I was just thinking about the discussion of how Cayce does or doesn't fit the role of the female in science-fiction in respect to how things happen to her vs her happening to things. I want to point out the fact that she transcends these categorizations in her professional life. On one level, she very much makes the world revolve around her, as just a simple yes or no qualifies the value of a Logo into which a lot of time and money has been put. However, it isn't quite her that does those things.

In a world of billboards and ad spots, and more to the point, a world of product placement, growing ever more subtle, as demonstrated by Trans in Pattern Recognition, it seems that there’s no way to understand Western culture without being so thoroughly exposed to advertising that corporate mores don’t draw one in to a world where one is an object of the market. Who then, has the ability to objectively observe markets in action without abstracting them to the degree of economics?

Upon reading William Gibson's novel "Pattern Recognition", I noticed that the main character Cayce's life is sort-of divided into two different "realms". The first is reality, or better put her life outside in the city meeting people, working, discussing trends, etc. The second, and the one that caught my interest, is her life and interaction on the forum, Fetish:Footage:Forum, which almost ends up being another world for Cayce and the other major posters.

A quick internet search revealed to me that Pattern Recognition, the eighth novel by William Gibson, was the first to be on the New York Times Bestsellers list, and the first to be set in a contemporary world instead of a fantastical one. The increased overall popularity of the more recent William Gibson novels ( as opposed to Neuromancer, whose popularity was more of a word-of-mouth cult hit ) may be due to this; however, speaking personally, I found the contemporary world of Pattern Recognition less compelling.

So, I've been reading Pattern Recognition, and I've noticed that Gibson writes with what I perceive to be a British tone, with British vernacular - "bin it" rather than "throw it away," "come round" instead of "stop by" or "go over," casual use of the often-still-forbidden-in-America "C-word", stuff like that. However, he is apparently from Vancouver. Is he affecting a British tone because it's set in London, or do Canadians speak/write more British than American? It seems a really silly/trivial question, but it's been bothering me and I'm supercurious now.