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So I read this whole
book and I'm still not really sure what pattern recognition is. Granted
I got like a C- in calculus in high school, so I'm certainly not the
foremost authority on anything math, science or logic related. What
I do know is that this is one of the nerdiest books I've ever read.
It's like Bret
Easton Ellis meets Haruki
Murakami. Apparently Gibson is the father of cyberpunk. I couldn't
tell you what that is exactly, other than to liken it (in my limited
understanding) to movies like Blade
Runner. You have this kind of weird futuristic society with tons
of scientific advances in the machine world (robots and lasers and
crap) but it's a world that is generally rotting from its organic
core. In any case Gibson usually writes in this future-based genre,
but has apparently chosen this book in which to discuss the present.
My one issue with this kind of writing is that the present is only
the present when the author is actually writing the book. Now, three
years after its publication (2005), I'm stuck reading about Hotmail
accounts and what sounds like dial-up modems and bulletin board type
sites that I don't recall seeing since the mid-nineties. I remember
getting the same feeling after reading Kurt
Andersen's book, Turn of the Century, at least a year
or so after the turn of the century. I knew that a year or two on
the shelf would make the thing staler than a piece of un-Ziploced
matzo. Gibson's book certainly isn't in that territory, and unlike
Andersen's novel has a deeper message to convey, but it's always hard
to write plots that involve technology and are set in the present.
The book is really about the difference between real and fake, art
and artifice. And how, in this day and age of instant gratification
and global distribution, that those lines can so easily be blurred
and/or destroyed. The narrative revolves around our protagonist, Cayce
Pollard, who is a freelance "coolhunter," which basically means that
she consults for companies about their logos and trademarks. She's
called upon to do this because she's actually physically allergic
to labels and physical manifestations of marketing stratagem. It's
ultimately kind of a silly plot device, but it serves its purpose
in pointing out the way that we are always looking for new and more
invasive ways of drilling our product into the public consciousness.
This allergy makes her hyper-sensitive to what will and won't work
in the marketing and advertising realm. She is also all consumed by
these film snippets that show up on the Internet. The snippets are
mysterious, as nobody knows their origin, and there is a dedicated
band of chasers who get together on bulletin boards to go back and
forth about their theories on the film's origins. The buzz and chase
of these films is pure in the sense that nobody is trying to harness
their power, but are genuinely interested in the message they are
trying to convey. So in Cayce's roll as a consultant to the conglomerate
Blue Ant, its owner Hubertus gives her a new assignment to go out
and find the maker of these films. He is interested in using their
power and marketing appeal and potential to push on some of his corporate
clients. Cayce reluctantly takes on the job, but her search is fueled
less by her assignment than it is her wish to realize something that
she considers beyond the fray. Her search takes her to multiple countries,
and through many twists and turns, as she doesn't know who to trust
and who has the info she needs to finally track down the maker. Ultimately
she needs to figure out what she's going to do with the info if she
finds it. What if she discovers that the films are indeed true, pure
art? Does she turn the info over to Blue Ant and forever taint the
one thing in which she found pleasure? Is she afraid that she will
finally find the maker and it'll turn out to be just another manufactured
marketing ruse? Is her missing father (a national security guy who
disappeared mysteriously on 9/11) somehow involved in the films, and
are they something that he has created to talk to her from the great
beyond--or wherever the American agency has hidden him? The challenges
for Cayce are not only physical, but also philosophical. In a life
and society filled with contradiction, can she find something that
rises above the nonsense? There is a little bit of John
Grisham feel to this thing on the surface (not that I've read
anything of his since The Chamber), but with quite a bit
more depth. The message about our superficiality isn't exactly subtle,
but it certainly gets the point across. I wouldn't call this a masterwork
by any means, and isn't necessarily my thing, but I'm glad I read
it for the sheer entertainment value and the genre-expansion module
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