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The experience of this "global nervous system" in Neuromancer, "jacking into the matrix," is a perceptual immersion. The "bodiless exultation" of cyberspace is conveyed as the pleasure of the interface, a stimulated suspension of corporeal reality in exchange for simulation. Gibson's verbal concoction, cyberspace, has subsequently been enthusiastically appropriated by those who are designing the technology to make virtuality a reality.
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The appropriation of cyberspace is also occurring beyond the engineering lab. The metaphor of cyberspace, the conceptual model of disembodiement, delineates a new relation of identity to the body. The linguistic representation of cyberspace technology, in Neuromancer as well as in the industry, suggests a correlation between the use of drugs and technology. In Crack Wars, Avital Ronell interprets this bond between the electronic and drug culture as a seminal illustration of the identity, as described previously by Judith Butler, as perpetually unstable, permanently in crisis. The repetitions incurred by addictive substances contribute to a fleeting sense of containment, brief moments of respite from the incomplete identities constructed around the body.
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The act of representation in cyberspace suggests a radical break from identities determined by the body. The possibility of truly performative identity resonates with Butler's model of identity as acts of repetition. The significant break from the body poses a new question altogether, to which Butler and Gilles Deleuze seem to speak in similar ways, concerning reality of the "body" itself as yet another construct of representation. In cyberspace, theoretically and literally, issues of identity engender new possibilities.
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