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Popular Culture Review
movement. Again, this is a hybrid text, structurally, stylistically, and
thematically.
In terms of style, her difference from the mainstream of cyberpunk is
evident. The novel is presented mainly in straightforward, past-tense structures
that stay in a third-person limited point of view focused on Shira’s evolution and
relationships. The rest of the narration consists of Malkah telling Yod a familyhistory of the Golem, Joseph (in Renaissance Prague), which does give some
metanarrative effect and multiplicity of point of view, but once these chapters
leave their brief framing introductions and focus in on Joseph or Chava, they
become as simple as Shira’s chapters. M. Keith Booker, like a few other
commentators on the novel, states that “Piercy almost seems intentionally to
present her future in a straightforward, matter-of-fact prose style that avoids
intruding into the believability of her imaginative vision of the future” (Booker
342). As with critics’ comments on Piercy’s use of cyberpunk’s features, it is
interesting to note here that Gibson has been faulted for using a limited,
protagonist-driven point of view and has been accused of being stuck in the
literary realism of nineteenth century fiction or of being some latter-day
Raymond Chandler. However, Piercy’s adoption of some of the same narrative
techniques has not attracted the same negative criticism. If anything, Piercy’s
fiction is more nineteenth century-realistic than Gibson’s, which tends to
employ very flashy, detailed descriptions and active verbs. Likewise, Deery has
praised Piercy for losing some of the “hard edge attitude” of cyberpunk (89), but
this attitude has a lot to do with what made cyberpunk so revolutionary in the
1980s.
Piercy’s retreat from the leading edges of cyberpunk is also seen in the
way her settings are presented. While she uses the setting-types of the subgenre
very well, her softer tone and greater attention to character psychology takes
narrative attention away from the details of the setting. Hollinger writes
It is significant that the ‘average’ Cyberpunk landscape tends
to be choked with the debris of both language and objects as a
sign-system, it is overdetermined by a proliferation of surface
detail which emphasizes the “outside” over the “inside.” (182)
This oft-mentioned focus on surface detail is one of the movement’s strengths.
Modern society is very much taken up with surface details, for it is in them that
so much of our culture is conveyed. In modem corporate business, logos, color
schemes, and rampant branding are as important as products themselves in a
marketplace where experience and ambiance are part of the transaction. Deery
applauds Piercy’s turn from the exaltation of the artificial in Gibson by stating
She conveys a deep passion for the natural and the rich
sensuous pleasure people can derive from food, flowers, and
animals. Gibson’s characters experience quick thrills through
drugs or sex or violence. His world includes none of the