The Female, the Intertextual, and the Transhuman in William Gibson's Molly Millions - Revista Helice
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The Female, the Intertextual,
and the Transhuman in
William Gibson’s
Molly Millions
Francisco Collado-Rodríguez1 © Francisco Collado-Rodríguez, 2021
Universidad de Zaragoza
Abstract: Considered the great guru of cyberpunk, William Gibson is also the creator of one of the
most representative female icons of the genre, Molly Millions. An aggressive co-star in one of
Gibson’s early narratives, “Johnny Mnemonic” (1981) and in his first novel, Neuromancer (1984),
Molly finds herself at an intertextual, postfeminist, and post/transhuman crossroads. She emerges
as a dangerous and empowered cyborg; without her, the rather weak Johnny, the male lead in the
first story in which Molly appears, would have died. However, her condition makes her much more
than a bodyguard. Through her role, Gibson also shows the hyperreal predictions of a dystopian
world whose strongly naturalist context does not seem to offer this prototypical cyberpunk woman
any outlet but a transhumanity for which she needs to update constantly her physical
enhancements, inexorably related to her necessarily violent survival.
Keywords: William Gibson, Molly Millions, “Johnny Mnemonic”, Neuromancer, posthumanity,
transhumanity
1. William Gibson’s Molly Millions, intertextual, and the transhuman. This
the hyperreal, and female power1 contribution analyzes the role these three
factors have in the construction of Molly
In the early stages of creating his Million’s character within Gibson’s early
cyberpunk universe, William Gibson predictions of a dystopic future.
portrayed the character of his first In her article “Back to the Future”,
empowered female protagonist, Molly Mojca Krevel puts the emphasis on the
Millions, around three fundamental alleged fact that, especially in his earlier
features that shaped her literary and better-known fiction, cyberpunk guru
personality significantly while also William Gibson constructed hyperreal
affecting posterior cultural models that anticipated and even brought
manifestations: the (post)feminist, the some actual advancements in the fields of
technology and biotechnology. In other
—————
1 The Spanish Ministry of Science and
words, his early cyberpunk fiction turned
Innovation under grant PID2019-106855 GB-
out to be a precise cultural example of
I00, and the Aragonese Regional Government– Baudrillard’s third order of simulacra
DGA under grant H03_17R supported the (1983: 83-159): Gibson’s literary world
writing of this work. became the postmodern sci-fi
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The Female, the Intertextual, and the Transhuman
in William Gibson’s Molly Millions
representation of a reality that did not characters are linked to the myth of the
exist yet, but that eventually, preceded by American frontier—“a place of
the simulacrum created by the cyberpunk unmitigated exploitation”—he has also
author, would come into existence. From been criticized for being a neo-colonial
Baudrillard’s critical perspective, author (343). Stacy Gillis’s views on the
Gibson’s hyperreal fiction had helped to issue are even harsher and more
change the postmodern factual world categorical on the alleged patriarchal and
thanks to imagined technological male-suffocating roots of cyberpunk
advancements based on his observation fiction. By resorting to a simplistic binary,
and capacity to predict the future, Gillis perceives “an understanding of the
something that happened despite the gender politics of cyberpunk in which
writer’s apparent inexperience in the use reason and activity are located within the
of cutting-edge technology at the moment masculine body, as opposed to the
of creating his fiction (Krevel, 2014: 34- dangerous female body” (2007: 13). Nicola
35). We might wonder if in the depiction Nixon, in her article “Cyberpunk:
of such hyperreal world, which precludes Preparing the Ground for Revolution or
and defines the wide world web Keeping the Boys Satisfied?” also
(Neuromancer, 37), Gibson also worked on contends that cyberpunk conceals “a
a new model of woman that could endorse complicity with ’80s [gender]
the fight for the advancement of gender conservatism” (1992: 231).
