Final Blog Post

Apparently, Professor Winokur has told us we don't have a blog post due this week. He wants us to focus more on the final exam next week, but I just briefly wanted to close out this blog formally.

I promised I'd give some thoughts on the book Neuromancer, though. I will say as much as I liked reading this book, I couldn't read it without mentally comparing it to and mentally framing it in the context of The Matrix as I'm more familiar with it and they both carry very similar themes. In fact, it almost seems like the Wachowski Bros. just rewrote Neuromancer and then changed the names and the ending for The Matrix.

However, both authors do deserve some credit for their work. Seeing as Nueormancer was really a seminal work that kicked off the cyberpunk genre, the Matrix really couldn't exist without them (and yes, I do realize that almost accusing the Wachowskis of plagiarism was NOT a good segue into that statement).

I do have to credit the Wachowskis for creating the work that holds up better of the two. The Matrix was released in 1999 and Neuromancer was published in 1984. By 1999, such progress was made in terms of personal computers and the internet becoming household items that The Matrix seems more believable and realistic as a commentary on the current state of technology and where it will lead. However, as we touched on in the second to final lecture, Gibson did successfully predict today's youth "hookup" culture with the surprisingly tasteful sex scene between Case and Molly he included. I don't even think we need to get into how sexting and snapchats exacerbated that.

Well, I'd like to close out this blog by saying it's been fun and this class has given me some of the best discussion I've ever been a part of. I hope this blog in particular has been as fun for you to read as it has been for me to write.