Character Analysis: Rubin's Eccentric Mannerisms in The Winter Market

This essay provides a detailed character analysis of Rubin from William Gibson's science fiction short story, 'The Winter Market.' It explores Rubin's eccentric mannerisms, including his role as a virtual junk artist, his habits of collecting garbage, and his diet. The analysis highlights Rubin's significance as a friend to the narrator, Casey, and his involvement in the creation and sale of a unique video tape. The essay also touches upon the cyberpunk setting of the story, describing the influence of the gomi and Rubin's unique perspective on his work. References from various literary sources provide context and support for the character analysis, offering a comprehensive understanding of Rubin's role within the narrative.

Running head: ENGLISH
English
Name of the student
Name of the University
Author’s Note

1ENGLISH
The eccentric mannerism of Rubin in the story The Winter Market
The Winter Market is a short story written by William Gibson which is based on the
genre of science fiction. It tells the story of mind transferring where the mind of one’s body will
be transferred to a machine that enables it to think and perform activities like the human. In this
analysis, the character of Rubin will be discussed. He is a teacher or a master and in terms of the
Japanese he is called the sensei. He is one of the main characters in the story who is a virtual
junk artist. His Japanese nickname is Gomi no Sensei and he used to transform any Gomi into a
sculpture (Sponsler pp. 630). In the story this particular character is the friend of the narrator and
plays the significant role. He throws a party where Casey and Lise met first and fell in love with
each other. Both Rubin and Casey, being the junk cyber artist, the latter started to sell the edited
tape of Lise’s sub consciousness which he captured when he was asleep (Glazer pp. 155). The
beautiful tape video which was named The King of sleep hit the market and got sold in million.
The character description of Rubin is not possible without mentioning his habits where he used
to sleep in other people’s garbage. Not only that, but he also brings home back some of the
wastes which was once a shiny looking object now disposed of as garbage (Booker pp. 65). The
kinetic sculpture he made is used by Casey to connect Lise’s exoskeleton by connecting sounds.
In this story, Rubin played is the protagonist with the help of whom the narrator Casey produced
the video tape and sold it in million. The story being a cyberpunk can also be called grunge
which is centered in the Seattle area. The gomi is the medium of Rubin where he stayed all his
life (Hicks pp. 71). He is somewhat an eccentric person who used to refer his work as “messing
around”. Describing Rubin’s diet Casey mentioned, “vending machine sandwiches, Pakistani
takeout food and espresso. I have never seen him eating anything else (Booker pp. 65). We eat
samosas in a narrow shop on Fourth that has a single plastic table wedged between the counter

2ENGLISH
and the door to the can. Rubin eats his dozen samosas, six meat and six veggie, with total
concentration, one after another, and doesn’t bother to wipe his chin.” Rubin was also obsessed
with bringing other people’s garbage which had some kind of brief meaning attached to it at
some point in time.
Casey described Ruby: Rubin clamps along in paint-spattered L.L. Bean Gumshoes, his big head
pulled down into an oversize fatigue jacket (Booker pp. 65).”
Casey said that Rubin’s “breakfast will be egg salad on dead white bread, packed in one of those
triangles of milky plastic, on top of six little cups of poisonously strong espresso.”

3ENGLISH
References
Hicks, Heather J. "Whatever it is that she's since become": writing bodies of text and bodies of
women in James Tiptree, Jr.'s" The Girl Who Was Plugged In" and William Gibson's" The
Winter Market." Contemporary Literature 37.1 (1996): 62-93.
Booker, M. Keith. "Technology, History, and the Postmodern Imagination: The Cyberpunk
Fiction of William Gibson." Arizona Quarterly: A Journal of American Literature, Culture, and
Theory 50.4 (1994): 63-87.
Glazer, Miriyam. "" What is Within Now Seen Without": Romanticism, Neuromanticism, and
the Death of the Imagination in William Gibson's Fictive World." journal of Popular
Culture 23.3 (1989): 155.
Sponsler, Claire. "Cyberpunk and the Dilemmas of Postmodern Narrative: The Example of
William Gibson." Contemporary Literature 33.4 (1992): 625-644.