equality, thus anticipating the wave of However, in her article “Razor Girls:
“feminist cyberpunk” initiated by the end Genre and Gender in Cyberpunk Fiction”
of the 1980s. (1997), Lauraine Leblanc defends a
Overall, the issue of feminism and different interpretation, which firmly
gender relations at the early stages of the takes into account the role technology has
cyberpunk movement becomes rather in the creation of new types of
problematic, as some critics have accused (post)human beings in the subgenre. In
this science-fiction subgenre of being line with the well-known views provided
traditionally patriarchal. However, even by Donna Haraway in her influential “A
if one considers as suspicious the fact that Cyborg Manifesto” (1985), Leblanc
the alleged five leaders who consciously contends that “gender dichotomies are
decided to create the new sf movement at overcome through the prevalence and use
the beginning of the 1980s are all male of technology; as ‘post-human’ subjects,
(William Gibson, Bruce Sterling, John cyborgs create new social and cultural
Shirley, Rudy Rucker, and Lewis Shiner), contexts, redefining gender along with the
critics have addressed gender issues in most basic of human attributes” (1997:
cyberpunk from highly contrastive angles. 72). This critic sees in Gibson’s Molly the
Thus, in his analysis of the reception in first “steppin’ razor” example of
recent times of Gibson’s early fiction, cyberpunk “female-gendered cyborgs
Pawel Stature argues that the cyberpunk undertaking a role-reversal into
writer’s “representation of female masculinity” (72). As argued in the
characters has been described as following pages, and in line with
stereotypical, unfair, or even dangerous to Leblanc’s views, textual analysis shows
women” (2018: 336). Stature argues that, that one-dimensional criticism of the type
since Gibson’s portraits of female developed by some critics who consider
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The Female, the Intertextual, and the Transhuman
in William Gibson’s Molly Millions
Gibson’s fiction to be fully rooted in evaluated later on in this work. Moreover,
patriarchy is not sufficiently grounded Gibson depicts Molly, above all, as a
when it comes to reflect on his bodyguard and lethal warrior who, as
representations of gender issues in his such, aspires to have a well-trained body
early fiction. ready for combat with the help of
Regarded, together with Bruce expensive technological implants. In other
Sterling, as the leader of the cyberpunk words, she does not come to fill the role of
movement, at the beginning of the 1980s the femme fatale in the grounds of science
Gibson published two pieces of fiction fiction, but to occupy the place of the
considered to be among his most traditional (male) fighting hero in the
influential work: one of his first short new cyborgian version brought about by
stories, “Johnny Mnemonic” (1981), and the posthuman paradigm. In such role,
his first novel, Neuromancer (1984). Both she helps and ultimately saves the life of
of them reveal that Gibson drew the a physically weak and incapable-to-fight
portrait of female protagonist Molly new model of unmanly male protagonist;
Millions as an extremely active woman the inversion of gender roles, however, is
who openly qualifies as an empowered not a simple one and Gibson’s male
individual, both physically and mentally. protagonists do not respond easily to the
As discussed in this work, she is not masculinity crisis of the 1980s.
simply a cyborgian version of film-noir In line with the materialization of
femme fatale who has been transported to postmodern ideology characteristic of the
the spaces of the future, as Gillis claims first wave of cyberpunk (McHale, 1992),
(2007: 13-16), nor is her sexuality merely Molly’s transhuman search for physical
“the marker of female identity” (Gillis: perfection via body enhancements is also
16). On the contrary, I contend that a response to Gibson’s representation of a
Gibson’s first well-known female dystopic future. In it, what is left of
protagonist is ideologically (and humanity becomes categorized again in
physically) a rather malleable but binaries but, although they are old
dynamic figure. Thanks to the powerful binaries, the author has reframed them.
role she enjoys in the two narratives The newly framed ideological pairs
above mentioned, she helps to link represent the new beings who are
Gibson’s fiction both to the beginning of gradually resulting of the progression
the cyberpunk agenda as a new type of from the human into the (dystopic)
postmodern sf subgenre and to some posthuman. Furthermore, Gibson’s
interesting notions centered on the literary universe portraits a large
philosophy of transhumanism. collection of what might be better referred
As pertains to her female condition, to as infrahuman beings, losers in the
Molly is not represented as a mere object dystopic future who try to make a living
sexualized by the male gaze. In fact, male at the increasingly large bottom of
stares on the female sometimes society. Meanwhile, very rich families—
experience an important contextual many of whose members, in a new parodic
difference in Gibson’s universe, where version of vampirism, are periodically
(cyborgian) heterosexual men may cryogenized—live in artificial heavens
passively stare through the female, as the above the planet (Neuromancer, 50-51).
case is in Neuromancer, a procedure Right in the middle, between the masses
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The Female, the Intertextual, and the Transhuman
in William Gibson’s Molly Millions
of the infrahuman dispossessed and the also be helped in their freebooting
very rich, others like the cyborgian endeavors by different urban tribes who
mercenary Molly Millions help cowardly prefer or are forced to live outside the
hackers or “console cowboys”, such as system, such as is the case of the Lo Tek
Case, the male protagonist in who help Johnny Mnemonic, or the
Neuromancer, in their illegal efforts to get Rastafarian Zionites of Neuromancer.
money from the privileged rich, and thus Not surprisingly, the writer’s gloomy
remain above the infrahuman rubble. predictions for our near future may help
Anticipating the impact of the internet in readers to understand why, instead of
our present lives, in his cyberpunk portraying a female protagonist who
universe Gibson’s hackers move between might have shown clearer connections
two ontologically distinct realities, the with a feminist and gender-equalitarian
physical and the virtual, but the writer agenda, he depicts Molly as a ninja-type
describes both as very dangerous places. assassin, as deadly as apparently
The physically feeble male version of the immoral. The logic of the fictional but
old tough cowboy has to leave his ‘meat’ dystopic universe that Gibson describes
or physical body behind, as Case makes leaves no room for traditional morality
clear once and again, while pursuing because the main aim of his protagonists,
technological buccaneer adventures that men and women alike, is sheer survival.
