Conclusion of Neuromancer

In the end of Neuromancer, the plot and the ending surprise and baffle me since Molly and Case go onto separate paths. First, Case finally gets the code from 3Jane and unlocks the Turing Lock. From here, Case is able to finish his task from Armitage and get the toxin sacs out from his body, but there are still many cases which remain unsolved. Also, Wintermute and Neuromancer re-unite, which they are now the “Matrix”. However, this quote baffles me because at the end of the story, it said “He never saw Molly again” (261). From the beginning of the story to the end of the story, some plot seems to show Molly and Cases’ relationship become stronger because they always work together to solve problems or have sex. Most of their actions give me a hint that the story will show more of Case and Molly’s relationship go into a next level; however, this seems not to be the case. Molly just leaves a note on the table moves out. In the end, Case decides to stay in Chiba City, which we do not know whether he is happy or not. This could imply that “Molly” is just an illusion from the start or Molly and Case never have a growth of their relationship from the start. Morever, Molly’s disappearance at the end will remain a mystery to us since the author does not give us any hints on where she has gone. Basically, most of the problems come into a conclusion, but the actions puzzle us what the character feels or where did they go.

Neuromancer Part II

Gibson expresses Case’s paranoid experiences such as the “toxic sacs” flowing inside him. When Case hear this, he starts becoming worried and “tried to imagine Armitage’s toxin sacs dissolving in his bloodstream, microscopic membranes wearing thinner as he walked” (68). Case’s paranoid is easily shown here because after he hears the “toxin sacs” is inside him, he tries to think that it is not true. Instead of thinking those sacs inside him, he tries to imagine it is inside another person. Not only that, but when he sees “3 blank men; the woman reminded him of Linda Lee” (68). There might be some romance behind this quote because of Linda Lee, who was Case’s lover. Even though Linda is dead, Case still keeps the memories of her, which leads him to have illusion thoughts when seeing 3 blank men. The reader can see when Case stays in the matrix for too long, he gets all of these paranoid visions or thoughts.

“This is the message. Wintermute.” He spelled it out.
“From you?” Case took a step forward.
“No,” Yonderboy said. “For you.”
“Who from?”
“Wintermute,” Yonderboy repeated (68).

This caught my attention of the romance theme. The letter that Case received is something that he and Molly need to do and this gives me an idea that Molly and Case are becoming closer to each other. The two are usually on many different adventures, trying to investigate the problem and find the solution to it. Moreover, these adventures seem to be the main reason of their growing bond. Control plays into this relationship as well, as they become determined to find out whom Armitage is working for. The letter about Wintermute leads Case and Molly onto a further investigation.

Neuromancer Part I

In William Gibson’s book, The Neuromancer, he starts introducing two characters named Case and Ratz. Case, who lives in Night City, is twenty-four and operates on an almost permanent adrenaline high, a byproduct of youth and proficiency. In chapter one, Neuromancer takes place in The Chatsubo, a bar where people drink and do illegal activities. After reading couple pages from chapter one, the reader may not have a good impression on the city since there are many criminals and prostitutes. For example, Case has watched knife battles as entertainments, worked as a thief, and worked with other thieves to penetrate the bright walls of corporate systems.

Night City, where Chatsubo is located, is a place where there are not any laws and technology is being sold or bought. Gibson describes Chiba City as, “The Sky above the port was the color of television, turned into a dead channel” (1). Gibson expresses that something has occurred during this time since “dead channel” means something has died after an event occurred. This is an odd quote because nature is what people describe as beautiful; however, Gibson prefers technology as beautiful because he mentions the color television. But some major war must have occurred because Gibson mentions the color television turning into a dead television. Before the outbreak, the setting of the story is probably a peaceful place, but after something happened, the setting changed more into a criminal and dirty place. Gibson uses this to attract the reader’s attention on knowing what happened to Chiba city.

Owl Creek Bridge

In his Ambrose Bierce’s story “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,” he attracts the reader’s attention by describing a man standing on the bridge and talking in 3rd person point of view. In part I, he talks about the scene occurring at the Owl Creek Bridge, which the man is going to be executed. From the given information at the beginning, the only idea the reader knows is the man is hanged, which the readers have no sympathy and wonder why the man is hanging.

In part II, he switches the mode of narrative to third person limited/subjective. This change allows the readers to get more background information on Peyton Farquhar. The readers see that Peyton’s character is a Southern and is willing to help other soldiers. Also, the time changes from part I to part II. Part II of the story is actually what happens first because it tells the readers why Farquhar got hanged, while part I just talks about Farquhar getting hanged. The reason why Bierce places part II after part I is to give the readers a sense of curiosity in the beginning and to get their attention.

