Prompt 9

The most intriguing characters in Gibson's Neuromancer are the Zionites, for example, Aerol. The reason the Zionites are the most provocative and intriguing is because in this novel they are so different from everyone else. The fact that they are normal in today's society, but completely different in Gibson's society makes them stand out to me. Firstly, the fact that the Zionites lack body modifications is extremely interesting, because up to this point in the novel Case has been the only "virgin." Aerol is described as a Rastafarian who smokes ganja, something that Rastafarian's are known for. Physically, Aerol has a "grin bracketed with gold scissors" which does not connotate body modification through technology to me. Instead, I think of his smile as if he were wearing a 'grill', something common in our society, so definitely viewed as backward and strange in Gibson's society. Aerol's hair is depicted as "dreadlocks like a matted tree with branches the color of steel wood," again something we all have seen before. The Zionite body is like other bodies we have encountered because it reminds me of the Native bodies we have seen in the Travel Writings and Victoria Pitts' novel. In the beginning chapters, Pitts described her body modifiers as mimicking the Natives of other cultures. These are the bodies that remind me of the Zionites, they are Natives who are close to nature and like the Natives we have encountered before, they are portrayed as a backward group of people. The Zionites relationship with body and technology is not apparent. Firstly, none of the Zionites seem to have body modifications. Secondly, the Zionites possess a strong relationship with the body and they have no desire to escape their body. This can be seen through Case's description of them "always touching you when they [are] talking", this bodily contact made Case uncomfortable, but it was something the Zionites always did. Though the Zionites did not partake in connecting their bodies to technology, they are obviously aware of it all. Aerol helps Case unload his dock, jacked into the matrix and heard dub from Wintermute. All of this proves that they reject the rejection of the body. The familiarity of the Zionites and thier stark difference in Gibson's world is what makes this particular group of people appeal to me.

Prompt 8 - Extra Credit

I write myself differently in every situation and in every group, even within groups. For example within the group of family I would talk or write an email to my mom differently, than I would talk to or email my cousins. I feel that in each situation we present ourselves differently because we know how we would like that audience to perceive us. Emails seem to be the best example. It's interesting because coming into this class Jillian told us how to write ourselves in emails; she gave us guidelines on what needed to be done in order for her to respond, but her requests were nothing out of the ordinary, because how I would write an email to Jillian is the same as I would write an email to any teacher or boss or person who has some say over me. During interviews, and while making appointments for interviews over Winter Break, I wrote in a very professional manner to my future boss, because I wanted her to perceive me as well-spoken, professional and responsible. During my interview, I chose my words carefully to not make the mistake of using "um" or "you know what I mean" as I would in a casual setting. Another great example is facebook. Though facebook is a casual setting, I present myself to my friends in a certain way because I do not want people to read through my wall and get a distorted view of who I am or what I do in my spare time. I feel that it is important to know how to write yourself in different situations because everything has "a time and a place", and in college we learn that and learn to use that ideology to our advantage.

Body modification is similar to writing in these different mediums because it is all about how you want to present yourself. The perfect example is my roommate. When we are going out on a Friday night, all of her piercings will be in and she doesn't mind if her tattoo shows, but during the week days when she is going to class, she never allows her tattoo to show. Also, at home, she doesn't let it show because she knows her parents disapprove, she even changed her piercing to the smallest stud possible before she went home for Winter Break so she would not draw much attention from her parents to her piercings, which she knows they disapprove of. Therefore similarly, there is "a time and place" for body modifications.