take place in Gibson’s premonitory Both in the short story and in the
cyberspace (Neuromancer, 8, 10, 29, 39, novel, Molly shows that in physical
51, etc.). reality she can be better and more active
While being on-line, the male hacker than many men can be. In this sense, she
may have to evade dangerous electronic qualifies as an early representative of
“black ice” and virtual walls programmed postfeminism, a notion that critics have
to keep hacking thieves away. However, also approached from contrastive angles.
in physical reality cyberspace cowboys Thus, Stacy Gillis summarizes the first
still put their ‘meat’ at risk. Here, they commonly accepted definition of the
have to face gangsters who work for the concept as follows: “Postfeminism, as used
big corporations that control an extremely in scholarly debate, is concerned with how
dehumanized hyper-capitalist system. certain ‘playful’ re-renderings of
Following the logic of popular romance femininity and sexuality could be
fiction, be it American frontier or pirate understood as a powerful example of
story, when entering Gibson’s cyberspace female agency” (2007: 9). However, she
the console cowboy sometimes requires later reframes the notion, using brackets
someone to watch his physical body to retake her allegedly feminist agenda.
during the time in which he is submerged “Rather, ‘(post)feminist’ refers to the ways
in his illegal activities as a hacker. in which figures of women with
Alternatively, the physically frail hacker emotional, physical, social or financial
may need somebody brave to carry out agency have been variously represented
material deeds for him, while he as lacking something—a relationship, a
comfortably observes and guides her child, a more attractive body, a stable
watching everything through her eyes by parent figure and/or domestic skills—
means of a transhuman technological since the early 1980s” (9, my emphasis).
implement. Virtual space cowboys may Among the existing number of fictional
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The Female, the Intertextual, and the Transhuman
in William Gibson’s Molly Millions
(post)feminist characters, Gillis explicitly we easily conclude that Gibson has
includes the “ass-kicking techno-babes of bestowed upon her, as an essential
cyberpunk film and fiction” (9). In effect, feature of her empowerment, the
Gibson clearly portrays Molly Millions as traditional role of the stereotypical male
an empowered active female character in warrior who has to fight as a way of
both “Johnny Mnemonic” and living. In his futuristic but extremely
Neuromancer. Aesthetically, she also naturalist pages, the author’s dystopic
qualifies as an “ass-kicking techno- presentation of our future requires a huge
babe”—although I would substitute deal of old human violence to survive.
woman for babe. Moreover, Molly seems Nevertheless, Gibson’s predictions and
to be always lacking something, as Gillis the role he allots his female protagonist in
contends, because she frequently needs such a future are more complex than the
even more money to further her mere use of violence to stay alive. Molly is
cybernetic enhancements and, at times, not just a woman warrior; she is a highly
she clearly misses a true soulmate with skillful fighter who can challenge and
whom to live a happier life. However, defeat fearsome martial arts experts,
Gillis seems to miss the fact that the which means that she is also a brainy,
sense of lacking also exists and is astute personage. As a literary character,
applicable to Gibson’s male protagonists; she is above all the result of intertextual
lack is not gender-biased in his dystopic symbiosis. Her portrait shows clear links
fiction. In it, most characters from every with other fictional females that, along
gender are exposed to a dangerous and the postmodern period, were also marking
brutal life that reverberates with the the coming of the postfeminist woman
notion that Dominick Lacapra defined as along with the increasing fears of
“structural trauma”2 and which results in traditional men who felt that such newly
unavoidable existential anguish. Besides, empowered woman was dangerously
such anguish is not only the result of eroding their ancestral male privileges.
what Lacan understands to be a lack of
plenitude in his analysis of the evolution
of being (1966: 220-22)—and which 2. Intertextual Postfeminist Molly
applies to both woman and man—but
especially of the dreadful living conditions Cultural history points to the politically
that Gibson depicts for the protagonists of conservative America of Ronald Reagan’s
the bleak future he predicted in his early 1980s as a period when many men wished
fiction. Indeed, if we focus our attention to recuperate the traditional patriarchal
on the figure of Molly from the position they thought they had lost
perspective of folk and popular culture, because of the advent of the
counterculture and the social revolts of
————— the 1960s. A second wave of 20th-century
2 For LaCapra structural trauma results
feminism combined then with the growing
from the realization of the intrinsic mortality
economic supremacy of Japan and West
of the human condition; it may happen prior to
any specific traumatic experience of individual
Germany to produce an alarming sense of
character or be the result of several or many insecurity among American males (Ludas,
traumatic events that threaten individual or 2011). Thus, in line with other cultural
collective existence (LaCapra, 2001: 76-81). artifacts created at the time, the first
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The Female, the Intertextual, and the Transhuman
in William Gibson’s Molly Millions
wave of cyberpunk fiction echoed in its western (with its typical duel at the
own way the patriarchal social anxieties saloon) and the detective thriller, with the
of the period both in gender and in motif of the chase becoming highly
economic grounds. It was in this context relevant till the end of the tale. Johnny
that Gibson added to his fiction the provides readers with the main, and male,
conviction that Aristotelian categorical perspective in his role as homodiegetic
thinking, far from having been erased narrator:
from the western world-view—as
deconstructivists intended—would Lewis was grinning. I think he was
develop in the future into new distinct, re- visualizing a point just behind my forehead
framed binaries to form the discursive and imagining how he could get there the
columns of a highly dystopic society. hard way.
