The natural world—forests, open fields, areas untouched by mankind—are almost completely lacking in William Gibson’s, Nueromancer. In fact, Gibson demonstrates the gross disconnect between humans and nature in the opening line of his work, comparing the sky—one of the most fundamentally “natural” aspects of Earth—to a dead television channel (1). With all of the technological advances in Gibson’s world, the ease at which Case, Molly, and Armitage travel around the world, and the ability of humans to sustain entire man-made cities in space, it may seem as though Gibson is celebrating humankind’s ability to manipulate the natural world at will. However, I believe Gibson is actually critical of technological advancement and its impact on nature, by developing a society so technologically advanced that it is almost a parody of technological advancement.
One of the more interesting instances of the lack of nature in Gibson’s world is “The Sprawl,” as referred to as the “Boston Atlanta Metropolitan Axis” (BAMA). Gibson refers to BAMA as a distinct geographic location on a map, as if it is one city, the Boston-Atlanta metropolitan area. However, the distance from Boston to Atlanta is approximately 1,000 miles, meaning that this urban sprawl consumes essentially the entire East Coast of the United States, a ridiculous and completely unsustainable amount of space, by today’s standards.
It is also very interesting to see how Case reacts the one time he does encounter the “natural world,” on the Moroccan beach, inside Neuromancer’s virtual reality. Here on this serene, deserted beach, a place many of us might find relaxing, Case is anxious and afraid; “He turned his head and stared out to sea, longing for the hologram logo of Fuji Electric, for the drone of a helicopter, anything at all. Behind him, a gull cried. He shivered” (233). I find it interesting how lost Case is in this “natural” place, how he fears the lack of man-made structures and consumerism. In fact, Case would eventually burst into tears and pee himself in this fear, a visceral reaction to simply being exposed to nature. Thus, I believe Gibson uses Case’s overreaction, and the hyper-developed, dystopian world he creates to argue for the preservation of nature.