Molly Millions is a recurring character in stories and novels written by William Gibson

William Gibson

William Gibson is an American-Canadian science fiction author.William Gibson may also refer to:-Association football:*Will Gibson , Scottish footballer...

, particularly his Sprawl trilogy

The Sprawl trilogy

The Sprawl trilogy is William Gibson's first set of novels, composed of Neuromancer , Count Zero , and Mona Lisa Overdrive ....

. She first appeared in Johnny Mnemonic, to which she makes an oblique reference in Neuromancer

Neuromancer

Neuromancer is a 1984 novel by William Gibson, a seminal work in the cyberpunk genre and the first winner of the science-fiction "triple crown" — the Nebula Award, the Philip K. Dick Award, and the Hugo Award. It was Gibson's debut novel and the beginning of the Sprawl trilogy...

(where she is mostly referred to as "Molly" with no last name given). Her most recent literary appearance was under the name "Sally Shears" in the book Mona Lisa Overdrive

Mona Lisa Overdrive

Mona Lisa Overdrive is a cyberpunk novel by William Gibson published in 1988 and the final novel of the Sprawl trilogy, following Neuromancer and Count Zero. It takes place eight years after the events of Count Zero and is set, as were its predecessors, in The Sprawl...

.

Character history

In all three stories, Molly is a physically tough (but not instantly imposing) bodyguard/mercenary cyborg

Cyborg

A cyborg is a being with both biological and artificial parts. The term was coined in 1960 when Manfred Clynes and Nathan S. Kline used it in an article about the advantages of self-regulating human-machine systems in outer space. D. S...

. She is referred to as a "razor girl" throughout his stories and also as "Steppin' Razor

Stepping razor

-Music:* "Steppin' Razor", 1967 song written by Joe Higgs* "Steppin' Razor", 1977 cover song on Peter Tosh's album Equal Rights.* "Steppin' Razor", 1993 title of film about Peter Tosh life called ....

" by 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. In fact she shows few deep emotions towards anyone outside of hatred, suspicion or amused contempt. Nevertheless, Molly is always regarded throughout the book as a loyal, morally strong character, opposed to the progressing decay of human relations in the world Gibson depicts.

An exception to her cold, somewhat cynic approach to life was Johnny (of Johnny Mnemonic), for whom she still mourned at the time of Neuromancer. This is part of the personal history she relates to its protagonist, Case, in addition to the revelation that she worked as a "meat puppet" (a prostitute

Prostitution

Prostitution is the act or practice of providing sexual services to another person in return for payment. The person who receives payment for sexual services is called a prostitute and the person who receives such services is known by a multitude of terms, including a "john". Prostitution is one of...

) in a "puppet parlor" (a brothel

Brothel

Brothels are business establishments where patrons can engage in sexual activities with prostitutes. Brothels are known under a variety of names, including bordello, cathouse, knocking shop, whorehouse, strumpet house, sporting house, house of ill repute, house of prostitution, and bawdy house...

 where people loan out their bodies while maintained in a blanked-out state) to pay for her considerable cybernetic enhancements.

Another pseudonym

Pseudonym

A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...

, used when she rents a hotel room in Neuromancer, is "Rose Kolodny", the name by which the Turing Police refer to her. The Turing Police may have simply gotten the name from the hotel's registry, but it is sometimes speculated to be her original name. The later trilogy books speculate that she is "SINless", having been an unrecorded birth and never having been issued a "Single Identity Number". This would give her the advantage of being more difficult to track in the cyberspace environment. Critic Larry McCaffery

Larry McCaffery

Lawrence F. "Larry" McCaffery Jr. is a literary critic, editor, and retired professor of English and Comparative Literature at San Diego State University...

 asserts that "Molly" is a "moll

Gun moll

Gun moll is a term that refers to the female companion of a male professional criminal. In some contexts, gun moll more specifically suggests that the woman handles a firearm....

" .

William Gibson has stated that he derived inspiration for the character from the image of Chrissie Hynde

Chrissie Hynde

Christine Ellen "Chrissie" Hynde is an US musician best known as the leader of the rock/new wave band the Pretenders. She is a singer, songwriter, and guitarist, and has been the only constant member of the band throughout its history.-Early life and career:Hynde is the daughter of a part-time...

 on the cover

Pretenders (album)

Pretenders is the debut studio album by the British New Wave band The Pretenders, released on 19 January 1980 on Real Records . A combination of rock, punk, and pop music, this album made the band famous...

 of the first Pretenders

The Pretenders

The Pretenders are an English rock band formed in Hereford, England in March 1978. The original band consisted of initiator and main songwriter Chrissie Hynde , James Honeyman-Scott , Pete Farndon , and Martin Chambers...

 album.

Augmentations

A lean, athletic, attractive woman who appears at first glance to be wearing mirrored sunglasses, Molly 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

Chiba, Chiba

is the capital city of Chiba Prefecture, Japan. It is located approximately 40 km east of the center of Tokyo on Tokyo Bay. Chiba City became a government designated city in 1992. Its population as of 2008 is approximately 960,000....

. To accommodate the inset lenses her tear ducts have been re-routed to her mouth; consequentially, on the very rare occasions Molly cries, she spits out or swallows the tears instead. She never lets others touch the lenses as it would leave messy fingerprints requiring extra cleaning.

Her sensory input, metabolism and reflexes are also artificially heightened by means of electronic implants and exotic forms of advanced surgeries and other medical procedures. Molly also sports razor-sharp retractable claws underneath her fingernails: ten double-edged blades four centimeters in length.

Portrayal in other media

The 1994 film version of Johnny Mnemonic

Johnny Mnemonic (film)

Johnny Mnemonic is a 1995 cyberpunk film, loosely based on the short story "Johnny Mnemonic" by William Gibson. The title character, a man with a cybernetic brain implant designed to store information, is played by Keanu Reeves. The film portrays Gibson's dystopian view of the future with the world...

replaced Molly with a character named Jane who did not have modifications to her eyes or to her fingers. 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 possible that this was due to the "Molly" character being attached to the rights for any possible future Neuromancer film adaptation.

In the 2003 BBC Radio

BBC Radio

BBC Radio is a service of the British Broadcasting Corporation which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a Royal Charter since 1927. For a history of BBC radio prior to 1927 see British Broadcasting Company...

 adaptation of Neuromancer, Molly was played by the English actress Nicola Walker

Nicola Walker

Nicola Walker is an English actress, best known for her starring roles in various British television programmes from the 1990s onwards, particularly as Ruth Evershed in the spy drama Spooks. She has also worked in theatre, radio and film....

. Actress Sasha Grey

Sasha Grey

Sasha Grey is an American former pornographic actress, who has since turned to mainstream acting, modeling and music....

took on the role in Case, a six-hour dramatic contemporary adaptation of the novel staged in New York City in November 2009.

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."