Among others, the old binary man/woman “Hey”, said a low voice, feminine, from
was going to experience a tantalizing somewhere behind my right shoulder, “you
revision, as shown in Molly Millions’ cowboys sure aren’t having too lively a
depiction. time”.
Intertextually, Molly evokes the classic “Pack it, bitch”, Lewis said, his tanned
Amazons but she also appears to be a face very still. Ralfi looked blank.
female version of Wolverine from Marvel “Lighten up. You want to buy some
Comics. In turn, she became a good free base?” She pulled up a chair and
predecessor of other popular female quickly sat before either of them could stop
protagonists, most noticeably of Trinity in her. She was barely inside my fixed field of
The Matrix trilogy. As mentioned above, vision, a thin girl with mirrored glasses,
she first appeared in “Johnny Mnemonic”, her dark hair cut in a rough shag. She
published in Omni Magazine in May wore black leather, open over a T-shirt
1981, and later reprinted in Gibson’s slashed diagonally with stripes of red and
popular short-story collection Burning black. “Eight thou a gram weight”.
Chrome (1986). In this narrative, Molly Lewis snorted his exasperation and tried
enters the story abruptly to rescue to slap her out of the chair. Somehow he
Johnny from certain death by providing didn’t quite connect, and her hand came up
him with her bodyguard services for a and seemed to brush his wrist as it passed.
considerable sum of money. The most Bright blood sprayed the table. He was
obvious genres that Gibson parodied—in clutching his wrist white-knuckle tight,
the postmodern sense provided by Linda blood trickling from between his fingers.
Hutcheon3—along his short story are the But hadn’t her hand been empty?
He was going to need a tendon stapler.
————— He stood up carefully, without bothering to
3 In her classic study on (postmodern) push his chair back. The chair toppled
parody, Hutcheon defines it as “repetition, but backward, and he stepped out of my line of
repetition that includes difference [...] it is sight without a word. (Burning Chrome 4-
imitation with critical ironic distance, whose 5; my emphasis)
irony can cut both ways. Ironic versions of
‘trans-contextualization’ and inversion are its
major formal operatives, and the range of Molly had planned to work for Lewis’s
pragmatic ethos is from scornful ridicule to boss Ralfi, an intermediary who wanted
reverential homage” (1985: 37). to earn the bounty of the contract put on
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The Female, the Intertextual, and the Transhuman
in William Gibson’s Molly Millions
Mnemonic’s head. However, when Johnny the Lo Tek tribe resort to a primitive
promises her two millions if she can get combat ring to solve disputes, the Killing
him out, she becomes his protector and Floor, and Gibson displaces the
rescues him, outsmarting and defeating importance of the male protagonist who
the two other men in this futuristic gives the story its title to grant the
version of the saloon duel: attributes of old heroic narratives to the
female character. As his champion, Molly
“Name’s Millions. Molly Millions. You want takes Johnny’s place in the Killing Floor
to get out of here, boss? People are starting and faces the lethal Yakuza cyborg, killing
to stare”. She stood up. She was wearing him after an intense fight and, thus,
leather jeans the color of dried blood. literally saving Johnny’s head (20-21).
And I saw for the first time that the In medieval epic poems, male heroes
mirrored lenses were surgical inlays, the such as Beowulf, Roland or Cid
silver rising smoothly from her high Campeador take the place of the
cheekbones, sealing her eyes in their sockets, physically unfit King to fight for him and
I saw my new face twinned there. (6) defeat his enemies. In the ritualistic ring
devised by Gibson, a female champion has
Eventually, the strange-looking replaced the male heroes of old patriarchy
cyborgian rescuer takes Johnny away to a to, again, rescue a weak man in danger.
