Response to Part 3 of Neuromancer

In the third part of William Gibson's novel, Nueromancer, Case and his team land in the space city of Zion. It is popular custom there to smoke marijuana and the reoccuring theme of addiction resurfaces again. The people there are addicted to the drug and hallucinate things happening. An example of this is when a man explains a baby coming out of his forehead when he was high. Zion has many parallels with common cultural stereotypes associated with Jamaica. This idea is cemented when the team uses a ship named the Marcus Garvey, who was an inspiration to the Rastafari movement in Jamaica.
After leaving Zion the team arrives in a city themed as Paris. Here Case is finally confronted with his addiction and caves in when he meets Cath and her dealer Bruce who give Case a central nervous system stimulant called Betaphenethylamine. Case is incapable of even slicing his steak at dinner later at night as a result of the drug which makes Armitage suspicious. Case's addiction is strong enough to violate Armitage's trust, which makes his reliance becomes much more than previously thought.
Case is also finally confronted by Wintermute who makes case hallucinate Lucy being alive and talks to him in the form of Julius Dean. He interacts once more with Case in his hotel room and the reader finds out more about Artificial Intelligence and it's potential in the chapter from Dix, a dead friend who Case talks to in the Matrix.

Response to Final Acts of MSND

During the last part of Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream, he makes many jabs at the social structure of the time and the qualities and values associated with them. After reading into some subtle details however, those qualities are ironically refuted. The first is the stupidty associated with those of the working class. This point is made over and over again throughout the play and supported by the unprofessional preperation and execution of the play. It is easy to glance over the simple fact that the workingmen are able to read the lines of the play, this makes the workingmen much less stupid because education was a privalege. The way that Theseus and Hippolyta talk about the workingmen before they give their play is very demeaning and crude. They pity the men for their efforts because they feel they are not smart enough to perform the play correctly. They continue their insults as the men introduce themselves and Thesus wondering whether the Lion can speak with Demetrius response as ,"No wonder, my lord. One lion may when many asses do. " Although the attitude is straightforward and the structure is clear there are many points throughout the play that give second thought to the notion and Shakespeare's intention.

Reponse to Act 1 MSND

The first act of Shakespeare's play is crucial because it is where most of the main themes and ideas were brought up. The opening dialogue between Hippolyta and Theseus is interesting because despite the circumstances of their marriage, Theseus still courts Hippolyta as if it was a marriage born out of love. This joyous occasion is then contrasted with the sad news that Egeus brings of his daughter's disobedience. Shakespeare uses contrasts in the first act again when the scene is shifted to the play that Quince and his friends are putting on for Theseus' wedding. These two contrasts differ in the fact that one deals with mood and the other with social class. In the first, the issue of love rarely pertains to those of lower social standing because marriage is born out of neccessity. This can be seen in the widespread occurence of child marriage in third world countries today. Children are forced to marry so that they are able to become self sufficient taking the financial burden off of the parents. This makes the issue of love very class exclusive and the next scene of Act 1 makes it ironic. The different value set each group has not only different focuses but leads the two groups in Act 1 to the same place. It will be interesting to see Shakespeare's portrayal of class structure unfold as the play continues.