This blogpost is about how in Johnny Mnemonic, Molly Millions dispatches Lewis, the blond henchman, who represents the golden age of scifi. The Johnny Mnemonic master blogpost is here.

Molly Millions

Molly Millions – what a name. Even without knowing anything about her, the name clues you into what kind of world we are living in: a world where everyone is chasing that next dollar, a world where all traditions, nations, and borders have been swept away. Money. Money. Money.

//

When she shows up at the bar to gate crash the meeting Johnny is having with Ralfi Face, his boss/fence, she has to face off with Lewis, Ralfi’s henchman. Lewis decides to get in her face, and she dispatches him quickly by cutting the tendons in his wrist with the razor tips that come out of her fingers.

Lewis The Blond Henchman Represents The Golden Age of Scifi and its inadequacies

Here’s how Gibson describes Lewis: “eighty kilos of blond California beef.” I want to focus on the blond hair. It’s a tiny detail that is easy to miss if you only read the story once or twice. It is especially important to contrast the description of Lewis with the description of the other characters.

//

Only Johnny’s hair is described (“dark hair”). Ralfi’s hair is not. Molly Millions is not. The Magnetic Dog Sisters is not. The corporate assassin’s hair is not. The Lo-Tek’s hair is not described. Only Johnny and Lewis get their hair described. This isn’t arbitrary. Gibson is being very particular here (as he always is).

//

Blonde hair, especially Blond California hair, evokes the golden age of scifi from the 1950s that cyberpunk essentially replaced. Lewis is a blackbelt in martial arts who has no cyber enhancements. Ralfi refers to Lewis as a meatball. He’s basically your typical villain from a 1980s Hollywood movie – like Cobra Kai in Karate Kid or Biff in Back to the Future.

//

But his imposing physical presence is no match for Molly Millions. She quickly cuts his wrists and that’s the last we see of him. It isn’t much of a fight.

//

This shows how the 20th Century American ideal – the 175 pound blond guy who’s a black belt and can handle himself in a fair fight – is no match for the cyber-augmented creatures that inhabit this cyberpunk world. This seems to be Gibson’s way of saying that the golden age of scifi, with its competent men of science, is simply incapable of dealing with the challenges of the present and the future.

//

Just like there is no place for a White Christian in this completely deregulated world, there is no place for a natural blond guy who apparently refuses to get cyber enhancements. Getting by solely on martial arts skills just won’t cut it in a world where people can get razors put into their fingertips or get face implants at the mall.

THE LASt BLONDE

Gibson uses blond hair as a metaphor for the golden age of scifi, but blondeness could represent a number of things. I wrote a story where blondeness is almost extinct because the world is completely overrun by third-worlders. It’s called THE LAST BLONDE and you can get it at www.blackflagliterature.com