XPost: rec.arts.sf.written   
   From: storytellers@worldnet.att.net   
      
   Knight37 wrote:   
    >   
   > I'm confused about a few things that happened in Mona Lisa Overdrive, and   
   > I thought maybe if I posted my questions someone would have some input.   
   >   
   > First, in his past, Slick was put into some kind of "prison". What   
   > exactly did they do to him?   
      
   He was given drugs that induced a form of Korsakov's syndrome, which is   
   a form a brain damage in which you lose the ability to form new   
   memories. Your long-term memories remain intact, so you remember who you   
   are and what happened in your life up to the time you suffered the brain   
   damage, but anything new slips your mind within a few minutes.   
      
   As far as I know, real-life Korsakov's is permanent. Gibson's   
   drug-induced version is supposed to be temporary -- you get cured once   
   you've finished serving your sentence. Part of Slick's problem was that   
   the cure wasn't perfect, so -- as happens in the story -- if he got   
   nervous he'd have an "episode" of Korsakov's.   
      
   > What was the purpose of it?   
      
   For one thing, it makes it almost impossible to plan, so presumably a   
   prison of Korsakov's sufferers wouldn't have any escape attempts or   
   organized riots. (On the other hand, you'd probably see a fair number of   
   panic attacks and disorganized riots, so I'm not sure how much of an   
   improvement it'd be.)   
      
   Mainly, though, it's a form of torture. You spend your time confused and   
   fearful.   
      
   > At the end of the story, apparently Angie, Count Zero (Bobby), The Finn,   
   > Colin, and 3Jane(?) are in the "aleph" (which I still don't understand   
   > what it really was), and somehow they were going to go into the "other"   
   > matrix (from Centauri). I don't get this, what the hell actually happened   
   > at the end of the story? Did Angie die?   
      
   The idea was that Angie's body died, but in the process her   
   consciousness was somehow transferred into the aleph. Bobby's was, too,   
   and there was at least a copy of the Finn in there as well.   
      
   As for the bit about Alpha Centauri, you may or may not remember that at   
   the end of _Neuromancer_, Wintermute claimed to have detected a bunch of   
   radio transmissions from another AI in the Alpha Centauri system. That   
   apparently set off a chain reaction that -- by the time _Count Zero_   
   took place -- caused Wintermute to break apart into a bunch of   
   cybernetic voodoo gods "haunting" the matrix. So the idea, at the end of   
   _Mona Lisa Overdrive_, is that Finn is going to show Angie and Bobby the   
   Centauri matrix to help them understand *why* the chain reaction took   
   place, which is what Bobby and Gentry had both been trying to figure out.   
      
   -- M. Ruff   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)