Burning Chrome

The third of Burning Chrome’s collaborative efforts, “Dogfight” was written jointly by Gibson and Michael Swanwick. The story fits seamlessly alongside others in the collection, echoing common themes. “Fragments of a Hologram Rose” and “The Winter Market,” for instance, likewise feature characters who utilize the technological possibilities of virtual reality for escapist purposes. “Dogfight” charts the growth of Deke’s obsession with the Fokkers and Spads game, which gives him something to aspire to beyond his otherwise unremarkable existence. Like the virtual reality dream-movies in “The Winter Market,” the game proves to be more than mere consumerist entertainment when Deke becomes obsessed with it and Tiny unravels after being defeated. The game relies on technology that leads to a vivid entertainment experience but also runs the risk of taking over and damaging human lives.

The content of Fokkers and Spads is also symbolically significant. On one hand, First World War dogfights look simply like an exciting action game scenario primed for competition. On the other hand, the obsession with early-20th-century warfare from the perspective of a near-future United States exudes nostalgia. At the time when WWI-era dogfights took place, airplanes were still relatively new technology; though the biplanes used in Fokkers and Spads may seem quaint to contemporary eyes or the near-future world of “Dogfight,” they were exciting and advanced at the time. Likewise, virtual reality is highly advanced when considered from the vantage point of the 1980s, but it is commonplace in the world of “Dogfight.”

Technology exerts control over characters in “Dogfight,” much as it does elsewhere in Burning Chrome. In Deke’s case, that control emerges when he falls into his obsession with Fokkers and Spads, an addiction that echoes Parker’s reliance on his ASP machine in “Fragments of a Hologram Rose.” Technological control is also externally imposed on both Deke and Nance in the form of their respective brainlocks. There is a major ethical distinction between technology being used to create a sophisticated game such as Fokkers and Spads and technology being used as a means of sadistic control. Where one exists, however, the other follows, “Dogfight” suggests. The punishment of inflicting pain and suffering on someone on account of their thoughts and feelings stresses the harsh consequences of unbridled technological development in the worlds of Gibson’s fiction and his general critique of technology.

Once again, Gibson’s fiction raises these themes for consideration without reducing them to simplistic black-and-white terms. While Deke is controlled by the sadistic brainlock, it is not as though he is morally spotless. He is an antihero like many of Burning Chrome’s characters and very much capable of his own sadism. His deplorability is evident in his unwavering desire to defeat Tiny, but it emerges even more harrowingly in his treatment of Nance. In the first part of the story, Deke develops as much a fondness for Nance as his flawed personality will allow, and he certainly respects her intelligence and talents. His care for Nance is shown in a surprisingly tenderhearted moment of “Dogfight.” Knowing that he cannot touch Nance without setting off her brainlock, he suggests they dance by her holding a teddy bear and pretending it is him, while he sways on the other side of the room; “[a]fter a while, she began to cry. But still, she was smiling” (164). This sweet moment makes Deke’s later assault on Nance to force her to give him the hype all the more deplorable. He notes that “on some unexpected and unwelcome level, he was enjoying this” (171). Obsessed with Fokkers and Spads, Deke destroys the only meaningful relationship he has.