In William Gibson's cyberpunk series, homesickness and the longing to return home haunt the characters, especially in Neuromancer and Idoru, where the "wandering—homecoming" narrative pattern repeats. Both novels consider Japan as a place of wandering while regard America as home. By recalling the imagination of home and arranging the characters to return home, Neuromancer and Idoru reconsolidate the dichotomy of East and West, thereby presenting a retreating position that is contradictory to the "centerlessness" of the "cyber" and the subversive nature of "punk". Although in Idoru, the virtual "walled city" as a dream home for both human and virtual idols has the potential to break the East-West dichotomy, it also harbors the danger of romanticizing and exoticizing the East.

William Gibson  /  Neuromancer  /  Idoru  /  cyberpunk  /  homesickness