refuge where he can hide among the Interestingly, in the film version of
members of the Lo Tek urban tribe. “Johnny Mnemonic” that Robert Longo
However, a Yakuza assassin goes after directed in 1995 patriarchal gender roles
the male protagonist’ head, because were fully reestablished, despite the fact
Johnny is, like Molly, also a cyborg. More that Gibson was the scriptwriter. In the
specifically, he functions as an embodied film, Johnny, played by Keanu Reeves,
representation of Marshall McLuhan’s shows his evident qualities as a fighter,
analysis of globalized reality (1964: 7-21). whereas his sidekick female companion,
Johnny is the medium that carries the here called Jane instead of Molly and
message in himself, in a hard disk that he played by Dina Meyer, is rather a failure
had implanted in his head and where he as bodyguard, being incapable of
transports important information. Thus, defeating Johnny’s chasers or protecting
he—more precisely, his head—becomes him efficiently because she is sick. In this
the message the Yakuza is looking for patriarchal version of Gibson’s story, the
with an aim to “erase” it. male protagonist becomes the one who
After the two protagonists’ victorious eventually saves the weaker female
escape from the duel at the cyberpunk character from imminent death.
saloon, amidst the bleak dystopic Molly reappears, as noted above, in
cityscape Gibson reinforces the popular, Neuromancer. This is the way Gibson’s
ritualistic, and traditional ingredients of heterodiegetic narrator, combined with
his story with a second and final duel. Case’s male gaze, describes his female
The Yakuza assassin finally reaches their character early in the plot:
refuge and Molly tells Johnny that the
hitman is “fast, so fast […] His nervous [Case] realized that the glasses were
system’s jacked up. He’s factory custom” surgically inset, sealing her sockets. The
(“Johnny Mnemonic”, 8). The members of silver lenses seemed to grow from smooth
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The Female, the Intertextual, and the Transhuman
in William Gibson’s Molly Millions
pale skin above her cheekbones, framed by new woman that she represents is not the
dark hair cut in a rough shag. The fingers only (post)human who is defined for being
curled around the fletcher were slender, still physically ‘meat’. The metaphor also
white, tipped with polished burgundy. The applies to Case. Molly’s boss wants him
nails looked artificial. for his capacities as a hacker, for which
“I think you screwed up, Case. I showed he needs a suitable physical body, without
up and you just fit me right into your which he could not be a console cowboy in
reality picture”. virtual reality. Even when readers meet
“So what do you want, lady?” He sagged Dixie Flatline later in the narrative, this
back against the hatch. disembodied consciousness that only lives
“You. One live body, brains still as software requires a physical entity to
somewhat intact. Molly, Case. My name’s activate him (Neuromancer, 68). In other
Molly. I’m collecting you for the man I words, despite the old categorical
work for. Just wants to talk, is all. Nobody assumptions favored by many critics, in
wants to hurt you”. Gibson’s cyberpunk universe, to exist and
“That’s good”. do his job in virtual cyberspace a hacker
“’Cept I do hurt people sometimes, also necessitates his meat: no body means
Case. I guess it’s just the way I’m wired”. no possible access to virtual reality.
She wore tight black glove leather jeans Consciousness, even as software that is
and a bulky black jacket cut from some played in a machine, always requires the
matte fabric that seemed to absorb light. help of physicality, the old Cartesian
“If I put this dart gun away, will you be duality body/mind being a delusion that
easy, Case? You look like you like to take
science supports no more. Gibson has
stupid chances”. (20)
reframed the old binary physical/virtual
by erasing the dash: no physical means no
In other words, Molly certainly looks virtual.
“dressed to kill” but not in the shrewd, Despite being a dangerous mercenary,
femme fatale way: transhuman Molly’s first description in the novel, from
augmentations have changed her into a Case’s perspective, does not exclude
fighting cyborg even if her more powerful sexual connotations that may lure the
weapons, the retractile blades under her male stare (“She wore tight black glove
nails, are still concealed from the view of leather jeans”, 20). In part, I agree with
focalizing Case. The male protagonist can Leblanc when she comments that Molly
notice only that her nails “look artificial”. “is deliberately unfeminine, lacking the
However, as happened to Johnny traditional womanly attributes of both the
Mnemonic, Case soon focuses on Molly’s ‘Madonna’ and the ‘whore’” (Leblanc,
surgically implanted glasses, a cybernetic 1997: 72). However, Case’s male stare
device that also has a Pynchonian cannot refrain from finding a sexual angle
intertextual reading, as discussed later. in the female bodyguard, something that
Meanwhile, at the same time, pace Gillis, cannot be found in Johnny’s first
Molly appears in the novel to make it impressions of Molly, despite the fact that
clear that her mission at the time is to eventually they become lovers until
enroll Case’s “live body, brains still Johnny’s death—as Molly recollects in
somewhat intact”, for the cause she has Neuromancer (114). Furthermore,
been paid for. This means that the type of Gibson’s alteration of traditional
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The Female, the Intertextual, and the Transhuman
in William Gibson’s Molly Millions
categorical binaries also functions to into a fighting ninja capable of defeating
locate his female protagonist beyond both the most dangerous men—Case soon
patriarchal and feminist views and into addresses her as a “street samurai” (23).
