“The medium is the message” – Marshall McLuhan“We have no future because our present is too volatile... We have only risk management. The spinning of the given moment’s scenarios. Pattern recognition.” – Herbertus Bigend, Pattern Recognition---Pattern Recognition is the story of an eccentric trend spotter, Cayce Pollard, and her mission to find the latest viral videos clips attracting a cult-like appeal. William Gibson masterfully blends concise and powerful storytelling with present-day reality in a strangely compelling tale that’ll hook you within the first page. What follows is my spoiler free review of the novel and an analysis of its themes and plot devices. I decided to include an analysis since there are so many reviews focused on the “big picture.” In this review, you’ll find both the macro and the micro view of the novel! *Story and at Glance:PR is not long. It’s an extremely quick read and features the short sentence structure Gibson is known for utilizing. Shotgun sentences fired in rapid succession, their aim, true, on point and efficient. Word choice is paramount as the small sentences convey images and ideas far beyond their textual representations. The pacing of the novel is as quick as a simple adventure read but PR is so much more than that. Cayce lives label-free, practically allowing things to happen to her instead of taking an active role in her life. Pattern Recognition isn’t just about the big picture. It’s about Cayce accepting her past, breaking the bubble of isolation that’s surrounded her most of her adult life. In a world where adventure awaits around every corner – a world of hidden codes, where corporate espionage runs wild – Cayce is forced to make tough choices, both during the course of her investigation as well as her personal life.Cayce is deeply involved in the “footage” sub-culture. The novel spans multiple countries as she taps her F:F:F network - Fetish:Footage:Forum – in hopes of tracking down the clips creator. Cayce is tasked with piecing together the mystery and delivering her findings to Hubertus Bigend, CEO of the advertising and marketing firm Blue Ant – a figure that hires the “cool hunter” (Cayce) to uncover more details about the viral video clip. He’s the key facilitator in PR, thrusting Cayce into the dangerous world of ancillary characters using marketing and advertising to sway hearts and minds. Cayce is teamed up with Boon Chu, a security guru and former failed entrepreneur, to go on a country-hopping quest. The mission will threaten to upend Cayce’s life and force her to take a close look at her chosen profession and way of thinking. As you’ve no doubt read, 9/11 and apopthenia play a huge role in PR. Cayce’s own feelings are brought to the foreground as she is forced to deal with her past and – connected with the 9/11 attacks - uncover secrets in a world of criminals and spies. Gibson believes that 9/11 is one of many nodal points in history in which people began making connections and patterns out of seemingly random things (such as the “it’s-really-like” phenomena Cayce notes upon going to a new city). Of course apopthenia has existed long before this sad historic event but the post-9/11 climate is the focus of the story and serves as a foundation for an excellent tale. But as Cayce’s investigation progresses she’ll have to answer the big question: are her experiences apopthetic and a result of past or are they really connected? How 9/11 and an “apopthenia bias” relates to Cayce’s past and her addiction for finding “footage” is a critical element to the narrative and is explored completely in Pattern Recognition. In that sense, Cayce – flawlessly designed – grows as the novel progresses. Changes to her personality and ways of thinking are deep and intrinsic and you will be satisfied. If you’re concerned with how well apopthenia is explored (and if you’ll “get it,” or think it’s worth reading about), don’t be: Gibson does an excellent job of exploring this phenomenon and relating it to the story. **Protagonist, Structure and Themes:Cayce is an extremely interesting character with complex thoughts and actions. She’s so “real” that many of her thoughts and actions come across as contradictory to one another. But unlike novels that portray characters poorly, this contradiction is intended. She’s seriously allergic to fashion and labels but is surrounded by them through working freelance for advertising companies. She has huge contracts with major companies but prefers to live her own life like a shadow, as little intervention as possible. Living in the now, Cayce is disconnected from both her past and unsure of her future.From early on we learn that Cayce is strongly against conventional corporate environments and labels. She’s a 100%Gibson Rebel, not dissimilar to his cyberpunk characters. Cayce takes this eccentricity further by scratching out the brand and designer names on her own clothing. Her clothing – which the reader may describe as “almost stylish” in a rebellious way – is meant to be anti-fashionable, another contradiction Gibson handles well. In Cayce’s thoughts regarding Andrei Tarkovsky’s The Stalker (early on in the book), for example, her mindset is described flawlessly as: “not one of those who think that much will be gained by the analysis of the maker’s imagined influences.” She takes an object in and can see beyond subjective analysis; she can sense the inherent meaningfulness of the images themselves and their ability to gain attraction (the “cool” factor, the thing she searches for during her day job; the next big thing, critical in trademarking).Cayce is more of a sociologist or social psychologist than she realizes. Her “abilities” are tied to her understanding of how people interact and what they desire. Cayce may take a passenger’s role in the world, allowing things to happen to her instead of taking the reins, but she’s a master passenger, foreseeing speed bumps and points of interest along the way.Cayce “likes Pilates because it isn’t, in the way she thinks of yoga, as meditative.” In another instance, the Shinx position she’s practicing is described as having the following mentality: “[y]ou do not get there by thinking about not thinking”. The importance of the quotes shines through when considering Cayce’s take on things of value in present day life. She believes such things require no deep meditative thought, they simply are or aren’t. When Cayce rates a piece of art or marketing design, she doesn’t “think” about the item’s meaning, she says “Yes” or “No” on intuition, her “cool” barometer is a mystery even to her. Everything Cayce thinks or does is bound to this structure. She is, in essence, a neutral or passive observer in all things.Philosophy and or cinema majors will instantly note that Pattern Recognition has a strong element of self-reflexivity, a commentary on the media as a whole, a story referring to itself. This is obvious because Gibson refers to Cayce’s anti-art/fashion/logical thinking mindset and yet he makes this a novel, clearly wanting the reader to think critically or at least acknowledge some "deeper" ideas. Cayce becomes “real” in the eyes of the reader because her method is flawed, her pre-conceived notions of film and art on a meta-level actually requires deeper thought and reflection. She battles this during the course of PR, growing as a character.The Cayce character plays into the overall theme and story of Pattern Recognition: the past can be portrayed in any way, making reality malleable and the future unknowable. The modern world in which we live is completely volatile.In one indirect reference to the transient nature of history, Cayce touches a replacement jacket (the original had a hole in it); the text describes her going to touch the non-existent hole only to find, “history erased via the substitution of an identical object” (Pg. 194). Finely crafted sentences convey powerful ideas. Other ideas expressed bring up interesting questions for the reader: what does art mean or say about the subject matter? Does it stand by itself, devoid of introspective thought? Is video clips part of a greater sequence? Is it part of a greater historical commentary? What does the text say of our relationship with the media, news, advertising and media? Or maybe this deeper analysis is yet another example of apopthenia? Gibson jests about this on interviews, clearly giving a nod to Pattern Recognition’s overarching themes while letting the novel stand on its own with little "revelations" beyond what is written. Since Pattern Recognition is so well written - its ideas expressed so clearly - I find all of the answers in the novel to be satisfactory. ***Conclusion:The characters of Pattern Recognition are just as complex and interesting as Cayce Pollard. From the antique computer guy Voytek Biroshak to Hobbs Baranov, a retired math whiz with connections to the NSA. All of them receive considerable depth and seem believable. While Gibson’s previous work was futuristic, this contemporary work manages to pull off high-tech with reality. If you’re at all interested in the media’s influence, marketing, espionage, steganography, codes, and the history of antiquities, you’ll love PR.Pattern Recognition is a terrific standalone novel that takes place in a world that mirrors our own. Not only does it have an excellent and intriguing story, it has speculative themes that serve as critiques to the instant gratification world in which we live. In a world in which anything can go viral, advertising and media outlets really do control all that we see and hear, but are those their associations real? What gives them power? This novel will get you thinking and entertain you all at the same time.A huge fan of William Gibson’s work and all things cyberpunk (including the dozens of spin-off series and role playing games like CP2020 and SR), I’ve got to admit that Pattern Recognition tops anything he’s ever written. While I’m a bigger fan of reading about dystopian, high-tech futures than the present, this novel paints such an amazing picture of the world that I can’t deny its strength as a classic work fiction. Even if you aren’t into over analyzing Gibson tales (like yours truly), you’ll probably love this highly regarded novel. It’s extremely insightful, smart, fast paced, and easily worth the rating of 5/5.
I am an excellent reader, as I know many of my friends on goodreads are, but I don’t think there’s enough appreciation of reading as a skill in our world. We take it for granted, those of us who are “literate,” and because it is the base of the things that we learn, we tend to ignore those who excel. Of course, many of those who read well are told they “analyze things too much” or that they “dig too deep” by those who might be solid readers, but probably don’t have serious reading chops. I think of it this way: the critics of analysis are the Sunday co-ed softball players who enjoy the game, like to escape for a few hours of exercise and fun, and like to hit the occasional home run or catch a tricky pop fly. And there’s nothing wrong with that. But for all the thousands of recreational ball players, there are a handful of professional ball players, whose skills are ever so much better (and whose skills stretch from Single A to the Big Leagues). They are the ones who get more from a hit, or a perfectly executed throw; they’re the ones who will stretch a double into a triple; they’re the ones who will take a fastball in the back rather than bail out of the box. And as readers go, they’re the ones who make the connections, who read the patterns that most people don't. They're the ones who analyze too much.My reading of Pattern Recognition puts me in the category of the pro ball players. I loved the book on its own merits, and I know that I was able to read the merits in a way that others won’t be able to access. Many will, of course, and they will love what they've found, but there's plenty there for those who won't. And there is certainly nothing wrong with whatever reading those recreational players come up with.Why do I feel this way? How can I say these things? Because I didn’t just read this book, I created it as I turned every page. I was part of the process; I wasn’t just reading someone else’s finished process; I was the final important element of the patterns William Gibson was laying out for connection. The book needed me, and those like me, to be complete. Every time this book is read by a talented reader, it is being written.So there’s no point in really talking about the book's particulars. I’m not going to summarize the plot or point out specific moments of prose brilliance. I am not going to discuss the connections in the book. I am not going to talk about how personal this was to read. Just read it yourself. Make your own connections. Become part of the process of Pattern Recognition and let yourself analyze it, let yourself dig deep. And if you can’t do those things, you should still read it because I’m guessing it’s good enough for every level of play.
