November 19th: Stories, myths, and
lies we tell

Announcements

• No class meeting next Tuesday (11/26)
  Have Italo Calvino's Cosmicomics read for 12/3
• Online Course Evaluations--New procedure
  Available Nov. 19th-Dec. 5th

Plan for the Day

We'll finish up Neuromancer and Inception and move on to Gibson's "Burning Chrome" and Philip K. Dick's "We Can Remember it for You Wholesale." To bridge Neuromancer and "Burning Chrome," we'll focus on Case's ill-fated relationship with Linda Lee and compare it to a "simpler" one: Bobby Quine and Rikki "Wildside" (p. 553). Both are illusions or, at least, are desires to be with an ideal vision of a paramour/significant other/partner. Such fantasies are common for two people who think they're in love. Usually, they're just in love with the idea of being in love.

There's even a question about love in Philip K. Dick's "We Can Remember it for You Wholesale" because Douglas Quail isn't sure if he's really married to his wife or if it's an illusion created by himself or Interplan, the intelligence agency. The faux memories and experiences that Rekal Incorporated implant are metaphors for the escape that entertainment provides audiences. Also, Quail's faux life impressed on his mind by Interplan includes a domestic situation that's supposed to create the illusion that he's an average person when he's actually an assassin blending in with the masses.

We'll talk about myths and stories that our cultures tell and retell. Love is probably the second most told story we believe in. If I say "lie," it probably isn't accurate. Usually, when we think of lies, we think of people purposely deceiving others. The stories we tell ourselves and others aren't usually intentional deception. We're part of the illusion as members of a culture, an illusion we can't remember the beginning of...we just find ourselves in it.

Love in Neuromancer

Case had dreams or alternate realities induced about Linda Lee. He remembers being in love with her, and she tells him she does, but there's something odd about their relationship (besides the fact that it's in an AI's construct). Whatever Case used to feel about Linda is gone. Sure, if he stays in Neuromancer's realm, he'll die, but, just like Cobb letting go of the guilt he feels for Moll, Case decides to leave the beach and return to Villa Straylight to finish the job (p. 244).

Here are some questions to ponder:

• Why did Neuromancer create this world for Case? After all, Linda stole from him, so why would he want to be with her?
• At the end, he sees a vision of Neuromancer, Linda, and himself (p. 271).
  • How can we interpret this situation where they're together if only in virtual reality?

Gibson's "Burning Chrome" (1982)

Before we discuss the pseudo-love story, let's consider the time period and some of the themes in the text. The Anthology editors claim, "Gibson's language conveys a melancholy nostalgia for lost affections at the same moment it expresses awe at technological transformations of the human condition" (p. 548). As you read, pay attention to what seems to be lost by considering what the characters might lament not having or what they long for. Also, think of the role of technology in their lives. Without cyberspace, they wouldn't have a means of getting income. How might that be interpreted when considering technological literacy and the Labor Market?

Consider the following passages from the text:

• 1980s early amateur IT separation of Hardware vs. Software people: "Bobby's software and Jack's hard; Bobby punches console and Jack runs down all the little things that can give you an edge" (p. 550).
• "[Chrome] was one of the boys...a member in good standing of the local Mob subsidiary" (p. 557).
• Simstim: "simulated stimuli" (p. 559).
• Jack tells himself a lie to try to create a reality: "I tried telling myself that it was a good idea to burn the House of Blue Lights because the place was a creep joint, but I just couldn't buy it" (p. 561).
  • The above quotation relates to the Anthology editors claim that "Gibson's influential early cyberpunk style" has characters that "are mildly antiheroic, with technical and street skills to manipulate the corrupt system, but lacking in higher ideals" (p. 548).
  • Jack doesn't have any moral or ethical qualms with the cyber-brothel.

Love Story?

This is a bit more of a "traditional" love story: boy meets girl, boy puts girl on pedestal, boy tries to win her, and boy's friend tries to win her over, too. Bobby Quine in infatuated with Rikki, but it appears to be a surface infatuation--she's just the current object of his desire. Jack is much more interested in her and seems to want to protect her. The term paternalism is important here because Jack tries to keep her out of harm's way, but he does so from a position of benevolent male protector (think knight in shining armor...). Patriarchy and paternalism aren't synonymous, but they go together: a paternalistic perspective is often from the point of view that an authority has the subordinate's best interest in mind.

