Analytical Framework of Extrapolation and Metaphor in William Gibson’s Neuromancer

Abstract

The theoretical background of cyberpunk literature would be void without the actual analysis of extrapolation and metaphor in William Gibson’s (the forerunner of cyberpunk subgenre) Neuromancer (1984). Despite being examined as a product of both imaginative and cognitive worlds, the metaphor cannot thoroughly express the actual reality. The latter aim is realized through extrapolation which can be described as a scientifically oriented cognitive estrangement, rational imagination capable of making predictions which have a reasonable chance to become reality. Thus, extrapolation deals with how to construct metaphor on truth and helps to draw the borderline between the scientifically oriented truth and the imaginary truth. The delimitation of the given borderline contributes to knowing and recognizing the original language and style, the cognitive and imaginative maps of cyberpunk literature. It is the cyberspace and its characterizations of matrix, simstim, memory, Microsoft(s), DNA that represent the main components and sources of extrapolation for the imaginary urban space examined quite closely in Neuromancer. The infiniteness of Cyberspace reflects the probability of those futuristic and trajectory settings which are the main “inhabitants” of Gibson’s cyberpunk. The settings are extrapolated and transmitted to the realm of metaphoric chains in which extrapolation functions as a unique type of cyberpunk metaphor.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.sal.0.27.13745