Apathy and Addiction in Neuromancer In the postmodern world of William Gibson's Neuromancer, nature is dead, and the world is run by the logic of the corporate machine. Confronted by a reality that is stark, barren, and metallic, and the hopelessness that this reality engenders, the postmodern protagonist, like Case, often immerses himself or herself in an alternate form of reality that is offered in the form of addiction (to virtual reality or drugs, for example), addictions that are made possible by the same society that makes an escape desirable. Such addictions are logical products of the post-modern capitalist society because they perpetuate the steadfast power of the corporation by allowing would-be dissidents an escape from reality, thereby preventing successful rebellion and maintaining the pervasive societal apathy necessary to allow the corporation to dominate undeterred. Case, as the addictive anti-hero, is a product of this stifling cycle of apathy. Lacking the motivation or drive to instigate any true change in his reality, he avoids the unpleasant realities of his world by entering into the altered reality of addiction. In the reality of the postmodern world, where nature is gone and has been replaced by technology, where the world and humankind have become fused with the machine, and the existence of morality and reality are uncertain, it is difficult to find hope for a better existence or motivation to attempt to change one's existence. Addiction then becomes a logical avenue of escape from these bleak circumstances--not affecting reality, but transforming it into something bearable. The addictions that Case turns to allow him to escape from the hard reality of his life th... ... middle of paper ... ...e Fiction, and Some Comics. Hanover, NH: Wesleyan UP, 1994. Gibson, William. Neuromancer. New York: Ace-Berkeley, 1984. ---. Interview with Larry McCaffrey. Storming the Reality Studio. Larry McCaffrey, ed. Durham, NC: Duke UP, 1992. 263-285. Grant, Glenn. "Transcendence Through Detournement in William Gibson's Neuromancer." Science Fiction Studies. 17 (1990). 41-49. Hollinger, Veronica. "Cybernetic Deconstruction." Storming the Reality Studio. Larry McCaffrey, ed. Durham, NC: Duke UP, 1992. Jameson, Frederick. "Postmodernism, or The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism" New Left Review. 146 (July-August 1984) Rpt in Storming the Reality Studio. Larry McCaffrey, ed. Durham, NC: Duke UP, 1992. Slusser, George. "Literary MTV." Storming the Reality Studio. Larry McCaffrey, ed. Durham, NC: Duke UP, 1992.
Gabor Mate 's essay “Embraced by the Needle” addresses important issues on the negative effects that childhood experiences have on the development of addictions, and the long term effects that drugs play throughout an addict 's life. The author states that addictions originate from unhappiness and pain that is often inflicted upon addicts at early age such as infancy. In Mate essay, he uses many patients past childhood experiences to help create a picture of the trauma that an addict faced as child and the link it plays with who they are today. Mate builds an impressive argument based on the way he organizes his ideas on what addiction is, and how it corresponds to a person 's childhood experience. The author does this effectively
of the marble chips the same. I will do all of the experiment on the
Levine, Robert S., ed. Martin R. Delaney: A Documentary Reader. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2003.
Nuclear Family. Noun. A couple and their dependent children, regarded as a basic social unit (Abate and Jewell, The New Oxford American Dictionary). This definition has changed in both meaning and prevalence over time; it used to signify just a father, a mother, and their children, but now it’s become more inclusive to families who didn 't quite meet that description. Also, this set-up is far less common that it was, since rates of single parents have skyrocketed over the past 50 years (Tenenbaum, “Honor Thy Mother”). Despite this, the nuclear family is still the basic foundation of all familial relationships today. The novel Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns is based on the lives (and deaths) of each member of a nuclear
...e. How We Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Cybernatics, Literature and Informatics. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1999.
Postmodern literature contains an authoritative point of view as it expresses the “real” and the “unreal”. The authoritative viewpoint hides within the representation of words and the form of the text. Jean Baudrillard speaks of the masking of view in his essay, “Postmodernism and Consumer Society”, when he says, “This, feigning or dissimilating leaves the reality principle inta...
Jameson, Fredric. Postmodernism, or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism. Durham: Duke University Press, 1991.
Science fiction somehow manages to place human characters in situations where the ideas and the thoughts of science and morality are intertwined. Science fiction must have some idea components and some human components to be successful. This novel seems to be a contrast to the believers in technological progress as it presents a colorful, but depressing and desolate future. The loss of individuality due to technological advances becomes a major theme in cyberpunk. This presents a dismal view of the individual in society. The cyberpunk genre developed from “a new kind of integration. The overlapping of worlds that were formerly separate: the realm of high tech, and the modern pop underground” (p. 345) 1. Neuromancer not only falls into this category, it may be the first cyberpunk novel ever written.
Rates Of Reaction Investigation Plan: This experiment is planned to investigate the rate of reaction when mixing Copper sulphate (CuSO4) with Zinc powder (Zn). My plan is to see what happens before, during and after the reaction takes place. I will need the following equipment to carry out this investigation: Ø A 50ml marked measuring tube Ø A digital precision scale Ø 600ml of copper sulphate Ø A digital thermometer Ø A pot of Zinc powder Ø A sandpaper (to sand the Copper sulphate off the thermometer) Ø A pen and a paper (to record results.)
In order to make it a fair test the volume of hydrochloric acid had to
When William Gibson's futuristic novel Neuromancer was first published, it seemed farfetched that technology could reach the level of sophistication he described. Science fiction movies have since repeated and expanded upon this theme, portraying corporate anxieties and paranoid fears of people to be controlled by aliens, man-made machines and artificial intelligence. Neuromancer takes us into the subculture of cyberpunk, a dystopia of an amoral society ruled by abstract powers. Gibson creates a world of fear and terror where technology permeates this futuristic world into its smallest detail and instead of serving humanity, rises to become its ruler and God.
Rate of Reaction Investigation Aim: To determine how changing the concentration of a reactant (Na S O ) affects the rate of the reaction. Prediction: I predict that when we increase the concentration, the rate will increase; therefore there are more particles and a greater probability of a collision. If more particles are present in the same volume, they will be closer together. This means they have a higher probability of colliding and speeding up the reaction. If we double the concentration, the rate will also double.
If one of the reactants is a solid, you can break it down to smaller
Jameson's analysis of postmodernism (you will find a synopsis below) synthesizes two articles: his original "Postmodernism and Consumer Society" (1983) and "Postmodernism: The Cultural Logic of late Capitalism" (1984), the same title as his monumental book on the topic. In these works, Jameson expands his analysis to include popular culture, architecture, theory, and other texts, and thus can be seen as part of a movement toward cultural studies as a replacement for canonical literary studies. In the version included here, Jameson links current intellectual, social, and spatial disorientation to the technological reinvigoration of capitalism and globalization. He considers present arrangements with critical rationality and calls for a demystifying political aesthetic of "cognitive mapping" (Gray and McGuigan, 1997, pp. 176-77).