Neuromancer Themes

Neuromancer Themes

Technology and Modernization

Gibson was a man of the 80s, and the 80s were all about technology. The decade popularized the home computer, the VCR, and the video arcade—the grandparents of the tablet, Blu-ray player, and vid...

Transformation

As technology evolves, we integrate it into our bodies, our lives, and the world around us. Even today, pacemakers keep hearts pumping, trains alter landscapes, and computers combine trillions of 1...

Manipulation

If transformation (see "Transformation") is your average Joe, then manipulation is his evil twin brother, the one kept locked in a basement and fed only fish heads his entire life. The difference i...

Freedom and Confinement

The more technology seems to free us the more it also confines us. Ironic, isn't it? Gibson explores both these sides of the technology coin in Neuromancer. Cyberspace allows Case the ability to be...

Identity

Identity is a sticky issue in any world, and Gibson's futuristic world is no different. Each character expresses his or her identity through various means. For Case and Molly, it's initially their...

Memory and the Past

Our experiences create our view of the world, good and bad. They also help us create goals and motivate us to achieve them. The characters of Neuromancer are no different than the rest of us in tha...

Isolation

Does technology bring us closer together or push us further apart? Neuromancer seems to support both possibilities. The technological developments that have lead to the urbanization of the Sprawl h...

Drugs and Alcohol

Drug use seems pretty commonplace in the world of Neuromancer. And not just pedestrian substances like alcohol or tobacco, but some pretty heinous, mind-bending stuff. Oddly enough, some of the mos...

Violence

Many works of science fiction from the fifties suggested that through technological innovation humanity would overcome its tendencies toward violence and war. Neuromancer is written as a countermea...