Part 5

"New lines of pain were starting to etch themselves permanently at the corners of her mouth -"

[ACT: 1: etch]

We usually say that wrinkles "appear;" popular anti-aging creams claim to minimize "fine lines." But the lines on Linda Lee's face are "lines of pain" which are not simply appearing out of nowhere - they "etch themselves" onto her face. This action of "etching" evokes scratching, cutting and carving. These actions, far more than "appearing," connote violence and permanence. This description is very much in line with the previous passage - the association of decay and destruction with the beauty and youth that otherwise characterize Linda Lee. They reinforce the disturbing connection between the seemingly oppositional elements, and add to the general tone of grunge and perverted nature that characterize the world of "Neuromancer."

This passage is also resonant with the description of the cafe in which the scene takes place, a cafe in which the "brown laminate of the tabletop was dull with a patina of tiny scratches... [Case] saw the countless random impacts required to create a surface like that... leaving each surface fogged with something that could never be wiped away " (Gibson, 9). Like the surface of the object in the cafe itself, "random impacts" and "attacks" have worked on Linda Lee to leave scratches and lines in her face that "could never be wiped away."

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