Crake constructs a new genetically engineered human race to live more "in harmony" with the earth and each other by removing the human propensity for violence, meat-eating, religion, etc. etc. Unfortunately, a lot of those are a more intrinsic to the human makeup than Crake originally guessed. The Crakers are alone, in a world they can no longer understand now that Crake has taken science away from them. The only connection they have with the old world is Snowman, so naturally they go to him for answers.

I'm taking my second pass on Gibson.

Also, how awesome is watching Battlestar Galactica for class? I'm definitely not going to make it through four seasons, but I'm pretty hooked...

I thought one of the most interesting bits of Pattern Recognition was the way people's online friendships worked out - what with Parkaboy/Cayce and Judy/Taki eventually hooking up in the real world based on affections that were developed almost exclusively through online chatting. Obviously, this stuff says a lot about how Gibson sees the world of 2002 and the relation of technology in it to human interactions.

I thought one of the most interesting bits of Pattern Recognition was the way people's online friendships worked out - what with Parkaboy/Cayce and Judy/Taki eventually hooking up in the real world based on affections that were developed almost exclusively through online chatting. Obviously, this stuff says a lot about how Gibson sees the world of 2002 and the relation of technology in it to human interactions.

One thing I found interesting about Pattern Recognition--especially as it includes a world of screen names--is the use of names. Obviously we touched on Cayce in class, but only briefly. What struck me most about Cayce was that, just before she explains the pronunciation of her name, she actually tells Voytek, "Call me Ishmael" (Gibson 32). Never having actually read Moby Dick (my high school was rather terrible), I would have just been confused by this statement except that in another of my classes, we just recently read a different novel with a very similar reference.

In a world of billboards and ad spots, and more to the point, a world of product placement, growing ever more subtle, as demonstrated by Trans in Pattern Recognition, it seems that there's no way to understand Western culture without being so thoroughly exposed to advertising that corporate mores don't draw one in to a world where one is an object of the market. Who then, has the ability to objectively observe markets in action without abstracting them to the degree of economics?