What’s Good for the Goose is Good for the Gander
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after the attack (98-99). Case goes through a very similar situation in
Neuromancer when he realizes that he is just meat without the ability to go into
the matrix and that real life is dull and pales in comparison. For scholars, Case’s
horror at being stuck in his body is a point of contention because in Gibson’s
work it signals a fear of corporeality, a loss of hope, and “the romantic trappings
of the genre at its most conventional” (Hollinger 176-177). This difference in
the way that the hacker is interpreted in the two novels also extends to the
cyborg representations in the novels.
Posthumanity and cyberspace vie for the distinction of being the best
idea that cyberpunk has given to literature and, increasingly, to popular culture.
With the exception of Avram, every primary character in He, She and It is
identified as being somehow genetically, prosthetically, or surgicallyaesthetically altered and therefore posthuman. These alterations are taken
apropos and treated with no sense of horror or problematization, except for the
idea of the Yakamura-Stichen children being portrayed as having had plastic
surgery while apparently still in elementary school. Shira and Malkah’s
posthuman enhancements are simply part of their character make-ups and do not
really seem to signify much until Shira compares herself to Yod and argues
against his despondency at being a cyborg by stating that she has been
mechanically enhanced with her internet Jack and corneal implant and that
Malkah has a few artificial organs to replace those that have begun to fail due to
age. Gadi’s cosmetic alterations are treated with a little more contempt, but this
is due to Gadi’s ephemeral nature and vanity. Of course, Yod is Piercy’s
supreme expression of the human-machine interface and as Deery accurately
points out: “Clearly, both cyborgs and artificial intelligences offer a concrete
demonstration of that great postmodern theme, the constmction of human
identity” (91). Piercy does this very well. She portrays Yod as being the
idealized male lover with an ideal body. He puts Shira’s pleasure first,
communicates well, and asks her opinion but also intuits her desires—all at the
perfect moment. Likewise, his body is without blemish or unsightly hair—even
his ejaculations are Just the right amount to be noticeable but otherwise tidy. For
Deery, these traits are desirable expressions of women’s fantasy literature and
are to be commended (95), but Deery, like other commentators on Gibson’s
novel, takes exception to Molly who is likewise an expression of male
idealization with her dangerous killing abilities, aggressive sexuality, and
overall Amazon characterization (96-97). For feminist scholars of cyberpunk,
Molly is a key example of what is wrong with the genre, which is ironic because
Molly’s identity as the razor-girl was self-cho sen and self constructed; whereas,
Yod was programmed by Malkah and Shira to fit female fantasy molds and
ideals. Therefore, Yod, not Molly, is the subordinate object of the gaze.
Clearly then, Piercy uses cyberpunk’s key character types and socio
cultural milieus to create her near-fliture dystopia, but there are an equal number
of features that distinguish He, She and It from the core of the cyberpunk