At first, for a difficulty, I was kind of confused through the novel whether which part is based on reality and which is based on cyberspace. And since the ‘cyberspace’, which William Gibson first used through this novel, is an abstract image, I had a difficulty in imagining the structure of cyberspace. But soon, I came up with an image of the movie, Matrix, and then it was little bit easier to make an image of cyberspace where Case jag in and out from the reality.
But reading this novel, i just wondered about our existence. In Neuromancer, I got an image of a contrast of a weak body and a super-ultra mind. Usually, almost all of science fictions which deal with cyberspace consider the intelligence as an important thing. The protagonists’ bodies are laid down on a chair something like that and they just access into the cyberspace ruled by an AI(Artificial Intelligence), mostly. Here in Neuromancer, Wintermute and its half side, Neuromancer ,are all AIs and the human protagonist Case is governed by them. The AI is superior. Even though those AIs are produced by human’s technology, they do rule the humans through cyberspace, in reverse again.
In the novel, there is a description of a body. The body is referred to as a “meat(12)” and furthermore, the reality is depicted as a “The prison of his own flesh(12).” These are all negative expressions. And here is another passage describing a body as a sexual desireful thing: ” ‘Not if I remember to take my pills,’ he said, as a tangible wave of longing hit him, lust and loneliness riding in on the wavelength of amphetamine. He remembered the smell of her skin in the overheated darkness of a coffin near the port, her locked across the small of his back. All the meat, he thought, and all it wants. (17) ” This is what Case thought about his body. Case doesn’t affirm any sexual desire produced by his body. He just asserts that all the physical desires are valueless and vulgar.
Opposing this view of a body, however, I think we can recognize ourselves by our physical things. So in my opinion, body should not be ignored or disgraded. Also, I thought that focusing on intelligence rather than our bodies is rooted from Descartes’ theory. Descartes argued that the human identity can be only found from their reason, the intelligence. I think many people too became accustomed to the way of thinking as Descartes. I do think that mind and intelligence is important. And it is true that humans are distinguished from other creatures in that humans have intelligence, we can think! However, ignoring bodies and considering them as inferior ones is not a proper way, I think. Our body is well organized and for reproducing, of course, it is way important.
Anyway, it is true that cyber things will be more flourished in our future and even today, we are living in cybersapces in lots of aspects, through Internet . Although it is modernized way and we are on that process inevitably, we should remind ourselves of our great and miraculous bodies!