A Case Study of the Post/Human

This chapter focuses on Neuromancer’s hacker protagonist Case and the complicated relationship to his body, otherwise known as the meat. As I show in this chapter, Neuromancer is not a novel about disembodiment or escaping the flesh, despite many critical assessments that make this argument. Instead, the book is partly about Case reconciling himself with his body; in so doing, Neuromancer is what I’m calling the Corporealroman. The chapter also builds on the previous chapter by addressing Case’s complicated relationship to the posthuman, and what I argue is that both Case and Molly embody not the posthuman but, instead, the post/human. As a result, the diverse responses to the post/human protagonists in Neuromancer, the multiple interpretations afforded to the work, and the various applications of Gibson’s novel to our ongoing and evolving quotidian reality (or realities) continue to fuel ongoing discussions, debates, and diatribes pertinent to our posthuman (or post/human) future-present.