Pattern Recognition by Gibson is a modernest look into our interest into trends. The story follows Cayce Pollard the "cool hunter" as she investigates the trends in a series of internet videos and tries to find out who created them ( or a way for her boss to capitalize on the mass market ) This book is very different from Neuromancer which I read by Gibson a long time ago. Although I find the plot interesting, the fact that all these modern idols are so commonplace today, it leaves the imagination a bit dry. Neuromancer in the 80s was completely revolutionary in its predictions of the future. Pattern Recognition on the other hand feels less molded in the what could be, commenting on the what already is post 9-11. With all the travel, it has a touch of James Bond-esc feel as Cayce travels and the Scifi-esc inserts from the EVP kept me interested through the story. However Gibsons use of language creates a bit of a blockage, requiring constant internet searches or dictionary lookups to understand his context. Unusual as it is, this book questions more to how we look cynically at our past, where as Gibson is best known as the creator of "cyberspace" and predicting the future.
As far as "blogs" the influence my daily life, I frequent www.polycount.com Digital artists however usually dont spend as much time in blogs as they do in Forums where a plethora of users post and discuss. This can be akin to Cayce's use of chatrooms or the mass exchange of information in the late 90s during the big boom of chat. Nowadays people tend to meet and exchange through social media sites such as facebook, however in the late 90s, pre-myspace, the experience of the chat soley based on who was online. I feel that we are moving today into a archived world where the moment isn't exactly necessary and conversations, information and exchange happen not only at a pace that doesn't have to live in the instantaneousness, but will be displayed for all others to read long after the conversation has closed.
No comments:
Post a Comment