http://www.ctrlaltdel-online.com/comic.php

The comic for today, April 30th, is exquisitely appropriate per our discussion of Pattern Recognition on Monday.

I'm going to use my last "freebie" blog post and cop out on this one, because I have two term papers due this week as well as a video production project, and all of my ideas about this novel were pretty thoroughly dissected in class. I will be making several comments on others' posts to contribute, though.

Peace,
Claire

At first, I was a bit confused about why The Matrix was our movie to watch with Pattern Recognition, but having thought about it I think there are two major themes that run through both works, though Pattern Recognition clearly tries to stay grounded roughly in the present, while The Matrix extrapolates them to far more extreme situations. Both works, though, demonstrate the key challenges of defining history, through a character's ability to "see beyond" reality to some hidden truths.

Pattern Recognition Science Fiction?

I thought one of the most interesting bits of Pattern Recognition was the way people's online friendships worked out - what with Parkaboy/Cayce and Judy/Taki eventually hooking up in the real world based on affections that were developed almost exclusively through online chatting. Obviously, this stuff says a lot about how Gibson sees the world of 2002 and the relation of technology in it to human interactions.

I thought one of the most interesting bits of Pattern Recognition was the way people's online friendships worked out - what with Parkaboy/Cayce and Judy/Taki eventually hooking up in the real world based on affections that were developed almost exclusively through online chatting. Obviously, this stuff says a lot about how Gibson sees the world of 2002 and the relation of technology in it to human interactions.

In the analysis that I performed on Pattern Recognition in my final essay, I concluded that Cayce was almost asexual in the novel, and that any graphic or direct depictions of sex had an adverse effect on the commitments that Cayce had made or wanted to make.

One thing I found interesting about Pattern Recognition--especially as it includes a world of screen names--is the use of names. Obviously we touched on Cayce in class, but only briefly. What struck me most about Cayce was that, just before she explains the pronunciation of her name, she actually tells Voytek, "Call me Ishmael" (Gibson 32). Never having actually read Moby Dick (my high school was rather terrible), I would have just been confused by this statement except that in another of my classes, we just recently read a different novel with a very similar reference.

Well it's been a while since I last posted a response, so here are some thoughts about Pattern Recognition. Two aspects of this which I thought were quite interesting were the ideas of mirror worlds and soul-delay. What struck me as particularly interesting about mirror worlds was that, in a way, I read the book as thought it was set in a mirror world to our own. It is a world we more or less know, but the manner in which Gibson presents it is quite foreign. There are Starbucks on street corners, familiar cities and recognizable brand names are everywhere.

So as much as I enjoyed the book I can't think of anything to add to what I said about it last Monday in class. As much as I would love to scrutinize the mantra "He took a duck in the face at two hundred and fifty knots" I'm finding myself particularly dry on creativity (101). I think it's all been poured into my thesis. I promise I'll have something fascinating to say about Oryx and Crake :-D