Finally, in part III, Bierce switches to back to third person omniscient so that the readers can get a clear idea on what is happening in the story. For instance, he talks about Peyton being hand and somehow escapes. He keeps walking around the town and finally reaches home to meet his wife. However, the readers find out that it was all his imagination. Peyton never escaped the bridge, which he was hung, and it gave the readers feel more sympathetic.

Pop Culture in Poetry

In one of the spongebob squarepants episodes, plankton fails to steal the krabby patty formula and looks outside to refresh his mind. However, he spots Mr. Krab's wife and falls in love with her at first sight. He asks her out and she accepts the offer. This made Mr. Krabs felt uneasy on what plankton is doing and tries to tell his mom that plankton is a bad person, but his mom still believes plankton is a good person. Later, plankton attempts to marry Mr. Krab's wife and she declines. This made plankton angry and he said "It's is better to be loved than not loved at all." The quote was from Lord Tennyson.

Also, in one of the episodes in Jimmy Neutron, everybody had to recite a poem in the classroom. Since Jimmy and Cindy were the top 2 students, they hated each other. When Cindy recited a poem, she talks about how her poem is about Jimmy Neutron and that caught everyone's attention. Jimmy got angry at her, but didn't fight back. Eventually, when it was Jimmy's turn, he recited a poem quoted from Shakespeare.

All Watched Over By Machines Of Loving Grace

In Richard Brautigan's poem "All Watched over by Machines of Loving Grace," is a poem that talks about the ideas of nature and technology. Brautigan argues that he dislikes technology from the statement on lines 1, 9, and 17 “I like to think.” The reason he emphasizes this statement so much is to show that he prefers to think instead of relying technology to find the solution to his problems. He goes on to explain beautiful things about nature such as “like a pure water touching clear sky” (7-8) which talks about that nature is much different from technology because people might understand the true meaning of the pure water and pure sky by seeing with their eyes instead of using technology. Richard goes on to talk about “being free from labor and joined back to our nature, returned to our mammal brother and sisters” (21-23) meaning that people are free from technology related things and go out to discover more about nature such as seeing animals returning to their home and being independent.

However, Brautigan’s uses of “cybernetic” also show his pro-technology. “Where mammals and computer live together in mutually programming harmony” (4-6) emphasizes that mammals and computers can work together without creating problems. Technology also does not create a problem for animals such as deer because “deer stroll peacefully past computers” (13-14). There is no interference between both and Brautigan believes technology is good as long as it does not interfere with nature.

I view Brautigan’s poem as anti-technology since technology is not the solution to help me see the true meaning of nature. For example, I cannot use technology to see pure water or pure sky (7-8) because it relies on my perspective to actually see them. Also, when I do labor by using technology, I usually want to go outside after couple hours because it gives me an idea of what is happening on outside, understanding the beauty of nature, and returning home with your family.

Frost's Poem "Design"

Images
-dimpled spider
-moth
-dead wings
-kindred spider
-white
- witches’ broth

In this poem “Design”, written by Robert Frost, Robert mentions about a dimpled spider catching a moth on the “self-heal” plants on the first strophe. He describes the process of the spider eating the moth on the “self-heal” plants.” The moth can be described as a strong character and having a white color skin because the author mentions the moth is a strong stain cloth which makes me think that the moth is something hard to catch. The next two lines talks about that the methods of the spider on what it could do to the moth for the upcoming days. This is like the ingredients of the witches’ broth because the spiders just mix their methods on what to do with the moth. From the last two lines, it can be assumed that the spider just ripped the moth apart on the flower because it talks about the dead wings were carried like a paper kite. From this given information, it conveys that the ingredients in the witches’ broth are evil or something dangerous. The flower being white can be something like a deathbed when someone passes away because the color white resembles faint.

On the second strophe, Frost questions the natural why does all of this have to happen. He wonders why the spider becomes bigger and what causes the moth to appear in the night. All these images that I listed above describe the process of natural and death. It is normal for the moth to appear at night and get trapped on the “white flower.” Frost said the flowers were supposed to be innocent and not white, but this is what the flower is supposed to be. The idea of this poem is for us not to take things too lightly because some creatures or plants are supposed to look the way it is. Even though they might seem harmless and innocent, they can lead you to darkness, which is death.