54 pages • 1 hour read
William GibsonNeuromancer
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1984A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Part 2, Chapters 3-7Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 2: “The Shopping Expedition”
Part 2, Chapter 3 Summary
Case and Molly travel via Paris and Amsterdam to the Sprawl, the giant city covering most of the American East Coast. Armitage, who travels separately and stays at luxurious hotels, comes to the abandoned factory in which Case and Molly are based. When Case complains about no longer being able to get high, Armitage tells him to worry instead about the 15 sacs of mycotoxin that have been placed in his bloodstream. Unless Case continues to obey Armitage and receives an enzyme to break down the sacs at the end of the job, the sacs will poison him, again rendering him unable to access cyberspace.
Left alone, Case confronts Molly, who insists on her ignorance of the toxin. She works for Armitage out of “professional pride” and knows nothing. To try to find answers, she takes Case to the Metro Holografix building, where they meet the Finn, a technology expert for hire. He scans Case for the venom sacs but cannot confirm or disprove their existence. His shielded lair, however, allows Molly and Case to talk freely. Molly reveals that she, Armitage, and Case have a “shopping list” that she has seen once. The first item—and the reason they are in the Sprawl—is a computer recording of Case’s old mentor, the infamous hacker McCoy Pauley, more commonly called Dixie Flatline. For their first mission, Case and Molly need to break into Sense/Net, the company holding Dixie’s recording. The rest of the list consists of “toys” and a man named Peter Riviera whom Molly describes as a “certified psychopath.” Molly and Case find the whole situation puzzling, especially as Molly reveals that she has learned no one named “Armitage” participated in Screaming Fist.
Back at the factory, Case connects to cyberspace. Tears of joy stream down his face as he enters the virtual reality from which he had been exiled. Then, the Finn shows up as hired tech with upgrades for Case’s computer. He includes a prototype that will allow Case to switch between cyberspace and a “simstim” that will let him virtually experience all of Molly’s senses in real time.
Part 2, Chapter 4 Summary
Case and Molly launch their operation to rob the massive corporate Sense/Net facility. For additional help, Molly hires the Panther Moderns, one of the Sprawl’s recurring teenage-driven subcults that engages in nihilistic violence and practical jokes against the system. Case considers the Panther Moderns “technofetishists” who integrate technology and other supposed upgrades into their bodies to (in Case’s view) an alarming extent.
Case attacks the Sense/Net system via cyberspace, using an icebreaker program to gain unauthorized access. He succeeds after nine days, and Molly enters the building. Case switches between hacking the Sense/Net security system and monitoring Molly through the simstim link. Meanwhile, the Panther Moderns create a distraction. They call into the authorities claiming to be Christian fundamentalist terrorists who have flooded the building with a military gas that causes paranoia and homicidal rage. In reality, they hack the computer system to make all employees’ monitors flash images and play subliminal audio that induce panic.
Molly succeeds in grabbing the drive with the recording of Dixie despite suffering a broken leg from fighting guards. On exiting, she is horrified to see the bloody chaos in the lobby as tactical law enforcement squads fire riot guns into a terrified mass of humanity. When Armitage confronts the Panther Moderns afterward about the excessive violence, their leader is unconcerned. That, he explains, is how his people amuse themselves. The terrorist leader has an additional private message for Case: “Wintermute.”
Part 2, Chapter 5 Summary
Molly takes Case to the Finn’s lair for privacy. She reveals that she also hired the Panther Moderns to find Armitage’s employer: Wintermute was their answer to this question. The Finn reveals that Wintermute is an artificial intelligence (AI) registered in Switzerland by the secretive Tessier-Ashpool corporation. Though this company is technically public, the Finn explains, a single family actually controls it. The company owns Freeside, a low-orbit space station exempt from many normal Earth laws. The family maintains its power through a rotating system of human clones and cryogenic freezing, ensuring the availability of enough family members at all times.
The Finn knows one story about Tessier-Ashpool. A thief named Jimmy stole a jewel-encrusted, voice computer interface in the shape of a human head. When a fence (trafficker) tried to resell it, an intimidating Japanese man came to reclaim it and paid for Jimmy’s name. He then killed Jimmy. Molly, very interested in this mysterious killer, speculates that the Tessier-Ashpools “own” the ninja, and the Finn says they likely keep him cryogenically frozen when they don’t need him.
Case plugs in the ROM drive to meet the virtual Dixie Flatline, a nickname given the old cyber cowboy after his vitals flatlined during an icebreaking attempt; he managed to keep hacking the defense system that was killing him and overcame it. The recording of Dixie speaks like a normal person and recalls Case from his younger days.
