William Gibson Essays

  • Idoru, by William Gibson

    967 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Idoru, by William Gibson, the idoru is more human than Laney. Rei Toei, the idoru, is a completely virtual media star, a synthespian. Laney is a quantitative analyst with a concentration deficit that he can adjust "into a state of pathological hyperfocus," thus enabling him to be "an extremely good researcher" (Gibson 30). Growing up in the Gainesville Federal Orphanage, Laney inadvertently restricted control over his future identity. Only considering the program's rewards, he voluntarily

  • Burning Chrome by William Gibson

    629 Words  | 2 Pages

    The text of “Burning Chrome” by William Gibson, is based on the tale of two professional hackers, Automatic Jack and Bobby Quine. Jack buys a piece of unknown software that turns out to be a sophisticated and almost untraceable Russian hacking software. Bobby decided to use this software to break in and steal money from a high level and well connected criminal known as Chrome. After Jack agrees, the two hackers successfully break in and steal money as well as take down Chrome. These two characters

  • Is Neuromancer a cut-up Future?

    823 Words  | 2 Pages

    Neuromancer a cut-up future? William S. Burroughs was an innovative writer who experimented with technology and the cut-up method in his postmodernist works. William Gibson follows suit with that cut-up method in his post-modernist groundbreaking science fiction novel Neuromancer, in which he uses a rapid stream of images and the disassociation of people with each other in a technologically advanced, corporate controlled society. Burroughs wants “cut-ups to establish new connections between images

  • Comparing Neuromancer And The Female Vagrant

    1198 Words  | 3 Pages

    Neuromancer, by William Gibson, and The Female Vagrant, by William Wordsworth, are two pieces of literature, which are extremely different in many ways. They are unalike in literary style, geographic location, and time setting. Neuromancer is a science fiction novel, written in nineteen eighty-four, but is set in the technologically advanced dystopian world of the cyberspace future. In opposing contrast as far as setting and type of literature, The Female Vagrant is one poem within a lyrical ballad

  • William Gibson's Johnny Mnemonic

    2187 Words  | 5 Pages

    William Gibson's Johnny Mnemonic "Johnny Mnemonic," is a short story written by William Gibson. It appears in a book of short stories written by Gibson called Burning Chrome in 1986. Gibson is a writer of science fiction and one of the first to write in the new genre called cyberpunk. Cyberpunk is a type of fiction that examines a futuristic world dominated by computer technology, massive cartels, and cyberspace. In other words, its an artificial universe created through the linkup of tens of

  • A Comparison of Neuromancer and We So Seldom Look on Love

    881 Words  | 2 Pages

    Considering that there are many different levels of realism, I have chosen to focus on Neuromancer by William Gibson and We so Seldom Look on Love by Barbara Gowdy. The stories explore the boundaries of realism by using similar elements. The most obvious one is the margin between life and death, which these two stories address. The main characters separate themselves from society's idealistic realism. Nevertheless, where is their identity placed when living in a different realism? How does one understand

  • Neuromancer Feminist Analysis

    775 Words  | 2 Pages

    Neuromancer and Feminist Neuromancer, by William Gibson, is a surprisingly multifaceted novel. Paving the way for future novels like this, Gibson tells a unsettling story of a futuristic world where computers and "the matrix," become more authentic than reality itself. This tale is set in the not-so-far-off future, has Henry Dorsett, the hero, embark on an adventure that pushed the readers imagination. Even though Case is the main character, other characters have a lot more influence or power.

  • The Definition of Cyberpunk

    1975 Words  | 4 Pages

    The Definition of Cyberpunk In Bruce Sterling's article, "Cyberpunk in the Nineties," he explained how public opinion had defined himself, Rucker, Shiner, Shirley, and Gibson as the cyberpunk "gurus" in the 1980's. Because of being labeled cyberpunk "gurus," the public had come to understand the definition of cyberpunk as "anything that cyberpunks write." To break this definition of cyberpunk established by popular public opinion, I will pursue giving cyberpunk a more definite definition. After

  • Eighties Cyberpunk

    936 Words  | 2 Pages

    technological situations to help induce the future of the world. It generated new outcomes for the future's high technological, society and global environment that would help categorize it into a specific form of writing known as cyberpunk. William Gibson, one of the five writers associated with the cyberpunk genre, is credited by critics and peers for typifying the cyberpunk writing form in his popular novel Neuromancer. Bruce Sterling, Rudy Rucker, John Shirley and Lewis Shiner, the other four

  • Using the Formalistic Approach to Analyze Neuromancer

    992 Words  | 2 Pages

    will display its own internal logic" (Guerin 75)." When practicing the formalistic approach, the reader must scrutinize the text for tools such as form, texture, style, symbolism, point of view, theme, and so on to portray the beauty of the novel. William Gibson's Neuromancer portrays many of these tools, but it is most important to focus on the overall tone of the story, which is quite evident in the setting. Concentrating on the portrayal of dystopia and the diction that is used to describe it, as