less essentialist postfeminist grounds. In As such, she proves to be in both
fact, later in the story, Molly also refers to narratives not only an active, strong, and
her past as a “meat puppet” or prostitute, reliable sidekick for her male partners,
in this way recalling the double role, as Johnny Mnemonic and Case. She comes
soldiers and sexual dolls, allotted to the to the point of saving the life of the first
female replicants in Ridley Scott’s Blade and doing all the hard physical work for
Runner (1982). As she confesses, Molly the second; without her, male success is
needed the money to pay for her implants not possible. The following fragment
but her consciousness was “unplugged” depicts the way Case conceives of Molly
every time she was with a client; she as a version of stereotypical action hero
became a senseless object of sexual actors Bruce Lee and Clint Eastwood,
manipulation: when she has already become his
replacement in physical reality:
“This cost a lot”, she said, extending her
right hand as though it held an invisible She had it: the thing, the moves. And she’d
fruit. The five blades slid out, then pulled it all together for her entrance.
retracted smoothly. “Costs to go to Chiba, Pulled it together around the pain in her
costs to get the surgery, costs to have them leg and marched down 3Jane’s stairs like
jack your nervous system up so you’ll have she owned the place, elbow of her gun arm
the reflexes to go with the gear . . . You at her hip, forearm up, wrist relaxed,
know how I got the money, when I was swaying the muzzle of the fletcher with the
starting out? Here. Not here, but a place studied nonchalance of a Regency duelist.
like it, in the Sprawl. Joke, to start with, It was a performance. It was like the
’cause once they plant the cut-out chip, it culmination of a life-time’s observation of
seems like free money. Wake up sore, martial arts tapes, cheap ones, the kind
sometimes, but that’s it. Renting the goods, Case had grown up on. For a few seconds,
is all. You aren’t in, when it’s all he knew, she was every bad-ass hero, Sony
happening. House has software for Mao in the old Shaw videos, Mickey Chiba,
whatever a customer wants to pay for . . .” the whole lineage back to Lee and
(96, original ellipses) Eastwood. She was walking it the way she
talked it. (135)
Abandoning her own consciousness or
even allowing somebody else—Case—to Meanwhile, the male protagonists also
have access to it are the two most behave in rather unconventional ways,
remarkable transhuman activities Molly which classifies them as materialized
is exposed to, though, over time, they go examples of the fear of weakness many
beyond sexual implications into a men expressed in the 1980s. As
rebalance of gender power. One has to mentioned above, Johnny is described by
guess that Gibson intended the historical Gibson also as a cyborg, a carrier of
irony: with the help of the deadly information he stores in a technological
implants paid with the money she earned device he has implanted in his head.
as a prostitute in her past, Molly turns However, in patriarchal jargon Johnny
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in William Gibson’s Molly Millions
overtly qualifies as a ‘sissy’, to the point Gibson’s fiction helps us to understand
that Molly has to replace him in the further the reasons why he alters the old
ritualist fight where she can finally defeat dichotomies male/female and body/soul in
the Japanese hitman. After that, they will his early narratives. Molly becomes not
stay together for a number of years until only one of the new female heroes from
the Yakuza kills Johnny. In the 1980s, evoking powerful figures from
Neuromancer, Case proves to be also an ancient mythologies or comic books and
anti-heroic male protagonist, incapable of anticipating later cultural figures that
winning any physical fight. In fact, others copy her characteristics.5 The intertextual
inject neurotoxins in his body to cripple or links centered on the figure of Molly
kill him if he does not follow orders. Not extend to Pynchon’s representation of
surprisingly, as happened to Johnny female energy in some of his short stories
Mnemonic, he avoids physical combat and and especially in his first novel, V. (1963).
frequently goes into virtual space leaving I contend that Molly is also Gibson’s
his ‘meat’ behind, a word that not only intertextual version of the Pynchonian
stresses the total abandonment of his Lady V., the emblematic female
body when he enters virtual cyberspace. representative of human and social
The substitution of meat for flesh also —————
suggests that the male protagonist of (1981)—also connecting it to Pynchon’s oeuvre.
Neuromancer changes into a ‘spirit’ that Jung defines the archetype of the anima as
has the ability to solve problems only in follows: “Anima means soul and should
the virtual matrix. Thus, Gibson creates a designate something very wonderful and
sci-fi mythology in his early personal immortal. Yet this was not always so […]. It is
something that lives of itself, that makes us
universe where the Platonic and later
live; it is a life behind consciousness that cannot
Christian binary body/soul has developed
be completely integrated with it, but from
into the reframed binary meat female which, on the contrary, consciousness arises”
fighter (Molly)/virtual male hacker (1971: 26-27).
(Johnny and Case), mixing up the 5 Not only Trinity in The Matrix or the
traditionally positive and negative Princess in Shrek bring to mind Molly’s
connotations of the original binary. influence on contemporary popular culture.
