Neuromancer/Headscratchers

• How does Molly's hand store those claws? If the claws were sheathed in her fingers, her fingers would not be able to bend. So, one might assume that they stay stored inside the palm of her hand, and shoot up through her fingers when she unsheathes them. This would mean that her fingers would have to stay strait while the blades were moving through them to come out. But then there's the scene where Molly holds out her hand as if "holding an invisible fruit," and her claws come out. How? How can her claws move through bent fingers?
  • Maybe they're not metal but some sort of material that turns rigid when subject to an electric charge? It's been a loooooooooong time since I read the book, so that may or may not work...
    • Or maybe the claws are just as short as the distal phalanges.
  • Foldable ceramics, maybe?
  • Maybe the metal was cut so thin that it could telescope, mayhaps?
    • Or maybe they're made from some kind of nanotech memory material? They're experimenting with materials that can change between pre-set shapes with applications of electrical current today, and it's the explanation that the developers of Deus Ex Human Revolution are using for the protagonist's retractable, Molly-esque cyber-sunglasses.
  • Perhaps they're sheathed back next to the metacarpals when not in use, and emerge along a track to come out of her fingertips? If they're curved forwards, like a sickle, her fingers wouldn't need to be held straight to unsheathe them.
  • Or maybe they just looked four centimeters long to Case, because the first time he saw her extend them it scared the living crap out of him.

• Another one about Molly's implants: Why was it necessary to re-route her tear ducts into her oral cavity? Eyes already have a natural drainage system that leads into the nasal cavity, which is why people get a runny nose when they cry. So why not just widen her existing ducts a little, so excess tears produced at times of intense emotion would have space to flow?
  • Because a street samurai with a runny nose is less cool than a street samurai who spits instead of crying.

• In one of the sequels, "Mona Lisa Overdrive," Molly has changed her name to Sally Shears, but no longer seems to use her claws. It's understandable that she might have lost the claws over the years. But why did the author change her name to Shears, and not have the character use her claws?
  • She changes her name and appearance so as not to be recongnised. I don't understand why she doesn't use her claws anymore either.
  • The novel heavily implies that Molly's trying to hide her true identity from someone, and using her claws too openly, as she used to, would likely be a dead giveaway, especially in combination with her still-present lens implants (presumably common enough not to be a reliable identifier on their own).
    • I'm pretty sure that its supposed to feel more ambiguous about if it is really Molly or not.
  • Possibly she's making a statement: it's not her claws that are the shears, it's that she's metaphorically "sheared" herself of her previous identity as Molly Millions, or possibly of everything in her life that'd been tying her down.

• "Count Zero." (The first of "Neuromancer's" sequels.) Fantastic book. But, what was it about? Sure, all three books are confusing. But in this one, the very plot was almost impossible to pin down. "Neuromancer" was about a hacker and a mercenary helping an A.I. become more powerful; "Mona Lisa Overdirve" was about said mercenary trying to rescue all of the people who her employers were trying to trick her into helping to kidnap or kill; what on Earth was the story in between those two about? Marley collecting art, Turner saving Angie, Bobby becoming a hacker, what was the end these people were working towards?
  • All of them were integral, if unwitting, participants in the plans of Wintermute/Neuromancer and it's AI offspring to prevent Josef Virek from becoming a cybernetic immortal via Dr. Mitchell's biochip technology.

• Just how old is 3Jane? We know she's at least 12, because we see the brief essay she wrote when she was that age. She acts more like an Adult Child Creepy Child, though.
  • It's implied that the essay in question was written a number of years ago, and she's (biologically, anyway) somewhere between her mid-20's/early 30's. Chronologically, though, considering she's the third clone of the original Jane, and her father is over two-hundred counting freezer time, who knows?

• What was Peter Riviera's motive for betraying the group and helping 3Jane? His hatred for Molly could be attributed for his hatred against women...but then why would he want to help 3Jane, another powerful woman?
  • He gets off on betraying people, remember? And he probably would've ended up betraying 3Jane later on.

• The book never did explain why Wintermute wanted Case specifically as opposed to paying some better, world-class cowboys. Maybe because he was more easily manipulable? Or because Case studied under the Flatline, and the Flatline had some experience against an AI's black ICE?
  • The above. Also, the Turing police are on the lookout for this kind of thing and using a guy who isn't currently tops on the decker circuit might buy them more time before the heat notices what's going on. And finally, the job is suicidally difficult and nobody's going to hire on for it unless they're completely desperate -- which Case is, because he's less than two months away from committing suicide at the start of the book, and only the hoped-for return of his ability to punch deck motivates him to live again. Note that every single member of the team has a reason to not give a fuck about their continued survival -- Armitage is basically a programmed robot, Molly's halfway between Blood Knight and Death Seeker, and Rivera's a thrill-seeking psychopath (and also has the least physically dangerous part of the job).