The three novels I am using for this thesis all fall loosely under the subcategory of science fiction known as cyberpunk. The cyberpunk authors recognized the fluid, visceral, decentralized nature of new technology and reflected it in fiction that had a poetry and humanity that was missing in much of the "hard" science fiction being written at the time ( Sterling xii-iii). They also shared in a refusal to distinguish between low and high art, embracing both as sources in what William Gibson referred to as a "process of cultural mongrelization" (McCaffery 266). Gibson's Neuromancer is considered by many as the keystone of the cyberpunk movement and comparison to it is the litmus test for other books' cyberpunk status. Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash and Marge Piercy's He, She and It were both written several years after Neuromancer and are in many ways a response to the ideas Gibson presented forming a sort of textual conversation on postmodernism concealed as works of science fiction. What really unite these three authors in terms of identity theory are their ability to use the computer as a metaphor for postmodern thought, their belief in the power of language, and their awareness of the importance of boundaries and boundary transgressions.
Like all fiction, these novels are works of constructed identity and constructed spaces, but all three authors also share a hyperconsciousness of this act of construction. They recognize the creational power of language they tap into and are willing to explore it within the context of their novels. A common metaphor for this creational power is the computer and the matrices or networks of communication they help to create. These networks are conceived as virtual, interactive, audio-visual worlds totally generated by and contained within the computers. Such a network was first described by Gibson as cyberspace, "... a consensual hallucination experienced daily by billions of legitimate operators ... A graphic representation of data abstracted from every computer in the human system" (Gibson 51). Piercy and Stephenson use similar metaphors in their novels, calling their computer-generated realities the Net and the Metaverse, respectively. However, each author uses this metaphor to slightly different ends.
Gibson is the mythic progenitor of cyberspace, but it is an ironic myth. The paradox central to this irony is Gibson's claims that he had no true knowledge of computers when writing Neuromancer, relying instead on his romantic conception of them. He is "... more interested in the language of ... computers than ... the technicalities" and sees computers more as metaphor for human memory (McCaffery 270). Gibson's complete naiveté of computers beyond a metaphorical level allows him to explore not only human memory, but also the creation process of the novel using what he saw as a new and powerful language. Cyberspace is a dual metaphoric space constructed both by Gibson's characters within their computers and by Gibson himself in the framework of the novel. Stephenson picks up on this metaphor in Snow Crash , but adds the additional focus of avatars, the audiovisual bodies used to represent individuals in the Metaverse. While Gibson's focus was the space itself, Stephenson populated it, allowing its inhabitants to redefine their virtual bodies in any number of ways.
"Your avatar can look any way you want it to, up to the limitations of your equipment. If you're ugly, you can make your avatar beautiful. If you've just gotten out of bed, your avatar can still be wearing beautiful clothes and professionally applied make-up. You can look like a gorilla or a dragon or a giant talking penis in the Metaverse" (Stephenson 35-6).
Stephenson also brings up the question of the computer's ability to transmit identity. One of his characters, Juanita Marquez, is the first to recognize the importance of conveying information through facial expressions, allowing people "to condense fact from the vapor of nuance" (60). She uses this information to construct avatars that are both popular and lifelike, but turns her back on the Metaverse, seeing it as "... distorting the way people talk to each other" (64). Juanita questions the ability of Computer-Mediated Communication, or any technology, to transmit identity and recognizes the filtering quality of such media. To her speaking in the Metaverse is not natural and therefore causes distortions in communication.