However, along this process of Brian McHale contends that Gibson’s
transformation, Molly is not a mere contemporary fellow writer Kathy Acker
“appropriates and rewrites material” from his
female body behind the male mind or
first novel (1992: 233), including female ninja
soul. In fact, in anthropological grounds, Molly, who would be a model for female
the ‘manly soul’ allegedly represented by protagonist Abhor in Acker’s Empire of the
Case in Neuromancer does not even Senseless. In this sense, Joseph Conte
coincide with the traditional inconsistently argues that in “shifting
representation of the soul as female that attributes from Molly to Abhor, Acker
we see, for instance, in the Christian critiques the fantasies of cyborg sex and
religion and in Jung’s definition of the violence that are rather tightly laced in
Neuromancer and mocks the adolescent male
anima.4 The strong intertextual ethos of
subjectivity that comprises the largest
————— audience for science fiction” (2002, 211; my
4 Direct references to Jung are found in emphasis). Apparently, for Conte adolescent
Gibson’s early fiction—for instance, in his female subjectivity is devoid of sex and
short story “The Gernsback Continuum” violence fantasies.
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The Female, the Intertextual, and the Transhuman
in William Gibson’s Molly Millions
energy previously symbolized by Venus 3. Transhumanist Molly in a dystopic
and the Virgin, according to Henry world
Adams’s theory, famously quoted by
Pynchon in his earlier short story With her cybernetic eyes and nail
“Entropy” (1960). As I have stated implants, Molly also becomes the symbol
elsewhere, Pynchon’s oeuvre, from his of the female transhuman cyborg as a
early short stories to his latest novel, new source of replenished energy. Her
Bleeding Edge (2013), embodies life place in the intertextual chain may help
energy—as representation of the Jungian us to explain why Gibson still depicts
anima archetype—in the figures of strong female protagonists in his later
different female characters. No doubt, the narratives but, more specifically, why
first and most influential one of those Molly is not just a sidekick of the male
characters is Lady V., a mysterious protagonist in either “Johnny Mnemonic”
woman who becomes progressively more or Neuromancer. She becomes the
dangerous from Pynchon’s earlier stories essential source of energy for the male
to his novel V., where she finally dies protagonist to be triumphant, and her
after having experienced a long process of achievements are the result both of her
turning into a cybernetic creature. Along mental capacity and of her enhanced
the first decades of the 20th Century, the body. Thus, Molly represents an early
energy used by the human species to invitation to the readers of Gibson’s
colonize and control the planet becomes universe to ponder over the
increasingly dangerous, passing from transhumanist project. However, the aim
electricity to radioactivity, and so does of (bio)technological advancements in his
Lady V., in the different manifestations narratives is not exactly the one shared
that Pynchon draws of her, by adding by believers in current transhumanist
artificial prostheses to her body (see philosophy.
Collado-Rodríguez, 2015: 256-57). It is As it happens when we consider
specifically relevant to point out that gender issues, in Gibson’s fiction
when she dies in Chapter 11 of V., in her transhumanist enhancement constitutes,
manifestation as Bad Priest, Pynchon’s above all, a means to survive amid the
character experiences a process of chaotic remains of civilization; Molly is
ritualistic dismemberment along which a not rich and she uses the money she
number of children start removing her earns in her dangerous adventures to
prostheses. Finally, anticipating Molly’s further enhance her capacities as a
most obvious implant, they “peeled back warrior. As mentioned above, in Gibson’s
one eyelid to reveal a glass eye with the fiction biotechnological implants are used
iris in the shape of a clock” (Pynchon, by prostitutes not to feel what is been
343). Later, energy becomes incarnate in done to them or by mercenaries to become
other female characters of variable better combatants; traces of optimistic
morality, as indication that Pynchon’s transhumanist philosophy and aims are
Lady V. can be, as the Jungian anima, not to be found in the original cyberpunk
good and bad (Collado-Rodríguez: 258- project. Critics frequently argue that
59)… and so can Molly. transhumanist philosophy represents the
continuation of the humanist project; it
does not offer any significant response to
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in William Gibson’s Molly Millions
the damage the human species has done are the outcome of technological
to other species and to the environment in improvements brought about by several
the Anthropocene, as critical centuries of humanism but also of
posthumanism does. On the contrary, thousands of years of human violence
transhumanist believers think that by against themselves and against the
using prosthetic and biotechnological planet. Clark and Rossini argue that
enhancements humans are on their way to transhumanist “prostheses are
perfection. Thus, in their introduction to skeuomorphs of humanism, vestiges of
post- and transhumanism, Robert Ranisch heroic aspirations that preserve rather
and Stefan Lorenz Sorgner openly than challenge the Cartesian mind-body
contend that “transhumanism, according split so definitive of Western modernity
to its self-understanding, is a and the Eurocentric myth of progress as
contemporary renewal of humanism. It technoscientific development” (2017: xiv).
