{"id":241,"date":"2012-09-16T16:46:27","date_gmt":"2012-09-16T20:46:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.briancroxall.net\/lit-tech\/?p=241"},"modified":"2012-09-16T16:46:47","modified_gmt":"2012-09-16T20:46:47","slug":"stairway-to-escape","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.briancroxall.net\/lit-tech\/2012\/09\/16\/stairway-to-escape\/","title":{"rendered":"Stairway to Escape"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thomas Foster\u2019s article is a crafted analysis of Neuromancer<\/em>, and undoubtedly well written. Although Thomas disassembles the book into many subjects of interest, I would like to address the subject of meat puppets. The article adopts two opposite terms, meat puppet and robopath, which serve as two extremes of existence in the novel. As Thomas puts it, the characters seem to always be unhappy with their existence in either their \u201corganic bodies\u201d or \u201cconsensual hallucination\u201d. The negative connotation of being imprisoned in your own body is carried throughout his analysis, and Thomas concludes that Case is obsessed with leaving his own body.<\/p>\n

Thomas is surely right about Case\u2019s obsession because the novel introduces three ways to escape the \u201cmeat puppet\u201d for Case. The simstim is a \u201cgratuitous multiplication of flesh input\u201d (Gibson 54) and is described as being something that the cyberspace matrix cannot replicate. Case uses the simstim to evaluate Molly\u2019s situations, and the simstim works as an easy transition between the characters of the book. Drugs also give the possibility of leaving the meat puppet for Case. In the book we constantly see Case using drugs when he can, and even at the end of the novel Case replaces his organs to allow himself to feel the affect of drugs on his body. Lastly, Case uses the matrix, which Thomas claims \u201cfeminizes him\u201d. By focusing on Molly\u2019s disembodiment, Thomas overlooks the deeper problem of his simplistic logic. Case may be lending his body to drugs, but through simstim and cyberspace he disassociates his body with his consciousness. In other terms, he is prostituting his body to drugs, but when he is using simstim and cyberspace, Case doesn\u2019t allow the interaction of his physical existence to interfere with his conscious feeling of escape.<\/p>\n

The feeling of escape is something that humans love. I think that when I watch a movie, part of the reason of watching it is to do with the feeling of escape. I take on the journey of the character and leave my body in chair of the movie theater, while my mind drifts with the plot of the movie. When Case uses simstim, he is also experiencing the movie effect. The combination of drugs, simstim, and the matrix allow Neuromancer<\/em> to beg the question: are we all obsessed with the idea of escape? Thomas hits the bullseye on this issue, claiming that \u201cNeuromancer depicts a situation in which the characters are neither the masters of their technology nor enslaved by it”.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thomas Foster\u2019s article is a crafted analysis of Neuromancer, and undoubtedly well written. Although Thomas disassembles the book into many subjects of interest, I would like to address the subject of meat puppets. The article adopts two opposite terms, meat puppet and robopath, which serve as two extremes of existence in the novel. As Thomas<\/p>\n