Editing Neuromancer (section)

== Context and interpretation ==
=== Political and economic ===
''Neuromancer'', its sequels and other cyberpunk stories are often discussed within the socio-economic context of the 1980s, a period of economic restructuring,{{Sfn|Rosenthal|1991|pp=90–91}}{{Sfn|Rieder|2020|p=338}} corporate globalization,{{Sfn|O'Connell|2020|p=287-286}} and government deregulation.{{Sfn|Moylan|2010|p=82-83}}{{Sfn|Moylan|2010|p=89}} In the 1990s, a particularly influential view was that the novel reflected the "dilemmas of [[Post-Fordism|post-Fordist]] work and life",{{Sfn|Rosenthal|1991|p=99}}{{Sfn|Moylan|2010|p=94}} with Gibson reflecting or recreating the societal change brought on by the economic and industrial changes of the 1970s and 1980s.{{Sfn|Rosenthal|1991|p=99}}{{Sfn|Moylan|2010|pp=93–94}} Cyberspace's reliance on the circulation of data can be understood as a metaphor for the global circulation of [[financial capital]],{{Sfn|O'Connell|2020|p=287-286}}{{Sfn|Bould|2010|p=120}} and its [[addictiveness]] parodies the culture of [[Workaholic|workaholism]] among [[Silicon Valley]] developers.{{Sfn|Rosenthal|1991|p=99}} His protagonists have been identified as resembling contract workers,{{Sfn|Rieder|2020|p=338}} with Case dependent on [[diazepam]] to cope with the barrage of "relentless and fragmented data [and] get through the workday".{{Sfn|Rosenthal|1991|p=90}} The novel's characters represent the [[professional–managerial class]] and the novel was popular with the demographic.{{Sfn|Murphy|2024|p=103}}{{Sfn|Strombeck|2010|pp=278–279}}

While the novel represents anxiety about societal change, it is not generally viewed as being about resisting it. Gibson's protagonists do not threaten the social order of his worlds.{{Sfn|Moylan|2010|pp=92–93}} Corporations view the novel's freelance criminal protagonists as another tool at their disposal.{{Sfn|Rosenthal|1991|p=99}} Gibson's inexperience as an author led to the novel capturing the essence of 1980s inequality but reinforcing and appealing to the dominant power structure,{{Sfn|Moylan|2010|p=94}} leaving his  "dead-cynicism [and] fashionable survival".{{Sfn|Moylan|2010|p=94}} Caroline Alphin writes that human life is worth whatever it is worth to an employer.{{Sfn|Alphin|2021|p=26}} After his nervous system is damaged and he loses his ability to work as a hacker, Case must murder people for money to replenish his [[human capital]] because of [[Chiba (city)|Chiba City]]'s [[Neoliberalism|neoliberalist]] order,{{Sfn|Alphin|2021|p=26-27}} expanding that death in the novel is represented as "failure to maximise one's human capital".{{Sfn|Alphin|2021|p=27}} The novel shows that human minds can be saved to a [[CD-ROM]], preserving deceased or unwilling people's technical skills for at-will use by corporations.{{Sfn|Alphin|2021|p=26}}

=== Technological ===
Gibson's generation was the first to write science fiction at a time when the genre's concepts were becoming part of daily life.{{Sfn|McCaffery1991|p=12}} Gibson recognised, and benefitted from, the growing public fascination with the evolving technology landscape,{{Sfn|Omry|2022|p=69}} and used these concerns to "create an entire cultural vocabulary",{{Sfn|Omry|2022|p=69}} merging the language of human experience with the electronic.{{Sfn|Csiscery-Ronay, Jr.|1991|p=190}}{{Efn|"drugs and sex [...] turn you on, you get a buzz, you get wired, you space out, you go on automatic."{{Sfn|Csiscery-Ronay, Jr.|1991|p=190}}}} Bruce Sterling relates the cyborg to the increasing use of technology that directly interfaces with the human body, citing [[contact lenses]] and the [[Walkman|Sony Walkman]].{{Sfn|Sterling|1986|p=8}}

=== Race ===
Some critics consider ''Neuromancer''{{'s}} depiction of an in-orbit [[Rastafarianism|Rastafarian]] cluster called Zion. Scholar Andrew Strombeck writes that their vocabulary is distinct from the [[jargon]] used elsewhere, but notes that the portrayal embodies stereotypes about Rastafarians. He highlights both the group's origin as a [[Labour movement|labor protest movement]] and that they are the only group to perform [[Manual labour|manual labor]] in the novel.{{Sfn|Strombeck|2010|p=280}} Their society could provide an alternative to corporate hegemony but ultimately form "another node in the capitalist network".{{Sfn|Murphy|2024|p=73-74}}{{Sfn|Moylan|2010|p=89}} [[Samuel R. Delany]], an [[African Americans|African-American]] writer, criticized the portrayal.{{Sfn|Murphy|2024|p=74-75}}{{Efn|Delany wrote: "Rastas—he never calls them Rastafarians, by the way, only using the slang term—are described as having “shrunken hearts,” and their bones are brittle with “calcium loss.” Their music, Zion Dub, can be wholly analyzed and reproduced by the Artificial Intelligence, Wintermute (who, in the book, stands in for a multinational corporation), so completely that the Rastas themselves cannot tell the difference—in fact the multinational mimic job is so fine that with it Wintermute can make the Rastas do precisely what it wants, in this case help a drugged-out white hood and sleazebag get from here to there. As a group, they seem to be computer illiterates: when one of their number, Aerol, momentarily jacks into Case’s computer and sees cyberspace, what he perceives is “Babylon”—city of sin and destruction—which, while it makes its ironic comment on the book, is nevertheless tantamount to saying that Aerol is completely without power or knowledge to cope with the real world of Gibson’s novel: indeed, through their pseudo-religious beliefs, they are effectively barred from cyberspace.  From what we see, women are not a part of the Rasta colony at all. Nor do we ever see more than four of them together—so that they do not even have a group presence. Of the three chapters in which they appear, no more than three pages are actually devoted to describing them or their colony."{{Sfn|Murphy|2024|p=74-75}}}} [[Tom Moylan]] notes that ''Neuromancer'' loses its "critical edge" in exploring Zion's within the primary narrative,{{Sfn|Moylan|2010|p=92-93}} and describes a pattern in Gibson's ''Sprawl'' trilogy of including the racial [[Other (philosophy)|Other]] but limiting their role to "happy helper".{{Sfn|Moylan|2010|p=93-94}}