I immediately saw this book as a metaphor for the way we live. While we exist consciously in our reality, we subconsciously exist in a world inside our heads, represented by the parallel of the even (End of the world) and odd chapters (Hard-boiled Wonderland) within this book. The Calcutec (narrator) in this book is a human data processor who has been trained to use his subconscious as an encryption key. In some way we as humans are data processors, constantly absorbing information and processing it in our minds as we are living each and every day. At the same time we are consciously processing information and acting on this information, our subconscious is also working to define our experiences in our own terms and make sense of them in ways that the conscious mind cannot. Also within our subconscious mind we are constantly constructing our own interpretation of reality and in the way we act and think our subconscious is brought to reality and affects our life almost just as strongly as our conscious mind.
The thought of only having very limited time in reality and being subjected to living the rest of my life in my own subconscious is an idea that can be stretched and related to death in some way. We are going to die and we will be physically separated from the world in time, but there are religions that believe that we will go on to live forever, living in the minds and hearts of those whose lives we touched and through their actions continue to affect the world, whether or not they are consciously or subconsciously drawing upon us as a source of inspiration, motivation, or power.
Also every single day when we go to sleep we shut down our conscious mind and we divert to our subconscious where we exist in dreams and nightmares. We actually do leave reality for a moment and dive into a world which we have created subconsciously for the moment, a world in which we are free to do whatever we want. Yet when we wake up, we crawl out of this subconscious world and back into the world of conscious thought as we know it. We ourselves exist within two separate worlds at many times of the day, making this narrative easier to understand and relate to our own lives.
Going back to Neuromancer, Case cannot jack in and be proficient at hacking unless he is on some sort of drug. In this book the main character must use his subconscious as an encryption key to fulfill his purpose. There is a barrier that both characters must overcome to work at their full potential, a barrier that neither of them have full control over.
So far this book has served for me as a metaphor for the constant back and forth that we experience between our conscious and subconscious in everyday life but also reminds me that our time to exist within this reality we live in is limited.