The slides for today bring up theories of post-humanism that emerge in the late-twentieth century and the ways that some cyborg characters in Gibson’s fiction demonstrate the potential for human re-definition and rebellion. How do you see Johnny himself at the end of the story? Is he yearning for pre-cyborg humanity or embracing the fusion of flesh and technology in his own body? Is he a figure who imagines new kinds of selfhood and political resistance, or someone who yearns nostalgically for a purer mode of human life?
6 thoughts on “William Gibson and Cyberpunk–Group 4”
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Throughout the story, I got a sense of “acceptance” similar to the ones posited by many of my classmates above. For me, this was most accentuated by the voice of the story–a grizzled, hardboiled, somewhat flippant voice not unlike those appearing in the detective fiction Blade Runner pays homage to and subverts. In many ways, Johnny is like Deckard–a jaded vessel for the audience to find some semblance of identifiability in–who views every technological “advancement” in this dystopian culture with an unamused smirk or scowl. He’s an accessible vessel because we’ve seen this archetype before in more grounded fiction. Johnny describes all these futuristic elements with an unimpressed awareness that even hints at distaste. However, it always felt like cynical “acceptance”–the quality of resigning oneself to their less than ideal reality. Make no mistake, Johnny’s life–with or without his cybernetic enhancements–is far from complaint-free. His distaste never explicitly crossed over into the realm of nostalgia for pre-cyborg humanity until the end when he dreams of having his “own memories and nobody else’s.” Similarly, he mentions how Jones was given “a bigger tank, with fresh seawater trucked in once a week.” Both of these additions highlight an explicit recognition and appreciation of nature and pre-cyborg biology.
Everyone has made great and slightly differing points about how Johnny views himself by the end of the story thus far. Personally, I see Johnny throughout the story as someone who prioritizes autonomy. Autonomy does not necessarily rule out technological enhancements, but in the case of Johnny, his enhancements cause him to function as a flash drive for all of his clients’ information. After freeing himself of this job, nothing has actually changed about Johnny’s cyborg-ness. The only difference is that now, the information being stored by him is dictated by his own terms and for his own benefit, and thus, he can be more at ease by the end of the story. Additionally, he has the option to “humanize” himself, if he truly wants to be just a tech-free person, though this matter was not as pressing to Johnny throughout the story as was his self-autonomy.
A lot of Johnny’s commentary suggests that he is, at some level, disturbed by some of the extreme alterations that some people have undergone. Underneath all of the enhancement, there is still a person, for better (in Johnny’s case) or for worse (in Ralfi’s case). Johnny recognizes his own humanity despite his enhancements, but with a character like Ralfi, enhancements cannot hide the type of person that he is. “But Ralfi’s eyes lived behind that face, and they were small and cold and black” (3).
At the end of the story, I feel like johnny is conflicted with himself so to speak. I think he is content with the position he is in. He is very adaptive, though he cannot remember things about himself. Natalie made the point of Johnny being comfortable in the Lo Teks, and I think that is the time where he accepts himself as what he is. However, Johnny desires for a life without all the technological developments that were made to his body. Johnny’s humanity is at stake because he is experiencing life like a computer. He is downloading and uploading information without ever building knowledge or memories. Johnny isn’t learning anything and is living without long term memory. In essence he has self-made Dementia. In light of all this, he comforts himself though in the fact that he has found a new purpose. One that he does not have to fear as well as makes him money at the same time. He may long for a purer form of human life but accepts his fate and his new selfhood. With that being said, I don’t think he will try and change the world because he also seems money hungry. This story is interesting in the fact that it shows the implications of advancing (I use ‘advancing’ because in a way have already done this) the mix of biology and technology into one.
I echo Natalie’s comment and I do think he has totally embraced the fusion of flesh and technology, but in a way that seems more accepting of modes of humanity. I can understand the reading of the “Chinese filter tip” passage as a self-assurance, but I think that the final paragraphs demonstrate more of a pride and contentment than a resigned acceptance. Johnny comes to value human interaction by the end, noting that he visits jones almost every night and that he viewed himself as “hollow” and “a bucket” before. This observation, to me, notes self-improvement. The human qualities that have emerged in Johnny are valued at a greater level than the robotic qualities, such that he comes to embrace his human side more than his technological one. But Johnny does more than express contentment with the reality of his humanity; he demonstrates an aspiration to become even more human when he says “one day I’ll have a surgeon dig all the silicone out of my amygdalae, and I’ll live with my own memories and nobody else’s, the way other people do” (22). He yearns for not the fusion of technology with humanity, but an unadulterated humanity that is entirely his own.
I think that at the end of the story Johnny embraces his cyborg body and finds peace. Throughout most of the story Johnny is concerned with the Yakuza data that is stored in his brain that he cannot access. He meets Molly Millions and eventually Jones who prevent him from getting killed and decipher the parts of his mind which he thought were previously inaccessible. Also, it helps that they are now making money off selling this information. In addition to helping him with these two problems, Molly and Jones also help Johnny with what I think was the biggest obstacle to accepting his current form, loneliness. Although not much background information is given on Johnny’s past, it is implied that he is a loner when he goes to see Ralfi alone. When he is in the Drome meeting Ralfi he makes small negative remarks against individuals who have modifications making them less human, letting the reader know that he is not pleased with his own body. Throughout the story, I don’t think that this belief changes. At the end he still yearns for a purer human form for people in general but he has learned to accept his own flaws. This is because he is now surrounded by people like Jones who are going through the same if not worse situation that he is.
I see Johnny as accepting himself and understanding where he is at this point in his life. He expresses interest in living within his own body with his memories but is okay because it won’t be forever. Yet, I can also see how this is just his way of almost just reassuring him. When he says, “In the meantime it’s really okay up here, way up in the dark, smoking a Chinese filter tip and listening to the condensation that drips from geodesics,” it seems like he is just trying to make himself feel better about the future and the life he wants.
Therefore, I believe he is yearning nostalgically for a purer mode of human life. He is also embracing the fusion of flesh and technology because that is the current option presented to him. Johnny has moments where he feels the pressures of the new kinds of selfhood and political resistance but ultimately along with it, even though he recognizes that it may not be the future he wants. He questions what is going on, and as he said halfway through the story: “I only sing the song, with zero comprehension.” This quote encapsulates his entire role and ambivalence in the story. Even in the beginning, when he first met Jones, there was the sudden panic he felt as he saw him sinking and realizing he wasn’t a fish. But, he doesn’t do anything to stop it. Overall, Gibson brings in ideas of human transformation coupled with notions of rebellion, making the reader question our understanding of resistance and selfhood.