Part 2, Chapter 6 Summary
With Dixie’s help, Case discovers a series of records in cyberspace that illuminate Armitage’s mysterious past. His real name is Colonel Willis Corto, leader of one squad that tried to infiltrate Russia to attack the computer grid in Operation Screaming Fist. Corto, the only survivor of the failed operation, had to undergo extensive medical care and plastic surgery. A congressional aide convinced him to give false testimony to protect the careers of several senior generals; then the military abandoned Corto, and the aide warned him of consequences if he ever tried to tell the truth. A betrayed and bitter Corto strangled the aide. He survived on corporate espionage and criminal activities before wandering into a Paris health clinic in a daze, apparently unable to remember his name. The doctors diagnosed him with schizophrenia and entered him into an experimental cybernetic treatment program. He emerged as the experiment’s only success and took the name Armitage.
Before Case can tell Molly about Corto, Armitage calls them. He abruptly orders them to pack and to proceed immediately to Istanbul.
Part 2, Chapter 7 Summary
In Istanbul, Armitage sends Molly, Case, and the Finn a guide named Terzibashjian, later revealed to be a member of the Turkish secret police. Terzibashjian helps them ambush Peter Riviera, who has implants that let him project holograms reinforced by subliminal messages. When they catch up to Peter, they see him seem to fall to the ground. A nightmarish creature rips through his skin and starts toward them. Terzibashjian, knowing it is a holographic illusion, charges through the image and subdues Peter despite suffering a gunshot to his hand.
Molly reveals more about Peter to Case. Peter has a drug addiction and finds sexual enjoyment in betraying lovers; he has watched the secret police torture his victims. Nonetheless, Armitage has persuaded Peter to join their crew for reasons he refuses to divulge.
Case fills Molly in on Armitage. They speculate that Wintermute infiltrated the cybernetic trials in Paris to build up the fake persona of Armitage over the amnesiac Corto’s brain. Molly tells Case to talk with Wintermute, but Case says it’s impossible. However, as the group waits for the shuttle up to the Freeside station, a pay phone rings near Case. Case picks it up and hears an artificial voice introduce itself as Wintermute. Case hangs up and quickly walks away, ignoring the ring of pay phones following him.
Part 2, Chapters 3-7 Analysis
The second part of Neuromancer advances the plot with a series of missions that introduce key players such as Wintermute and Dixie Flatline. It also identifies the target of the mission: the Tessier-Ashpool family corporation. This introduces some of the important themes concerning technology. Since Wintermute is an AI with a global reach—one who organized the attack at Sense/Net using the help of terrorists that killed innocent civilians—there is good reason to worry about The Danger of the AI Singularity. In the case of the stolen recording of Dixie Flatline, Case talks with him like he would have with his mentor when the latter was alive. The fact that Dixie’s personality seems to have survived even though his body is dead further develops the problem of Personhood and Embodiment, as well as the related issue of The Artificial Nature of Modern Reality.
The introduction of Peter Riviera and the new details that emerge about Armitage raise similar thematic concerns. The implants that allow Riviera to project holograms blur the lines of virtual and material reality. His cosmetically enhanced features straddle a similar line; Case notes that they are less implausibly perfect than Armitage’s, lending them a degree of verisimilitude, but they are still artificial constructions. It is his sadism, however, that Molly implies makes him alien; noting that he has a “very rare” personality type, she quips that speaks well of what it means to be human. Meanwhile, Armitage turns out to be a persona who was created for the sole purpose of serving as Wintermute’s representative: He is a front for a front, combining layers of artifice.
Part 2 also develops the key figures’ characterization. In Chapter 3, Molly tells Case, “Anyone good at what they do, that’s what they are, right? You gotta jack, I gotta tussle” (50). In many ways, this sums up the main characters. Case is a console cowboy. The tears of joy when he jacks back into cyberspace mark the happiest moment he ever has in the book. Molly’s “street samurai” persona comes out as well. She has underground contacts, proves to be a deadly one-woman army when infiltrating Sense/Net, and gets excited at the thought of Tessier-Ashpool’s ultimate warrior retainer.
Nevertheless, Case and Molly start building a relationship that gives their characters depth beyond what Molly identifies. They find comfort in each other that goes beyond business relationships. Due to that, they start acting as more than tools in human form. Molly defies her loyalty to her employer by taking Case to the Finn to scan for the toxin sacs. Together, the two begin investigating Armitage and Wintermute. They feel horror at the Sense/Net riot and Riviera’s actions, leading them to wonder if they really want to be part of this mission. In the end, they continue, in part propelled by their dedication to their professions and in part by concern over the toxin in Case. However, their actions show a more caring, sensitive side to both characters that may have been awakened by their growing concern for each other.
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