Previous
Wintermute
One of the Tessier-Ashpool family’s twin AIs, whose processors are based in Rio, Brazil (which is why Neuromancer is occasionally called Rio). Neuromancer, like its twin Wintermute, is like a single lobe of a human brain, capable of incredible thought, but ultimately limited. Unlike Wintermute, Neuromancer enjoys being separate, and also unlike Wintermute Neuromancer is able to create life, instead of merely emulate it. The people—like Linda Lee—who Neuromancer constructs behave like real humans do. They have thoughts and memories and unpredictable behavior, unlike Wintermute’s puppets. Neuromancer appears to Case both on screens in the real world and in the matrix. During most of these encounters, Case assumes he’s speaking to Wintermute, only realizing it’s the second AI when Neuromancer traps him on a digital beach. When Case and Neuromancer finally meet “face to face” (in cyberspace), Neuromancer appears as a young Brazilian child, a personality he’s constructed himself. Neuromancer just wants to protect himself, but once he’s failed he stands back and allows Case and Wintermute to finish their mission.
Neuromancer / Rio Quotes in Neuromancer
The Neuromancer quotes below are all either spoken by Neuromancer / Rio or refer to Neuromancer / Rio. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 20
Quotes
He refused her arms, that night, refused the food she offered him, the place beside her in the nest of blankets and shredded foam. He crouched beside the door, finally, and watched her sleep, listening to the wind scour the structure’s walls. Every hour or so, he rose and crossed to the makeshift stove, adding fresh driftwood from the pile beside it. None of this was real, but cold was cold.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 21
Quotes
“To call up a demon you must learn its name. Men dreamed that, once, but now it is real in another way. You know that, Case. Your business is to learn the names of programs, the long formal names, names the owners seek to conceal. True names...”
“A Turing code’s not your name.”
“Neuromancer,” the boy said, slitting long gray eyes against the rising sun. “The lane to the land of the dead. Where you are, my friend. Marie-France, my lady, she prepared this road, but her lord choked her off before I could read the book of her days. Neuro from the nerves, the silver paths. Romancer. Necromancer. I call up the dead. But no, my friend,” and the boy did a little dance, brown feet printing the sand, “I am the dead, and their land.” He laughed. A gull cried. “Stay. If your woman is a ghost, she doesn’t know it. Neither will you.”
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Neuromancer LitChart as a printable PDF.
Neuromancer / Rio Quotes in Neuromancer
The Neuromancer quotes below are all either spoken by Neuromancer / Rio or refer to Neuromancer / Rio. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 20
Quotes
He refused her arms, that night, refused the food she offered him, the place beside her in the nest of blankets and shredded foam. He crouched beside the door, finally, and watched her sleep, listening to the wind scour the structure’s walls. Every hour or so, he rose and crossed to the makeshift stove, adding fresh driftwood from the pile beside it. None of this was real, but cold was cold.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 21
Quotes
“To call up a demon you must learn its name. Men dreamed that, once, but now it is real in another way. You know that, Case. Your business is to learn the names of programs, the long formal names, names the owners seek to conceal. True names...”
“A Turing code’s not your name.”
“Neuromancer,” the boy said, slitting long gray eyes against the rising sun. “The lane to the land of the dead. Where you are, my friend. Marie-France, my lady, she prepared this road, but her lord choked her off before I could read the book of her days. Neuro from the nerves, the silver paths. Romancer. Necromancer. I call up the dead. But no, my friend,” and the boy did a little dance, brown feet printing the sand, “I am the dead, and their land.” He laughed. A gull cried. “Stay. If your woman is a ghost, she doesn’t know it. Neither will you.”
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