Consider the instances where Bobby and Jack use the ideal of Rikki to justify their actions:

• Bobby read his future in women; his girls were omens, changes in the weather, and he'd sit all night in the Gentleman Loser, waiting for the season to lay a new face down in front of him like a card (p. 552).
• "Rikki...something to aim for....a symbol for everything [Bobby] wanted] and couldn't have, everything he'd had and couldn't keep" (p. 554).
• Jack was annoyed at hearing Bobby go on about Rikki and that he actually believed that he was in love with her (p. 554).
  • "[Bobby] just kept telling me he loved her, where they were going to go together, how they'd spend the money" (p. 561).
• Jack sees something in the distance: "I see her far out on the edge of all this sprawl of night and cities, and then she waves good-bye" (p. 565).
• Compare to his earlier image of Rikki: "I see her sometimes when I'm trying to sleep, I see her somewhere out on the edge of all this sprawl of cities and smoke, and it's like she's a hologram stuck behind my eyes....and I see her wave good-bye" (pp. 552-553).

Think about the end of Neuromancer when Case sees the image of Neuromancer, Linda, and himself. What interpretation can we make about what we project into the world (our realities)?

Illusion of Love

Think about all those love songs and romantic comedies out there. It's easy to sing about "love" for 3-4 minutes or watch a grotesque love story for 90-120 minutes. Songs, films, TV shows, etc. are just short pieces of relationships that can easily show love exists. However, they usually don't get into the difficult parts or contradictory issues of love. In fact, love stories are often used as a psychological release and indulgence into a fantasy of a construct--both social and self--that readers or viewers enjoy. If the reader/viewer can't have ideal love, they can, at least, have the fantasy to get them through.

Philosophy of Illusion

Two things make it difficult to accept (or, at least, consider) the argument I'm making about stories and myths: 1) we don't want to think we're being bamboozled, and 2) we don't often scrutinize our core assumptions--they're just givens. For your post this week, I'm asking you to reflect on cores assumptions you have, so don't forget to post a 250-word reflection on Moodle 2 by Thursday night.

The great philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche noted that people live under a "tissue of lies." Members of a culture have to "buy into" the stories and myths circulating in society just like they buy into the value of currency, which is a representation of value. The texts we're reading relate to this theme because they have characters entering alternate realities and questioning what's real and what's not. Cyberspace isn't just a technology that acts as a setting for a text; it's also a metaphor for our being immersed in Information Technologies we use everyday. Do those tools shape our realities?

To continue on the theme of love, what are the "tissues of lies" surrounding Bruce Springsteen's "The River" (1980)? One stanza is particularly important:

Is a dream a lie if it don't come true /
Or is it something worse

Whoa! Let's listen to the song and try to understand it's meaning and how it can complicate ideal(ized) illusions of love--especially young love.

Finally, in the words of Axl Rose (Guns and Roses "Locomotive"):

You can use your illusion /
Let it take you where it may.

Dick's "We Can Remember it for you Wholesale" (1966)

Because you've read alternate reality texts, this one probably doesn't seem so strange to you. Sure, reality is in question, but the plot is easy enough to follow. Normally, we spend more time thinking about the time period and cultural context for our texts. For this short story, let's consider what the Anthology editors note about the author: "Dick's mental health was unstable for much of his life, and his fiction reflects a paranoid fascination with conspiracies extending from personal relationships to political power, and ultimately to the manipulation of reality itself" (p. 385).

Also, the Anthology editors identify "one of Dick's most typical themes--the inability to distinguish authentic from artificial memories" (p. 386).

As you read the story, think about how memories are not video recordings but interpretations.

Consider the following:

• "an illusion, no matter how convincing, remained nothing more than an illusion. At least objectively. But subjectively--quite the opposite entirely" (p. 388).
• Hyperreality: "The actual memory, with all its vagueness, ommissions, and elipses, not to say distortions--that's second best" (p. 389).
• Compulsion: "They couldn't erase that; it's not a memory but a desire" (p. 392).
• Love of adventure got Quail to go to Rekal, Inc. (p. 398).
• What do Cam Newton jerseys tell us about illusions? (top of p. 401)

Next Class (11/21)

Keep up with your reading. On Thursday (11/21), we'll cover Pat Cadigan's "Pretty Boy Crossover" (1986) and Eileen Gunn's "Computer Friendly" (1989).

...