How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
[Case's] brain was deep-fried. No, he decided, it had been thrown into hot fat and left there, and the fat had cooled, a thick dull grease congealing on the wrinkled lobes, shot through with greenish-purple flashes of pain. (11.8)
Lovely. This is easily the best description for a hangover ever put on paper. Notice how when Case uses drugs the descriptions are all bright lights and wonderment. And now, well, not so much. See the difference a day makes?
Quote #8
The drug hit him like an express train, a white-hot column of light mounting his spine from the region of his prostate, illuminating the sutures of his skull with x-rays of short-circuited sexual energy. (12.38)
The writing style connects the promise of being machine-like with the use of drugs. Trains, white light, sutures, x-rays. It all sounds cool enough, but it's masking some pretty horrific physical consequences.
Quote #9
The clarity of [Molly's] sensorium cut the bite of the betaphenethylamine, but Case could still feel it. He preferred the pain in her leg. (16.28)
Case finds a substitute for the drug in his connection with Molly and her pain. It shows how far Case's character has developed since Chiba City where his connection to the drugs blocked his ability to connect with Linda Lee.