Starry Wisdom & the Three-Lobed Burning Eye

"She you woman, Case?"

"I dunno. Nobody's woman, maybe." He shrugged. And found his anger again, real as a shard of hot rock beneath his ribs. "

(Neuromancer 186)
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If we make a bit of stretch, "She you woman, Case?" can be interpreted as an interrogation of Molly and Case's shared femininity (or lack thereof), which is to say (are) she (and) you woman, Case? His answer, then, is "I dunno, nobody (is) woman, maybe," which is a striking statement, lending itself to more interpretation--perhaps Case has problematized the concept of woman to the extent that it no longer holds any meaning for him.

It's easier to assume that Maelcum has simply spoken with an accent, and not sounded the "r" in "your," as we can presume that this is what Gibson intended for us to think. Maelcum is an ethnic futuristic supporting character, aiding the protagonist as he jacks into cyberspace, and is referred to as a "Zionite." The connection to The Matrix is apparent. Still, the issue at hand is sexuality. Our last (chronologically) encounter with it was back on page 179, where Ashpool discusses his escapades, including sex with the Queen of Spain and apparently pseudo-incestuous liaisons with various Janes. Furthermore, the girl Molly discovers dead in bed has been slain with a triangular "scraper," evidently a metaphor for rape. Ashpool is set up as an evil objectifier of women, and he is old. Case is young and will not compromise Molly's autonomy even with words (nobody's woman, maybe), and approaching this horrible vanishing point, I'll read him as the manifestation of William Gibson's support for feminism/desire to seem intellectually appealing to young women.

I'm not sure how I got there just now, and I don't really like that place, but the plurality of the text is supposed to go "as far as the eye can reach" or something, right?

Anyway, the combination of letters "he shrugged" appears in the text of Neuromancer a total of fourteen times, of which eight are "He shrugged" and six are "She shrugged."

As for finding his anger again, finding and losing abstract things is quite a theme in the book: Case losing his ability, Corto losing his personality, Wintermute/Neuromancer losing its existence as an entity (if you read the book backwards), Case regaining his ability. For that matter, the ability Case has lost and regained refers to entirely abstract things--navigating the internet, hacking. Nothing that has been found or lost has any physical reality. Thus the statement "real as a shard of hot rock beneath his ribs" becomes more interesting. How real is a shard of hot rock beneath his ribs? Evidently he doesn't have one, because that would probably kill him. However, "rock" is a street name for cocaine, particularly crack cocaine, the most addictive sort. Perhaps a reference to Case's drug habit, which he has by now kicked due to Armitage messing with his liver by proxy. But in fact, cocaine no longer exists to Case as a drug--it has no reality as an intoxicant to him anymore, because he is immune. So, is Case's anger a drug, or is it real, or is it false?