In class on Monday, the issue of genre classification was discussed at length. The question was posed as to whether "Pattern Recognition" should be read as a science fiction novel. A glance over Gibson’s previous works would have one believe that indeed, "Pattern Recognition" is a piece of science fiction genius, similar to "Neuromancer." Besides the obvious observation that "Pattern Recognition" differs greatly in style and plot from "Neuromancer," I would also argue that they do not fit in the same genre. While reading "Pattern Recognition," I continually felt as though I was reading a postmodern novel as opposed to a science fiction one. This should not be so surprising considering that elements of postmodernism and science fiction often overlap. In fact, we read the article “Cyber-punk and the Crisis of Postmodernity” alongside "Neuromancer." In the article, Lance Olsen writes, “as Darko Suvin argues, all science fiction is by nature a ‘literature of cognitive estrangment’; and, as McHale adds, science fiction is to the postmodern what detective fiction was to modernism: it is the ontological par excellence’” (148).

Written in 2003, "Pattern Recognition" is interesting because as opposed to most science fiction novels, it takes place in the present. Yet the description of the present seems eerily futuristic. “Hotmail downloads four messages, none of which she feels like opening. Her mother, three spam. The penis enlarger is still after her, twice, and Increase Your Breast Size Dramatically” (5). Anyone who has email recognizes this experience. And yet it still looks absurd when seen in writing. We are living in the present but we are unable to keep up. This disorientation of time is a significant theme throughout the novel as well as in postmodernism. Bigend believes that we have no future or history because our present is too unstable. When he claims that “History is a best-guess narrative about what happened and when” (59), I was immediately reminded of Lyotard’s claim that postmodernism signified the “end of metanarratives,” and thus history. Time can no longer be used as an organizing system.

This postmodern rejection of history is interesting to look at alongside "Pattern Recognition’s" references to the 9/11 attacks. For Gibson, this disaster served as a significant shift in time. One could even read it as his end of history. Case’s memories of 9/11 coincide with the last time she saw her father. Case nor NYC will ever be the same again. Jean Baudrillard, a postmodern theorist who argues that there is no reality, referred to 9/11 as the “absolute event.” Perhaps 9/11 was the event that threw us into the future before we were ready to deal with our present.

In terms of style, I find "Pattern Recognition" to be shamelessly postmodern. Case’s experiences and observations resemble a Baudrillardian simulacrum. At one point Gibson even describes something as simulacra of simulacra of simulacra. Of course, I instantly thought of "Fight Club" when the narrator refers to a copy of a copy of a copy. Case exists in a dream-like state where reality never seems reliable. “Damien’s Studio Display fill with darkness absolute. It is as if she participates in the very birth of cinema” (23). In a scene such as this, one wonders who needs history when you can experience everything through simulacra? The most frightening aspect of "Pattern Recognition" is that it exists in a postmodern world and we are have now entered a post-postmodern existence. If one is to agree with the tenants of postmodernism, then "Pattern Recognition" serves as a frightening reminder that we live in a world where we cannot rely on time or space to understand our identity. History has ended either with the end of metanarratives or the 9/11 attacks. Reality has been replaced by simulacra. While Case’s present may seem like the future to us, our present is in fact the future to Case.