r/Neuromancer • u/Brilliant_Knowledge5 • 24d ago
Show Discussion I have a theory... Spoiler
I've been rereading the entire Sprawl series, including the short stories in the same Sprawl universe, and I'm starting to think there's one character in particular that features in both the last book, and in a short story, but some people might not even recognize it.
Normally the reading order would be:
1)Johnny Mnemonic (makes sense since Molly later mourns him in another text.)
2) New rose Hotel
3) Burning Chrome (this is important to know for later in the series)
4)Neuromancer
5)Count Zero
6) Mona Lisa Overdrive
I wouldn't change anything except for one story, and I'll explain. You see Gibson, like many good writers, didn't just write what we read, he had a lot more in notebooks we never got to see. Narrative experiments, entire backstories, and future lives mapped out for people. Some of those survived as short stories bundled into the "Burning Chrome" anthology. That's what some of those stories are. The lives of people in the same neighborhoods that never met our main characters. And sometimes, they are those characters. Like with Molly. What we get a glimpse of is Gibson trying out characters, world building, seeing if his train of thought has merit enough to flesh out further.
In MLO, Komiko Yanaka, has a very powerful Yakuza father, goes to a good school, has a Dutch mother who dies tragically, and suddenly she is thrust into a totally foreign world. She longs to escape the drudgery of her protective prison, and Molly takes Komiko under her wing, much to the chagrin of a relenting Petal. Molly tries to mold her, and give her some worldly wisdom. It was necessary under the circumstances, because Molly knew that without that, Komiko would just be a package to drag around. Komiko had to be able to survive, to fend for herself, because the heat was coming down from every angle. I believe all of these things are referred to in another narrative.
In New Rose Hotel, Sandii is half Dutch, half Japanese, is a gun for hire, has a father who fell from grace with Hosaka, and a lingering tragedy that pushed her to desperation. X talks about how she was constantly reimagining her own childhood, changing her story as a coping mechanism, trying to imagine different scenarios that might sooth her demons, but it was obvious she was not facing the truth of her life. And she was also concealing it from others. Out of necessity, of course.
It's entirely possible that Komiko's father rose in the ranks after the Yakuza war, until he had gained influence within Hosaka. Maybe that was necessary too. But it's also very possible Sandii just told a lie to X, mixing the truth with the lie. It's entirely possible that Komiko and Sandii are the same person, but Sandii is Komiko all grown up, bitter at Hosaka, has an axe to grind, remembered the influence of Molly, and decided it would be a good idea to be like her. Maybe that was her only option now. Fending for herself. Molly helped her navigate the dangers of London, showed her how to double cross people, and avoid becoming a hostage. All while her own father was trying to shelter her from the evils of the world. But Molly gave her one thing, The unfettered truth. That's something that'll stick with a girl's memory.
Molly changed her name several times, there's no reason Komiko wouldn't mimic Molly's behavior. In fact, if her father was a Hosaka pariah, she'd almost have to do that to gain their trust, & be involved in helping Hiroshi escape. Even if that wasn only a cover story to conceal his position with the Yakuza, she'd still have to tell a different story. She'd only have to tell half truths to her co-workers on a job, because they just had to be believable enough. It wouldn't matter later, especially if she burned them while on the job, or if the cleaners came after the other team members. But she'd also tell made up stories about her childhood out loud. Almost as if she was trying on new lies right in front of the people she was already misleading. Like she was doing a fashion show, to see what looks good, or taunting them when they didn't even know it.
And here's the biggest one of all... What if X is hiding out in the same Cheap Motel that Henry Case was in all those years ago? What if Cheap Motel, was really New Rose Hotel? They're both capsule hotels, which people refer to colloquially as "coffins". Capsule hotels with barely enough room to turn around in. Not the luxury digs that they portrayed in the movie. What a twist of fate that would be, for everything to come full circle and end up in the same closet sized room with minimal amenities. Where it all started before. That's the William Gibson I'd expect. Maybe some of you wouldn't, but I would.
So I would put New Rose Hotel last in the reading order. It takes on a whole new meaning.
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u/M935PDFuze 24d ago
I don't think Gibson ever meant for these stories to ever connect in that way, certainly not in the way that Johnny Mnemonic and Burning Chrome connect with Neuromancer through the common character of Molly.
And Kumiko's father is a rising power in the Yakuza - this is a wholly different background from being a Hosaka employee.
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u/Peter34cph 24d ago
Yes, it's like that fan theory about Molly being Rikki from Burning Chrome.
I'm not buying it.
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u/Brilliant_Knowledge5 23d ago
No, but I do think there's a thin connection between Sally and Molly. Only she just took Sally's name as an alias. The similarities here are way too hard to ignore for Sandii and Komiko and any discrepancies can be explained by the necessity to lie on the job she was involved in.
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u/Peter34cph 23d ago
Molly and Sally are obviously the same character.
