for Case that he couldn't already do for himself. But in the end, he gets a job, gets his old life back, and some new organs for good measure (270). So Wintermute, in getting what it wanted, also released Case to do what he wanted.
But was it worth it? Case is now without Linda, without Molly, with no chance of ever seeing either of them again. And that's how the book closes, which makes me feel like Case wants more, and would even give up what he has to have these women back again. Wintermute may have done him a favor, but he did it by taking away people Case cared about. So in the end, the "meat" won; Case has his life back but is haunted by the longing of companionship.
Great point. Case almost seemed proud to be a cyberspace cowboy and to loath his "meat" side, but his loneliness and longing reveal that hate as completely contrived. Maybe Gibson wants to leave the reader with a poignant message that no matter how hard people try to escape with drugs and technology, "meat" conquers all.
ReplyDeleteTo me, the meat "winning" is Gibson's way of telling the reader that no matter how much humanity and technology combine a part of us will always be meat. We see in "Neuromancer" that Case is constantly trying to suppress his "meat" side. However, he fails repeatedly at this task. This illustrates to the reader that the "meat" aspect of humans, no matter how deep we are submerged into cyberculture, will always be a part of us. Even if it only surfaces for a brief instant.
ReplyDeleteYep, I think you're both correct. And I'm glad that Gibson included this message-- technology exists, and will continue to enhance on/intrude in our lives, but even as "jacked in" as Case was, he never stopped being human. There may be hope for the future after all.
ReplyDeleteCan't forget about Michael, though (the girl he ends up with in the epilogue... don't have correct page numbers, sorry). I think it's frustrating for us as readers to feel like we're not getting any closure... Case never exchanges any meaningful last words with Linda Lee (neither in Chiba nor in the N/M construct), and, even more troubling, he never gets to say goodbye to Molly. All we're told is that he moves back to the Sprawl, finds steady work, and winds up with some girl named Michael whom we *don't* care about. But I think the lack of closure is there to remind us that, in the vast majority of cases, we don't get proper closure when we lose something precious to us. This is the world Case bargained for when he decided to forsake the N/M construct and any chance of getting to be with Linda Lee... a world that resists our efforts to freeze it in place, interpret it, understand it, and come to terms.
ReplyDeleteYeah, it was definitely Case's choice to walk away from the life (or rather, non-life) he could have had. But I'm not too convinced that he was happy with Michael, either, since the last sequence is him "seeing" himself with Linda Lee. In some ways he got back the life he wanted, but in other ways, he lost his life forever. What's more "life": your job or the people your spend your non-working hours with? Case chose his job as his life, meaning that he lost the company of the people he would have preferred to be with.
ReplyDeleteI think the "meat" winning was an important part of Gibson's conclusion, because as you and Megan say above, no matter how much humans and technology entertwine, some part of us will always be human. Our "heart" component is something that machines will never be able to recreate (hopefully!). Gibson also tends to combine the "meat" part of life with tradgedy and unhappiness, which is also true to life because one doesn't come without the other. This is another important differentiation between humans and machines, because they will never be able to experience the suffering having a heart and a "meat" body can bring.
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