The first ten chapters of this book, for me, have been very confusing. Personally i feel that the plot is all over the place and nothing so far seems to be concrete. So far the only thing i have gotten out of this book is the main character Cayce seems to have a problem with the fashion industry but she actually works in the fashion industry. It said that she would only where certain colors and make sure to take the tags of the brands off her clothing. She tries to act like a rebel but she still works for fashion and her job is to see what looks good and stuff like that. The other thing i got out of this was that it deals a lot with material objects and lots and lots of named brands. Basically this isn’t going to be a long thread because im totally confused on what’s happening in this book. Im writing this not only because i have to but because i want to see some feed back on what other people think about the book so we all can try and put something together and all come up with some type of conclusion.
-joe capogrosso
November 30, 2007 at 2:36 am |
I feel similar to the way the thread starter feels. The book arbitrarily adds various characters and instances for now apparent reason. I feel as thought Gibson’s reason for this probably did this to make the story as first person as possible in terms of the way the plot is presented, but at the end of the day it makes the story rather dull and confusing as to what is actually trying to be said throughout the story. Maybe as the book progresses, it’ll become clearer as to the whole message of what Gibson is attempting to say, but as of now it all seems like a blur that leaves the reader confused and annoyed.
-Lowell Bunion
November 30, 2007 at 2:57 am |
I find that the book includes some vocabulary that I’ve seen maybe once in my life (ie. I’ve had to use a dictionary more that once in the first ten chapters). But let me give you a run down as I see it. Cayce’s job is to study popular fashion/culture in the world, in real time and get back to her employers with ideas of recent and upcoming trends so they can keep being edgy/hip/on top/whatever you want to call it. She’s been given the task of finding the maker of some internet footage that’s currently all the rage, Benzon in class described it as the pop culture “holy grail.” Imagine if it was your job to find the guy who invented YTMND.com (not Sean Connery) and pick his brain. She’s fed up with fashion and all things posh because she HAS to be around it and in it all the time in a capacity unlike that of just a consumer. Her constant exposure to it has disenchanted her and it’s possible that she has some inside knowledge of the industry that simply turns her off. And don’t flip over not knowing a lot in the beginning, that’s a typical mystery tool found in a lot of sci-fi writing. And even though “Pattern Recognition” isn’t technically a sci-fi novel, Gibson wrote it like one. You won’t know everything ’til the end(or will you?), that’s what keeps you reading. Sorry, I know this is ridiculously long, but I hope it helps.
-Daniel Hazel
P.S. I speed read, so sorry if I’m completely wrong.
November 30, 2007 at 9:40 am |
I will agree that the plot is basically being given to us pieces by piece, thread by thread, but it is connecting atleast within the first 10 chapters for me. However, we meet a lot of characters within theses 10 chapters and it is hard atleast for me to keep them all straight. Overall, I do like this book and am eager to read on and finish it. I think that Cayce’s job and dislike for fashion is just going to be the tools that are used to push the main plot of the movie clippings. I will give the author a hand for his desciptions of items and locations that really did come alive for me while I was reading. Who knows i could be completely wrong.
~Danny Taylor
November 30, 2007 at 11:56 am |
I feel that this book is very confusing in the sense that once you finally think that you understand something, there is a completely new and equally confusing element thrown in. There was way too much to understand, especially packed into these first ten chapters. I do feel that this books is a very creative and interesting perspective to put on trends and patterns and to see how this book reflects the world that we live in today, given that this was written several years ago. This books exhausts me with the constant metions of material objects. Cayce’s job and the fashion world is pretty much the only thing that I have a grip on in any way. I understand that it is a large prt of the theme of this book, but I feel there could have been another way to go about it. It is somewhat American Psycho-esque but in a different way. I feel just a confused as the other bloggers, so hopefully the story will unfold a little better as I read further.