Molly Millions
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Molly Millions (also known as Sally Shears) is a recurring character in stories and novels written by William Gibson, particularly his Sprawl trilogy. She first appeared in Johnny Mnemonic, to which she makes an oblique reference in Neuromancer (in which she is primarily referred to as "Molly", no last name is given). Her last appearance came under the name "Sally Shears" in the book Mona Lisa Overdrive.
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[edit] Character history
In all three stories, Molly is a physically tough (but not instantly imposing) bodyguard/mercenary referred to as a "razor girl" throughout his stories and also as "the Steppin' Razor" to the residents of Zion, a Rastafarian space station. A useful contact for dealing with gangs and black market elements, she tends to show little remorse for the opponents she ruthlessly dispatches in the course of her objectives, and in fact shows few deep emotions towards anyone outside of hatred, suspicion or amused contempt. An exception to this was Johnny (of Johnny Mnemonic), whom she still mourned at the time of Neuromancer, part of the personal history she relates to its protagonist, Case, at length, in addition to the revelation that she worked as a "meat puppet" (a prostitute) in a "puppet parlor" (a brothel where girls loan out their bodies while maintained in an induced trance state) to pay for her considerable cybernetic enhancements. Another pseudonym, used when she rents a hotel room in Neuromancer, is "Rose Kolodny", the name by which the Turing Police refer to her. This may be because the Turing Police got the name from the hotel's records, but it is sometimes speculated to be her real name. The later trilogy books speculate that she is "SINless", having been an unrecorded birth and never having a "Single Identity Number", making her very difficult to track in the cyber environment. Critic Larry McCaffery asserts that "Molly" is a "moll" out of a 1940's film noir.[1]
[edit] Augmentations
An attractive woman who appears at first glance to be wearing mirrored sunglasses, she has in fact had her eye sockets sealed with vision-enhancing mirrored lenses that were surgically attached to her face by the skilled black-market surgeons of Chiba City. Molly also sports razor-sharp retractable claws underneath her fingernails: ten double-edged blades each four centimeters in length.[2] To accommodate the inset lenses her tear ducts have been re-routed to her mouth; consequentially, on the rare occasions Molly cries, she spits instead. Being attached, the lenses must be cleaned by hand, and she never lets others touch them, as it leaves fingerprints. Her metabolism and reflexes are also artificially heightened.
[edit] Portrayal in Johnny Mnemonic
The 1994 film version of Johnny Mnemonic replaced Molly with a character named Jane who did not have the modifications to her eyes or razors on her hands. Jane did share the modified nervous system, but used a single razor attached to the tip of a telescoping "car antenna" as a weapon. It is generally assumed[by whom?] that this was due to the "Molly" character being attached to the rights for any possible future Neuromancer film adaptation.[citation needed]
[edit] References in pop culture
Molly is the subject of a song called Mirrorshades by the group Information Society.[3]
[edit] Notes
- ^ McCaffery, Larry (1991). Storming the Reality Studio. Durham: Duke University Press. ISBN 9780822311683.
- ^ Gibson, William (2003). Burning Chrome (Johnny Mnemonic). New York City: Arbor House. p. 8. Chrome. ISBN 0030539828.
- ^ Comments: Mirrorshades
[edit] References
- William Gibson, Burning Chrome ("Johnny Mnemonic"), 1986, ISBN 0-06-053982-8
- William Gibson, Neuromancer, 1984, ISBN 0-441-56956-0
- William Gibson, Mona Lisa Overdrive, 1988, ISBN 0-553-28174-7
[edit] External links
- Razor girls: Genre and Gender in Cyberpunk Fiction
- William Gibson aleph Fan site
- Voidspace Online excerpts from Neuromancer and Mona Lisa Overdrive
- MOLLY'S MIRRORSHADES; ZEISS-IKON EYES "I could never dream up a sufficiently convincing way to imagine them being attached."
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