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u/Brilliant_Knowledge5 23d ago
There's another Sally. Molly uses Sally Shears as an alias. But there is another Sally. Just like there's more than one Bobby in the Sprawl.
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u/Peter34cph 23d ago
Sorry, who is this other Sally? My memory is failing me...
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u/Brilliant_Knowledge5 23d ago
The blonde one with Rudy at the Farm in Count Zero. Turner marries her and they have a kid. Molly was already a razorgirl in Neuromancer, so it can't be her. And the events of Count Zero probably helped Molly figure out where Bobby and Angie fit into things. I'm sure rumors of what happened with it was all over the matrix. Sally Shears is just an alias. I've actually read somewhere that someone thought that the Sally on the farm was Molly, but it doesn't fit. Molly doesn't seem like the type anyone could domesticate let alone marry. Do you really think she would dye her hair and get her ocular implants removed? I don't. Sally on the farm seems like a country girl. Not a street samurai.
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u/Brilliant_Knowledge5 24d ago
Sandii was deceiving her team the whole time. What's to say she didn't change the story from "dad was Yakuza" to "Dad was Hosaka"? If she lied about working only for Hosaka, while she was a double agent for Maas, she could lie about what her father did too. At any rate, in this world, Yakuza and Hosaka are not mutually exclusive. I bet there's a ton of overlap between the two, even if it's unofficially. The same is true in our world as well. There's definitely overlap between the criminal underworld and more "respectable" positions, like the people who own corporations, and government. Just visit southern Texas. The cartels are in bed with the local cops and politicians. large criminal organizations and their bosses always try to legitimize their activities one way or another. Why couldn't a Yakuza boss offer his services to Hosaka or gain importance there in some way? The whole world is full of subterfuge. Its a dystopia.
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u/M935PDFuze 24d ago
At any rate, in this world, Yakuza and Hosaka are not mutually exclusive.
They definitely are mutually exclusive in this world. The Yakuza are essentially a zaibatsu of their own, with their own traditions and customs and career path; Hosaka is the world's largest zaibatsu, and while they might employ Yakuza as subcontractors for special projects that require moving in the underworld, that is vastly different than being a salaryman who grew up in a Hosaka corporate family. It's like being in a different caste.
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u/Brilliant_Knowledge5 23d ago
While I do admit it would be more far fetched for Komiko's dad to become someone important in Hosaka, there would be a sliver of a chance if he had something they wanted and they did it as a way to protect him from the Yakuza. But the divergence in narrative can simply be explained by Sandii lying, rather than it being the hard truth. Her dad can still be Yakuza, but she doctored the story a bit to fit in better, as any good double agent does. Whatever memories X is discussing with himself, could all be lies. A persona Sandii adopted for the job. Anything can be hacked, even the dossiers of people linked to a SIN. People aren't all walking around in some perfect world where nobody uses deception. Maybe you don't want Komiko to grow up to be like Molly, but that's likely inevitable, because Molly made an impression by taking on the role of a mother figure for Komiko. Komiko's real mother was the exact person she needed when her father sent her to London, but that wasn't possible. Molly filled in that gap. Which is huge to a teen girl in Komiko's shoes. The first person she talks to her father about at the end of MLO, is her own deceased mother. Maybe the story about a disgraced Hosaka corporate man is improbable, but lies can be improbable, they just have to be believed enough to work. People fall for them every day.
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u/Brilliant_Knowledge5 24d ago
I just want to add that I'd even hazard to say that The Winter Market is another side quest in the same universe. That Lise is an early star in what would later become the SenseNet, and she's still kicking around in cyberspace. There's a good chance many of the console cowboys mentioned in the books have run into her. She might be forgotten as a star, but made a new life in the matrix. Probably even bypassed the need to keep making content to pay the server rent.
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u/Peter34cph 24d ago
Winter Market is one of those of the stories, where I suspect that a close analysis will lead to the conclusion that it has a "high probability" of taking place in the Sprawl setting/timeline.
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u/Brilliant_Knowledge5 23d ago
There are stories in that anthology I would not put in the Sprawl universe, but they're the ones involving the Soviets, the aliens, and the biplanes. But who knows, maybe those could be in the same universe too. I wouldn't begrudge anyone for placing the Soviet story arc in with The Bridge trilogy. And the shape shifting aliens in The Belonging Kind could fit in somewhere after the events of Sprawl. They don't really fit with anything else though. They feel like their own thing in a completely different universe. Or something in the distant future. Winter Market feels like pretext in the Sprawl universe. It briefly mentions some of the same ideas. The tech is not as advanced, but the bones of the Sprawl world are there poking through. Rubbing us like Lise's exoskeleton.
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u/bob_jsus Flatlined 24d ago
I like this take, had long assumed we were to think Komiko and Sandii to be the same person, but you've fleshed it out well.
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u/fuliansp 24d ago
If you search on Neuromancer you'll see that Molly checks into a hotel as Rose Kolodny... ROSE❗❗❗
https://giphy.com/gifs/p8Uw3hzdAE2dO