Wasn't Pattern Recognition just amazing? I read it just before christmas pretty much in one afternoon and evening. I have rarely felt such kinship with a female protagonist. I say kinship for lack of a better term and because it isn't about liking her or even about me being like her (I don't think I am), but getting inside her head wasn't like visiting alien territory. I felt at home there, which I thought was rather interesting considering the larger themes of the book (on which I thought he riffed beautifully). The way Gibson described the displacement that you feel when you move between countries resonated with me a lot. It's the little, subtly different things that mount up and can leave you feeling exhausted and overwrought and in need of sitting quietly in a room with not much in it, doing nothing for quite a while. Being very observant, noticing things a lot is as much a curse as it is useful. Being in familiar surroundings allows you to turn certain parts of your brain into standby and interact with the world around you on autopilot, which can be quite a relief. Go somewhere strange, and within a short time a light switch being at the wrong height on the wall so that you can't operate it with your elbow while carrying a tea-tray can bring you close to tears. I also thought that the online community that sprang up around the footage felt very real. I'd like to say more, but I gotta go and pick Adam up from werk. :-)
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Date: 2005-01-07 04:16 pm (UTC)The way Gibson described the displacement that you feel when you move between countries resonated with me a lot. It's the little, subtly different things that mount up and can leave you feeling exhausted and overwrought and in need of sitting quietly in a room with not much in it, doing nothing for quite a while. Being very observant, noticing things a lot is as much a curse as it is useful. Being in familiar surroundings allows you to turn certain parts of your brain into standby and interact with the world around you on autopilot, which can be quite a relief. Go somewhere strange, and within a short time a light switch being at the wrong height on the wall so that you can't operate it with your elbow while carrying a tea-tray can bring you close to tears.
I also thought that the online community that sprang up around the footage felt very real.
I'd like to say more, but I gotta go and pick Adam up from werk. :-)