A woman’s appearance
Interestingly enough, there are a lot of visual descriptions of women in the novel, while those of men are lacking. One of the more striking is the sexist description of Runciter’s secretary through his eyes, which adds nothing to the novel, as she is just a passing character never mentioned again. The woman is described as a plump woman with a head like a basketball and narrow legs, unfashionably dressed looking like a bug. To top off the sexist remarks about a female, there is also an ageist commentary, her being past forty and past any period of having a good figure. Remarkably forward in the technological aspect, the novel still serves as a witness of its time in this societal aspect.
Visual imagery of Pat
The visual description of Pat as the ultimate female villain doesn’t disappoint. She is the embodiment of a manic pixie dream girl type; she is long-legged with dark eyes and hair; she is the embodiment of sensual beauty without trying, even resisting to accept her beauty, disliking her attractive appearance.
Auditory imagery of music
As Joe and AI. are getting aboard a chopper to travel there is music heard in the background, the Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis together with an electronically augmented symphony orchestra. This is one of the few instances where the classical music is introduced to a key scene, which could be seen as a foreshadowing of reality not being how they perceive it.
Visual image of a caught bird
After all the events that happened on Luna and Runciter’s death Joe has a clear premonition of future, of what will happen to them. The image contains a bird caught in cobwebs, along with a realistic hanging of age over it. This is indeed foreshadowing of their future and the truth of what happened to them. They are all birds caught in a web of artificial reality of Half-Life with the menacing entity Jory rapidly accelerating their process of aging.