Communication is a central theme in Stephenson's book. Both he and Piercy tie the postmodern information culture to ancient cultures that they see as also having a strong respect for language. For Stephenson this is the culture of Sumeria and the story of the tower of Babel. The Snow Crash of the title is a drug that can be transferred both through blood serum and as pure information on a computer screen. It is a neurolinguistic virus, affecting the language center of the brain and causing, among other things, glossolalia, or speaking in tongues. He relates this virus to the nam-shub or incantations, used by the priests of the Sumerian religion. These incantations were considered "speech with Magical force," the ability to create and manipulate through words. Hiro Protagonist, the main character of the novel recognizes a similarity to the programming for the Metaverse, that "... the Metaverse is a fictional structure made out of code. And code is just a form of speech" (211-216). When he first encounters the concept of Snow Crash, Hiro asks "-is it a virus, a drug, or a religion?" To which Juanita responds "What's the difference?" (200). Within the novel the distinction becomes very ambiguous, it is only the ability of all three to corrupt information that become important.
For Piercy it is the Kabbalah of the Jewish religion that has a special resonance. Of the three, He, She and It is most purely a story of creation through language and the power of metaphor. In her cyberspace, the way to overcome an opponent is to "... accept their metaphors and incorporate them." For example, if presented with a virtual wall, one would respond by becoming a drilling machine and burrowing under it (Piercy 271-2). She parallels her cyberpunk story about a cyborg named Yod with a Jewish fairy tale about the creation of a golem to protect the Jews in the city of Prague. The golem is created by the rabbi of Prague, a practicing Kabbalist, by pronouncing various combinations of the name of God. This story is being told to Yod by Malkah, one of his programmers. Malkah is an older woman who has spent most of her life writing chimeras, decoy code used to hide important information by large corporations on the Net. She begins her story to the cyborg with a cautionary note:
"I cannot always distinguish between myth and reality, because myth forms reality and we act out of what we think we are; we know on many levels truths that are irrational as well as reasoned or experimental. Our minds help create the world we think we inhabit" (25).
The cyberpunk writers are cyborg writers, "blurring the boundary between science fiction and social reality" (Haraway 149). The cyberpunk novel is a nod to creational power of language, and its parallel in the metaphor of the computer. The authors accept the computer, at least metaphorically, as a tool for survival through the constructed identities of their characters. These characters embrace there computers as extensions of themselves, "...seizing the tools to mark the world that marked them as other." These are stories of blurred human computer relations and of fringe gaining a certain level of power from the center, whether that fringe be a two-bit cyberhustler like Case or a free town like Piercy's Tikva, trying to remain independent from the large multinationals. They are stories of border transgressions. As Neal Stephenson observes through his main character in Snow Crash , "... interesting things happen along borders - transitions - not in the middle where everything is the same" (122).
While cyberpunk, particularly Gibson, was ahead of its time in dealing with virtual spaces, it is not so fluid in its creation of the identity of its characters. Gibson's Case is more a creature of noire detective novels than postmodern theory; a self described "cowboy" and street hustler, a "down-and-out gangster who's been jerked around and wants to get even by pulling the big heist" (McCaffery 270). Stephenson's Hiro is much the same; the self proclaimed "greatest sword fighter in the world," Hiro is cool and sleek and able to take care of himself. Both could be the projected persona every male, adolescent computer hacker dreams of becoming. While neither could be considered a stereotypical hacker, both come from a strong lineage of stereotypical male figures. Piercy's character are a little more free in their identities. Malkah, an older woman, uses the filtering effect of the net to "... engage in elaborate group correspondences and play games... [having]... all these flirtations going on." In many of these correspondence Malkah portrays herself as younger, or occasionally as a man. She recreates herself using the power of virtual spaces (74). Gibson examines ideas of gender transgression through his idea of simstim, simulated stimulation that allows Case to inhabit the body of his partner, a woman named Molly, literally at the flip of a switch. Case can feel what Molly feels, but has no control, "The abrupt jolt into other flesh... for a few frightened seconds he fought helplessly to control her body. Then he willed himself in passivity, became the passenger behind her eyes" (56). In many ways these two experiences are the antithesis of each other. In Piercy's case it is about identity without sensation, much like that of MUDs or IRC, while in Gibson's world it is sensation without control, a sort of supermovie in full sens-o-rama. The question is, can it be argued that either is truly experiencing these realities in a way that could affect their perception of identity?
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