  • Cyberpunk Definitional Paper

    1065 Words  | 3 Pages

    the masses with probably the movements most successful novel, entitled Neuromancer. William Gibson's novel was the first major work to get recognized from this category, it seemed to set the precedence of what cyberpunk included, and what a piece of writing needed to have to get labeled cyberpunk. Cyberpunk does not define the works that are in it, rather, the works define what cyberpunk consists of. Since William Gibson's Neuromancer was one of the first to be recognized as cyberpunk, the genre

  • Social Darwinism in Cyberpunk Literature

    1291 Words  | 3 Pages

    could decide, like in Cyberpunk, if one floats like algae or swims like an Angel Fish. Works Cited Cooper, John Milton. Pivotal Decades: The United States, 1900-1920. New York: W.W. Norton and Co., 1990. Gibson, William. "Burning Chrome." Burning Chrome. Ed. William Gibson. New York: Ace Books, 1987. 168-191. Shirley, John. "Freezone." Mirrorshades. Ed. Bruce Sterling. New York: Ace Books, 1988. 139-177.

  • Materialistic Dystopia

    1702 Words  | 4 Pages

    Max Barry's Jennifer Government and William Gibson's Neuromancer each depict a dystopian image of the world. In both novels, greed and consumerism become the vice that plagues humanity. Materialism is no longer abstract, but a way of life in these alternate realities. Corporations maintain control over the products they sell as well as the individuals they solicit to. Characters in each novel become victims of corporate tyrants when production precedes compassion. Jennifer Government and Neuromancer

  • The Style that Defines Cyberpunk

    1619 Words  | 4 Pages

    of the cyberpunk movement is limited. However, given the preponderance of sexual and technological material in the stories read, it may be construed that, on the whole, prose in the cyberpunk genre possess these elements. Works Cited Gibson, William. "The Gernsback Continuum." Mirrorshades: The Cyberpunk Anthology. Ed. Bruce Sterling. New York: Ace, 1988. 1-11. Maddox, Tom. "Snake Eyes." Mirrorshades: The Cyberpunk Anthology. Ed. Bruce Sterling. New York: Ace, 1988. 12-33. Shirley,

  • The Women of Cyberpunk

    1191 Words  | 3 Pages

    and David Wingrove. Trillion Year Spree: The History of Science Fiction. New York: Avon Books, 1986. Ben-Tov, Sharona. The Artificial Paradise: Science Fiction and American Reality. Ann Arbor: The Universtiy of Michigan Press, 1995. Gibson, William. "Johnny Mnemonic." Writing About Cyberpunk. Ed. Tonya Browning. The University of Texas at Austin, Fall 1995. Maddox, Tom. "Snake Eyes." Mirrorshades: The Cyberpunk Anthology. Ed. Bruce Sterling. New York: Ace Books, 1986. pp. 12-33.

  • Alien 3

    1630 Words  | 4 Pages

    Even though it’s visual quality was exceptional, it’s poor scenario deceived most Alien fans throughout the world, leaving not much place for improvement for a forth movie. But most people don’t know that the critically acclaimed cyberpunk author William Gibson wrote an alternative scenario to Alien³, much more researched, focusing on future technology and human contacts rather than on explosions and gratuitous violence. Both Alien³ and Gibson’s script have a similar opening, where the audience learns

  • The Horror of Dystopia Revealed by Neuromancer

    1583 Words  | 4 Pages

    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

  • Using Gothic Characteristics to Portray the Theme of Knowledge

    2236 Words  | 5 Pages

    current social conditions in order to warn the reader. Works Cited Bloom, Harold. Flannery O'Connor. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1986. Di Renzo, Anthony. American Gargoyles. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1993. Gibson, William. "Johnny Mnemonic." 5 April 2000 . Levine, George. The Endurance of Frankenstein. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1979. O'Connor, Flannery. "Good Country People." 5 Apr. 2000 . Shelly, Mary. Frankenstein. New York: Dover

  • Comparing God and AI in Neuromancer

    921 Words  | 2 Pages

    Parallels between God and AI in Neuromancer The world of "meat" provides the base for much of what happens throughout William Gibson's novel Neuromancer. The lives of characters are shaped by their flesh and blood experiences. The realm of artificial intelligence (AI) is the base for all of the events that are central to the life of a character. All events and lives are under control of the AI, and all things serve the AI's purpose. The matrix serves to mash the two realms together, in times and

  • Shaping Identity in William Gibson's Neuromancer

    2079 Words  | 5 Pages

    Shaping Identity in William Gibson's Neuromancer The number “one” is not a thing. Math has no definitive reality. Numbers are a social construct, a system of symbols designed to express the abstractions through which properly developed societies explain aspects of reality. It follows that, as humanity seeks to understand more of what it is to exist, bigger numbers are needed. Soon, we need machines to understand the numbers. Society plants a base on information technology, efficiency, and