Embodiment/Disembodiment Dichotomy in William Gibson"s Neuromancer

Embodiment/Disembodiment Dichotomy in William Gibson"s Neuromancer

  In this computer mediated world in which the separation between the ‘spectacle’ and the ‘real’ is no longer attainable nor meaningful, we confront a perplexing question: Who are we in cyberspace, given the apparent dichotomy between our embodied selves in the corporeal world and our disembodied selves in cyberspace? This is the question with which I attempted a rereading of William Gibson"s Neuromancer, arguably the most significant work to date in the cyberpunk genre. I shall argue that Gibson was a visionary not only in his prophetic depiction of a ‘possible’ future but also in his foregrounding of the philosophical issue of the relationship between the body and self identity in cyberspace. The plot of the novel centers on the exploits and adventures of Henry Dorsett Case, a cyberspace cowboy tasked to hack into the Tessier/Aspool mainframe to allow the union between the AI Wintermute and the AI Neuromancer. As one critic points out, “Cyberpunk"s relationship to the physical body is notoriously troubled,” and for Case, the body, derogatorily referred throughout the novel as “so much meat,” is merely a state of existence to be tolerated and endured until the next time cyberspace can be accessed. Towards the end of the novel, however, Case comes to realize and accept the fact that his disembodied existence in cyberspace is inexplicably linked to his embodied existence in the real world. Neuromancer is in essence Gibson"s attempt to effectively portray the human condition in a world suffused by cybernetic potentials. In so doing, the novel, I will argue, “affirms embodiment at least as much as it glorifies disembodiment.”