embraces and eventually amplifies However, Gibson’s fiction is not so
central aspects of secular and categorically simple. The mind/body
Enlightenment humanist thought, such binary reaches transhuman combinations
as belief in reason, individualism, science, in Neuromancer that, while apparently
progress, as well as self-perfection or reaffirming the Cartesian humanist
cultivation” (2014: 8). Such optimism binary, also go beyond it until the binary
about humanity’s future is not to be found dissolves. Within the writer’s cyberpunk
in Gibson’s early fiction because it is universe, Simstim technology describes a
based on a dystopic representation of the rather fluctuating reality where gender,
world. As it happens in Pynchon’s fiction, sex, and individuality have been left
Gibson’s characters fit in the influential behind. A Simstim desk allows Case to
understanding of posthumanity that switch into Molly’s perceptual system.
Norbert Wiener started to develop in the That is to say, the technological device
1950s, when he already highlighted the produces in the receiver the simulated
notion that we “are not stuff that abides, responses that the other subject actually
but patterns that perpetuate themselves” experiences in the ‘meat’ world. According
(1954: 96). Our bodies continuously to the narrator, Case feels somehow
experience new physical changes in line superior and disgusted with physical
with the information stored in our DNA, reality, even when it manifests via the
the environment we inhabit, and the device:
circumstances to which we are exposed
along our lives. Accordingly, with each Cowboys didn’t get into Simstim, he
new implant she gets, Molly does not thought, because it was basically a meat
become a more perfected transhuman but toy. He knew that the trodes he used and
a deadlier fighter because she inhabits a the little plastic tiara dangling from a
naturalist world in which only the fittest Simstim deck were basically the same, and
can survive. The posthuman in her is not that the cyberspace matrix was actually a
the transcendental goal pursued by the drastic simplification of the human
optimistic brand of transhumanism, but sensorium, at least in terms of
the more realistic result of her courage presentation, but Simstim itself struck him
when facing the hardships of the world as a gratuitous multiplication of flesh
she inhabits. Certainly, her prostheses input. (39)
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The Female, the Intertextual, and the Transhuman
in William Gibson’s Molly Millions
However, Case’s own belief in his not Case’s mere avatar but the active one
superior position—the male ‘mind’ of the dual consciousness involved in the
controlling the female ‘body’—does not process. She is clearly the (dynamic)
resist a merely superficial analysis of protagonist, her technological
what really happens and who is, in fact, enhancements being, in addition, an extra
the one who succeeds in their mission. tool to help her to accomplish their
Although still following Case’s perception mission.
of Molly’s movements, the narrator makes Insistently, some critics have claimed
it very clear who is really the active one that, after all, Molly is a ‘body’ for hire, a
in the technological sensorial physical commodity, both earlier as a
combination: prostitute and later as a bodyguard
(Schmeink, 2014: 227). However, in the
The abrupt jolt into other flesh. Matrix two stories studied here she is always the
gone, a wave of sound and color . . . She active protagonist and actual winner.
was moving through a crowded street, past Nonetheless, at the end important issues
stalls vending discount software, prices felt seem to remain uncertain. Is not Gibson’s
penned on sheets of plastic, fragments of dystopic future the obvious result of
music from countless speakers. Smells of ancestral patriarchal rule? Is not Molly
urine, free monomers, perfume, patties of simply a tomboy, a woman playing the
frying krill. For a few frightened seconds role of a macho man? To answer in the
he fought helplessly to control her body. affirmative would be to condemn
Then he willed himself into passivity, masculine individuals to be the only
became the passenger behind her eyes. (39, violent, and at times perverse, gender in
emphasis added; original ellipsis) the human species, an assumption that
both history and genetics seem to
Fortunately for their mission, Molly contradict. Within the context of a life
remains in control of her body (which understood in naturalist terms, to find a
includes her mind), while Case is relegated definitive answer is not easy.
to being a passive spectator of their Paraphrasing American poet and feminist
technological symbiosis. Of course, the use critic Adrianne Rich, we need to view
of Simstim raises gender issues in the William Gibson in the exact position in
narrative, but the transhuman result which he has been born and educated: he
makes Molly’s role more solidly is 20th-century American-Canadian, white
postfeminist. To this effect, Conte reminds and male, but, despite those
us that as “anyone who has participated circumstances, he has created Molly
pseudonymously in chat rooms, or Millions in the terms debated here. As
Multiple User Dungeons, on Internet Rich affirmed, “A movement for change
services knows, gender, race, age, and lives in feelings, actions and words”
appearance can all be altered, constructed, (1994: 223), and Gibson’s choice of words
or exchanged in virtual reality” (2001: for his characters is clear enough: active
212). Conte also suggests that the belongs to woman.
alteration at will of gender identity may
become politically liberating (212).
However, in this example located at the
beginning of cyberpunk fiction, Molly is
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The Female, the Intertextual, and the Transhuman
in William Gibson’s Molly Millions
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