Considering that there are many different levels of realism, I have chosen to focus on Neuromancer by William Gibson and We so Seldom Look on Love by Barbara Gowdy. The stories explore the boundaries of realism by using similar elements. The most obvious one is the margin between life and death, which these two stories address. The main characters separate themselves from society's idealistic realism. Nevertheless, where is their identity placed when living in a different realism? How does one understand the reality of a person with a fragmented mind"

"`Linda, who told you? Who told you I would come? Who"'" (Gibson, 242)

In the passage above, case enters another reality in which he is able to interact wit the dead. A duality forms and there is no border between the living and the dead. His ex-girlfriend Linda Lyn is on a beach but she is dead. Though...