Conclusion: Accessible Moments and Darkness on the Edge of Town

This conclusion begins by highlighting how commonplace cyberpunk motifs, terminology, and frames of reference have become when thinking about our technologically saturated world(s). In essence, we are effectively living in Neuromancer’s cyberpunk future, and Gibson has been instrumental in shaping it. I also challenge the oft-associated connections between Neuromancer and the punk movement, which, in turn, have been popularized as central to cyberpunk; instead, I demonstrate that it is Bruce Springsteen’s Darkness on the Edge of Town (1978) and not punk music that had a greater influence upon Gibson’s debut novel. Building on the association between Gibson and Springsteen, I finish by returning to the previous chapter’s focus on the pseudo-dystopia and connect Neuromancer to capitalist realism and conclude so long as capitalist realism retains a dominant footing within our cultural imaginary and we continue to find it difficult, if not impossible, to imagine a coherent alternative to capitalism, Neuromancer remains the supreme literary expression of capitalist realism.