Effective Use of Color in Neuromancer
As I sit in my chair and type this essay, I am amazed to see myself staring into the computer next to me and wondering if William Gibson was indeed correct. The screen, which is a dark gray, has been put on "sleep mode" by Windows 98 but has not been powered off. It is not only the monitor that troubles me as I stare blankly into it, but rather, it is "the color of television, tuned to a dead channel." This is how Gibson touches the reader in Neuromancer. He uses images of colors with which the human eye is all too familiar, and, more specifically, he uses shades of these colors. One color, which particularly stands alone in Gibson's use and effectiveness, is gray. It represents so much in the novel and adds incredible dimensions beyond simple description.
With the opening line, the coloring reveals the nature of his futuristic Earth. "The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel." In the modern world, there are not too many people who do not know this color. The "snow" effect has been commonly used to describe it, as well as static, haze, and a number of other terms, but the color remains the same. It is the color of frustration, hopelessness and non-clarity, much like Case's world. There is very little hope left in Case's life as Gibson opens the novel, and within fifteen words, the reader is well aware of this fact.
Not only does the world continue a bleak existence, but so to do the main characters of the novel. Molly, for example, is a lost assassin. She is not physically lost but rather spiritually as she has turned into a killing machine. The only true way to describe it is cold-blooded. Her icy nature is revealed, once again, through the use of the color gray. Her eyes, or what is left of them, used silver, mirrored lenses. Just by her paratactic description, the reader syntactically knows her faults through her faulty vision. In addition to Molly, one other member of Case's team is flawed using the color gray. This is Armitage, or Corto. Armitage is merely a shell of a man created by an Artificial Intelligence. To indicate the instability of Armitage/Corto, Gibson shows Armitage in a gray business suit, which contrasts starkly to the image the reader sees of Corto's military days, where he would have worn a camouflaged uniform.
The Auto Bailout started in 2008 after the Great Recession occurred in 2007. Its purpose was to loan money to GM and Chrysler to keep them from shutting down. If the car companies went bankrupt, the supplier companies would also go bankrupt and many citizens would lose their jobs. Giving loans to them would increase economic activity and help bring the US out of the Great Recession. At first, the Government was only going to loan $17.4 billion for the bailout. GM wanted $13.4 billion and Chrysler wanted $4 billion. The total cost was around $80 billion. This extra amount of money came from the Government when they bought all the stocks from GM and forced them to get a new CEO for equity. Chrysler was forced to let the foreign car company, Fiat, run Chrysler for the time being. The Government did this to try and help both car companies from making decisions that would impact the economy negatively. All the stocks bought from GM were sold which helped to make up money owed to the Government. With this “final sale of GM stock, [this] important chapter of our nation’s history is now closed” (Treasury Secretary, Jacob J. Lew). The Auto...
A disturbing thought about man’s ethical barometer is that most of the theories, categories and principles emanate from the point of man’s reason. There is a cause to shudder at the thought of man as the absolute authority of what is right and wrong; what is ethical and what is not. Born into a sinful nature, man will ultimately make decisions that will lead to a moral philosophy that is shaky at best. Even philosophers with the best of intentions fall short to God’s model for the order, organization, and meting out of ethical actions. Because of man’s finite vision of what should be done to improve the present situation, mankind will always be found lacking in making the best ethical decisions; not being able to see the long term outcome and the impact those decisions and actions would have on others in the world.
Some of the author’s first use of color is during the prologue when the narrator is describing the town of Starkfield. “During the early part of my stay I had been struck by the contrast between the vitality of the
Lindsey, Lawrence B. “Did the Stimulus Stimulate?” The Weekly Standard. The Weekly Standard LLC. 16 Aug. 2010. Web. 25 April 2011
The criteria or definition of brain death was re-examined in 1968 by a committee at Harvard Medical School and is part of the criteria used today. They defined it as when a patient; is unresponsive to stimulus; cannot move or breathe without the aid of a ventilator and has no brain stem reflexes. Several tests are done in order to determine if a patient meets these criteria and this can be done by physicians and neurologists. A brain dead patient is legally dead and a death cer...
Lang, Anthony F, From revolutions to constitutions: the case of Egypt. International Affairs 89, no. 2: 345-363 (2013). Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost.
however,the salaries would be less due to an increase in taxestaken out used to help pay for
Once a person is brain dead they are said to be legally dead and the time and date of death is reflected on their death certificate. In South Africa it is not stated that doctors can withdraw life support once a patient is declared brain dead due to ethical debates (Fleischer, 2003). There have been some cases where people have been declared brain dead but then regain some brain activity (Greenberg, 2014). This h...
"Science as Salvation: Weimar Eugenics, 1919–1933." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust Memorial Council, 10 June 2013. Web. 27 May 2014.
...e Aeneas and Caesar to become great heroes among men. Both show piety and one is also driven by the gods, but after centuries no one has forgotten them. One of them because his ending created the foundation for an empire that would reign for a millennium. The other because of his clever tactics and devotion to protect his men and city. War has torn the world apart through the millenniums passing their times, but no one has come to the magnitude of positive renown like Aeneas and Caesar.
“The golden plains/ the deep blue lakes” invoke images of normalcy, of nature, of beauty—gentle reminder to the reader that the world does not stop turning in times of war (2-3). “Red clouds in which an angry god resides” shows the harsher truth of war. Red traditionally symbolizes blood, passion or anger. Red clouds have their own symbolism, representing impending death, troubles or despair. The most poignant color imagery used in “Grodek” is found in line 10, “all roads lead to the blackest carrion.” Black is a color used to symbolize death and the endings of things. The word carrion itself means the decaying flesh of animals, thus creating the most harrowing color image in the
Parissien, Steven. Assassinated!: Assassinations That Shook the World, from Julius Caesar to Lincoln. London: Quercus, 2008. Print.
The poem’s colors and the symbol of the key at the onset of the poem help to foreshadow the poem’s contents and the theme of death that connects three individuals. From the beginning to the end of “Intersecting Lives,” only the colors black and white were used (Sakellion). Black is a color that symbolizes death, which is the main
...Pat Barker describes that ‘Rain had blurred the landscape’, this is the same as when you have tears in your eyes, which implies sadness. The colour ‘grey’ lacks vibrancy and life and matches the weather along with Burns’ mood. The effect of ‘rain blur’ shows that he is so used to the war setting that he no longer knows beyond the war, perhaps lost his perception on what normalcy is like.
Over time, the characteristics that define a hero have changed. Different cultures have had an impact on the characteristics that define a hero. The different types of heroes all have differences with one another. There are still some characteristics that have not changed in defining a hero. Bravery and courage are characteristics that have defined all heroes.