What do You think about Pattern Recognition (2005)?
This is a little different for Gibson. It's not really a future setting, but it drips with the usual Gibson sentence fragments and whimsy. Overall, the story is there and it has a beginning a middle and an end, but to be honest, the book lacks in a particular quality - there's nothing really at stake.The story is fairly linear, and focuses on the main character, Casey Pollard. She's what is called a 'cool hunter'. She divines trends and evaluates logo work. She has a literal allergy to fashion as well. The Michelin Man and Tommy Hilfiger logos sent her into bouts of nausea.This strangely allergenic woman is also a follower of 'the footage' - a series of seemingly randomly released video snippets, anonymously found on the internet every few days or weeks. It's this footage that gets her into a strange world of ex-intelligence community elite and other fellow followers of the footage.She's been hired by a very big marketing guru, Hubertas Bigend, who wishes to know the origin of the footage as it is the most amazing marketing phenomena he's ever seen and sets Cayse running.The book has all sorts of good conventions, a very cat-and-mouse spy chic going on, though none of the participants are actively spies for any government any longer. As mentioned before, the problem lies in the fact that nothing is really at stake. While Cayse moves from place to place and meets interesting people and the story of the footage becomes progressively stranger, there's nothing that ever really hangs in the balance for anyone else than Cayse. It's not a bad read, but it's not Gibson's best. I'd recommend it for anyone who is a Gibson stylist or for people with a thing for stories about spies (or ex-spies).
—Monk
Set about a year after 9/11, this book is closer to thriller than SF - indeed, I'm not sure I would count it as SF at all. Cayce is a kind of marketing design savant, able to spot by instinct when a brand or logo would be successful. Logos provoke a kind of allergic reaction in her. She's also one of a growing group obsessed with "the footage" - compelling fragments of film released anonymously onto the internet. Cayce frequents a forum that analyses every frame of the footage, debating clothing history, possible meaning, the likelihood of completed film, and why so many viewers are so powerfully affected by the footage. Then she is hired by a very rich marketing mogul, who wants her to track down who is releasing the footage.This is a story about internet zeitgeist, about forum friendships, about the psychology of advertising and viral video - and also of the changing of eras, as the internet increasingly erases the lines between borders. It is an old world slipping away and a new forming.It's also that moment you have, when you're watching Grand Designs, where the host - after for some time doubting whether or not this week's house owner's architectural ambitions will work - smiles as the music cranks up and he starts extolling the virtues of yet another glass and polished steel box, and you the viewer, without a spare million pounds to throw away on titanium countertops and 'integrity', mutter: "What fucking wank" and change channels.The beginning of Pattern Recognition, particularly, is a morass of design-speak that is difficult to swallow. I kept grimacing whenever Cayce would talk so passionately about the soul-less imitation that is Tommy Hilfiger, or buy Levi 501s and then have every recognisable feature removed. This is someone allergic to branding, but who is deeply into fashion. But, still, putting aside my vast disinterest in designer clothing, Cayce was likeable enough, in a kind of anxious but determined way, and I was as curious as any about the explanation for the footage.I won't go into that particular plot resolution. It was neither entirely disappointing, nor exciting and powerful. Though the relative fade of interest at the ending is also to do with Cayce's role in the plot.There are quite a few women in this story, but all the powerful actors are men. Only Cayce and one other woman (who is your standard eviljealousbitch) have real plot importance in the efforts to solve the mystery. And the mystery solving is not done by Cayce. Oh, she technically does so, by being the physical actor, but the solving is all coordinated by men. Man 1 hires her. Man 2 gives her a clue to follow up and sets up a meeting. She meets up with Man 3 to get that information. Man 4 physically helps her out. Man 5 tells her how to pressure Man 6 to get another bit of information, and a favour related to Daddy is involved. Woman antagonist gets in her way a couple of times throughout. Man 2 shows up for another rescue, while Man 3 is dismissed as not being competent enough, and Man 1 gets what he wanted all along. Some women are artistic and protected in the background. Cayce's brand-sensitivity seems to contribute nothing to the resolution.The end, where Cayce simply bleats reaction to various men explaining things to her (after being incredibly naive and stupid so that she is put into danger) is particularly frustrating, since she started out as a more interesting character.Anyway, the concept drew me in and I was drawn through by wanting to know the explanation, but definitely not on my re-read pile. [I'll also need to redefine my definition of science fiction, it seems, since there is nothing in this story that is not contemporary, yet this was a finalist for numerous SF awards.]
—Andrea
I think it's a little odd that, for the most part, I'm ambivalent toward Neuromancer but flat out hated Pattern Recognition (I've always been a Count Zero aficionado). You can tell that Gibson is trying to find a new voice for himself (now that we live in the future that he created). I think he did a much better job in Spook Country, once he had a better idea of what exactly his new style should sound like.
—Michael
