More Pynch/Gibson

[bruce sublett]

I earlier noted some striking similarities between DL and William Gibson's
Molly in _Neuromancer_, which prompted me to look at the rest of that Gibson
sequence.  Lo and behold, in _Mona Lisa Overdrive_, he gives us the
character Sally Shears (who may or not be Molly), who is in the hire of
London mob figure Swain.  Swain is indebted to a high-ranking Yakuza boss,
who sends his 13 - year - old daughter Kumiko to Swain for protection.
Guess who ends up with the responsibility for Kumiko?  Sally Shears drags
her around London to various shady establishments, and eventually engineers
her escape from Swain.  Kumiko, by the way, spends much of her time trying
to hold on to the image of her mother, a dark Danish beauty, driven to
suicide by her crime-boss father.  The primary difference is that Kumiko is
as passive and innocent as Prairie is active and worldly.

BS