reading (Pattern Recognition)

I finished "Pattern Recognition" on Wednesday. This book isn't really a mystery and doesn't really flow as a thriller. It feels lost and somewhat listless. For me it really drove home the change in Gibson's themes. I read "Spook Country" a while ago and it felt like a strange departure from the Gibson I was used to, but I wrote it up as a one off. Now going back and reading the first book to take place in that universe (our own, current day, more or less), I have a different perspective.

Reading this book really felt like watching that friend, who was always interesting, fun, and really a cool person to hang out with, slowly become Cool. It's all there: the fashion snobbing, the conspicuous consumption, the overriding theme that money is bloody everything. Even the parts with bit characters who have neat weird obsessions is blotted out by the overriding snobbery. It's a shame because Gibson can still come up with some great bits. But really, why doesn't he just go to a party with all his important people where they can stand around and wank over a fashion mag?

"Have you heard? It's in the stars,
Next July we collide with Mars.
Well, did you evah,
What a swell party, a swell party,
A swelligent, elegant party this is."
-- Cole Porter

33. William Gibson "Pattern Recognition"