bca6944a   
   From: ctysor@email.unc.edu   
      
   I posted a while ago about a paper I was working on.  The thesis morphed a   
   bit and I'm not sure if the paper is where I like it; I'll proabably do a   
   few more revisions, but I think this draft is pretty representative of   
   where I want to go with it.   
      
      
   Cyberpunk literature and films are usually concerned with marginalized   
   characters within a system that has some sort of dominating cultural   
   force.  Technology is important within these systems as a way for the   
   dominant part of the system to exercise control over its members.   
   Technology is all pervasive, and is often incorporated into the bodies of   
   the system's members.  However, technology is used in a subversive and   
   often self-serving manner by the marginalized members of that system.   
   (Schneider 3)   
   	Though considered by many critics and members of the cyberpunk   
   movement to be postcyberpunk, Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age engages   
   many of these themes, as does Larry and Andy Wachowski's movie The Matrix,   
   which draws considerably from cyberpunk literature, notably William   
   Gibson's Neuromancer, and is considered by cyberpunk fans and critics to   
   be a cyberpunk movie (DiFilippo 88), though cyberpunk heroes are   
   characteristally more morally ambiguous than the hero of The Matrix.  In   
   both The Diamond Age and The Matrix, a character from the fringes of   
   society is able to resist the reproduction of the dominant culture by   
   manipulating the same technology available to their oppressors, which is a   
   defining cyberpunk theme.   
   	The key difference between these two works is the protagonist's   
   relationship to those that have not resisted cultural reproduction.   
   Because these two works explore the resistance to cultural reproduction of   
   the two heroes in a technological context, the audience may expect a   
   similar end result, at least thematically.  The split between progress for   
   the masses and a more elite view, however, explains the enormous   
   diversion.  Nell, the protagonist of the The Diamond Age is involved in   
   the transition from a highly rigid, class-organized system of resources   
   controlled by an elite phyle, to a more organic and flexible system   
   available to the masses.  Neo, from The Matrix, however, is an elitist,   
   superhuman character, disdaining the masses and gives little hope for the   
   freedom of the masses still enslaved by the Matrix.   
   	Nell's role in The Diamond Age is much closer to the morally   
   ambiguous hero of cyberpunk than Neo's role as "the One" in The Matrix.   
   While personally confused in the beginning of the movie, Neo is  revered   
   by his crew mates and approaches a godlike status towards the close.  Nell   
   becomes a powerful figure, yet it is not clear whether the cause she is   
   involved in is morally correct, though the novel certainly disparages the   
   opposing side.  The lack of moral clarity surrounding heroes such as Nell   
   is central to the chaotic worlds that cyberpunk creates, while Neo's moral   
   elevation is a significant deviation from traditional cyberpunk   
   protagonists.   
   	The Primer encourages Nell to critique the culture around her,   
   creating in her a resistance to  the cultural reproduction of the   
   neo-Victorian society.  The social structure of The Diamond Age is   
   fragmented into nearly autonomous claves or phyles.  The Neo-Victorian   
   clave is the most powerful because it has control of the dominant resource   
   technology, known as the Feed.  The Neo-Victorians   
   	have an elaborate code of morals and conduct.  it grew out of the   
   moral squalor of an 	earlier generation, just as the original   
   Victorians were preceded by the Georgians and 	the Regency.  The old   
   guard believe in that code because they came to it the hard way.   
   They raise their children to believe in that code....They believe   
   it...because they have 	been indoctrinated to believe it.  (Stephenson   
   355-356).   
      
   This indoctrination, the cultural reproduction of Neo-Victorianism, occurs   
   in the family and in the schools.  The schools are particularly important   
   to this process and the recognition of this leads to the creation of the   
   Primer.  When students go to school and participate in an environment   
   designed to lead to a consensus of thought, those students are become an   
   example of "homogeneous conformity to the status quo" (Payne 2,3).  Lord   
   Finkle-McGraw, a powerful man in Victorian society, commisions Mr.   
   Hackworth, an engineer in a prominent company to create the Primer.  In an   
   initial discussion concerning the Primer,  Hackworth and Finkle-McGraw   
   conclude that they have both led "interesting lives" and that this has led   
   to their current prominent positions and enjoyment of life.  According to   
   Finkle-McGraw, "in order to raise a generation of children who can reach   
   their full potential, we must find a way to make their lives interesting,"   
   rather than raising them in schools that keep children "followed, hourly   
   watched, and noosed, / Each in his several melancholy walk" (Stephenson   
   18, 24).  Finkle McGraw wished to supply the missing element in   
   Neo-Victorian education, the ingredient that kept young girls from being   
   blank slates, vulnerable to the homogenization of the education they were   
   subjected to; he believed the element was subversiveness (Stephenson 81).   
   	Hackworth adds an important cyberpunk ingredient to The Diamond   
   Age.  He is a hacker, even in name ("Hack" - worth), manipulating the   
   technology of the system for personal reasons. His hacking skills - his   
   superior ability to manipulate nanotechnology - is one of the reasons he   
   is contacted for the Primer project.  True to his subversive character as   
   a hacker, he illicitly creates additional copies of the Primer.  One of   
   the hacked copies of the Primers falls into Nell's hands.   
   	Nell uses this technology very effectively to resist Neo-Victorian   
   cultural reproduction.  Nell is a young thete girl, classless and poor.   
   She uses the Primer to gain entry to Neo-Victorian society.  She also has   
   a Neo-Victorian education, but turns out very differently from other girls   
   because of the education she gets from her Primer: "Neo-Victorian society   
   produced many young women who, though highly educated and well-read, were   
   still blank slates at Nell's age.  But Nell's eyes told a different story"   
   (Stephenson 330).  Nell openly resists Neo-Victorian acculturation using   
   her Primer, unlike her classmates who fade into the background when   
   compared to her.  In a discussion with her surrogate father, she discusses   
   the path of her resistance:   
   	"Which path do you intend to take, Nell?" said the Constable,   
   sounding very interested. "Conformity or rebellion?   
      
   	"Neither one.  Both ways are simple-minded.  They are only for   
   people who cannot cope with contradiction and ambiguity."   
      
   This conversation epitomizes the effects of use of the Primer on Nell.   
   She is able to comfortably hold and defend complex stances that lie   
   outside of the cultural norm.   
   	In The Matrix, Neo is able to resist the cultural reproduction of   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)