How does William Gibson use imagery in Neuromancer?

One of the most striking features of Neuromancer is its surface texture. Gibson creates the sights, sounds, smells, and sensations of a landscape never before experienced. This is primarily an urban world — crowded, poisoned, and dangerous. The famous first line of Neuromancer describes Chiba City: "The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel."

Case participates in the buzz of the city, flowing with the crowds, performing his role in the "biz" of the streets. He sleeps in a "coffin," a tiny box situated among tiers of similar cubicles. As is apparent in the image of the Chiba City sky above, nature is often described in terms of technology. In Neuromancer nature has receded, evidently contaminated by some nuclear devastation. It only appears in fringe zones between population centers like the Sprawl, which reaches from Boston to Atlanta, or in recreated hallucinations like the beach in Morocco where Case's dead girlfriend, Linda Lee, appears to him in a version of paradise designed to prevent him from carrying out his mission.

Gibson creates his setting through dense tactile detail. He uses specific brand names: Case lights a Yeheyuan, not a cigarette; he jacks into an OnoSendai deck attached to a Hosaka, not just into a computer; the artificial sky above Freeport is created by a LadoAcheson lighting system. Gibson pays attention to color and texture as well.

Clothing is described in detail. Black leather abounds, punctuated by blood red, holographic green, and kaleidoscopic chameleon colors.