Is Neuromancer considered dystopian science fiction?

Question

Yeah, the future was indeed a dark place in the book, just didn't seem hopeless. In fact, Neuromancer and Wintermute seemed like they enjoyed each other's company, including a nervous breakdown!

Answer 1

Yep. Since no dates are specified (that I remember) it's a little difficult to tell but considering when it was written, yes. What happened/happens, at least one nuclear exchange between states/terrorists, the collapse of most forms of government (except notably the PRC), and disenfranchisement of many people generally.

I kinda view it like this, Blade Runner is often considered the quintessential vision of distopian world with a busted environment, clones run amok, off-world colonies, abject poverty in the US and maniac replicants, having once lived in NJ and Texas, (not picking on the garden or lone star states , I'm just saying), there are some definitely non-pretty sections of both, and as we get closer to the supposed date of November 2019, the world starts to look more and more like Blade Runner or Neuromancer's world.

Think about it this way, Things we need for this to be more or less just a very rough cut of Law and Order.

Environment in the dumps - Check (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_degradation)
Clones run amok - Check - (http://www.viagen.com/)
Flying Cars - Check - (http://www.moller.com/)
Government gone broke - Check - (http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1729101)
Human Clones Illegal - Check - (http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/elsi/cloning.shtml#humans)
Off world colonies - Probably - (http://www.redcolony.com/)
Human Clones - Possibly?
(http://www.howstuffworks.com/human-cloning.htm)
Hope ? (http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6594554782453026779&q=Humans&hl=en)


I pretty much by the time we get to November, 2019 or thereabouts, Blade runner will not be considered distopian but a retro-murder-mystery staring Harrison Ford and Sean Young. I expect whenever Machine Intelligence is discovered becomes reality, it will be kinda the same.