Episode 53: Astral Jet Lag: On William Gibson's 'Pattern Recognition'

Weird Studies

Phil Ford and J. F. Martel

Society & Culture, Arts, Philosophy

4.8 • 688 Ratings

🗓️ 14 August 2019

⏱️ 63 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

William Gibson's Pattern Recognition was published in 2003, in the wake of 9/11. You would think that a novel about the early Internet's effects on the collective psyche would feel dated today. But Gibson's insight into the deeper implications of digital culture and soul-rending consumerism are such that we are still catching up with Cayce Pollard, the novel's protagonist, as she journeys into the hypermodern underworld, searching for the secrets of art, time, and death. In this episode, JF and Phil read Pattern Recognition as an exploration of the attention economy, an ascent of the all-seeing pyramid, a subtle rewilding of postmodern culture, and a handbook for the magicians of the future. REFERENCES William Gibson, Pattern Recognition Malcolm Gladwell, "The Coolhunt" Douglas Rushkoff, Present Shock: When Everything Happens Now Alvin and Heidi Toffler, Future Shock Weird Studies Episode 30 -- On Stanley _Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut_ Weird Studies Episode 50 -- Demogorgon: On _Stranger Things_ Austin Osman Spare, The Focus of Life: The Mutterings of AOS Douglas Rushkoff, Program or Be Programmed: Ten Commands for a Digital Age Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Spectrevision Radio
0:02.0	Welcome to Weird Studies, an arts and philosophy podcast with hosts Phil Ford and J.F. Martel.
0:20.0	For more episodes, or to support the podcast,
0:23.3	go to weirdstudies.com. Hi, this is Phil Ford.
0:51.2	Welcome to this week's episode of Weird Studies, where J.F. and I discuss William
0:55.5	Gibson's novel pattern recognition. At first blush, this seems like a novel that isn't weird or
1:01.4	outlandish at all. Its world is a recognizable version of our own, with the same logo-saturated
1:07.6	public spaces and the same distracting play of glittering empty surfaces.
1:13.0	But pattern recognition pushes liquid metal modernity to a far point, where its surfaces
1:18.3	reverse into depths, and its hero, Case Pollard, finds herself tumbling into them, like Alice
1:24.7	in Wonderland, pursuing the secret of an enigmatic work of art.
1:29.2	It's a novel about the attention economy, about a postmodern culture rewilded,
1:34.9	about the vast subtle movements of power at the dizzy reaches above our heads,
1:40.4	about loss and grief, about souls, and about art.
1:45.3	Pattern recognition has a happy ending, but it's not a cop-out or a sop to easy sentiment.
1:50.9	J.F. suggests that it's a novel that asks how art can survive in an era of total commodification,
1:56.4	and by the end of this episode, we are thinking out loud, once again, about the figure of the magician,
2:02.6	who doesn't begrudge whatever system constrains him or her, but remains ever awake within it
2:08.3	and can always find a line of flight within the system, or through it, or around it, or maybe even out of it, altogether.
2:16.5	Before we begin, I'd like to make a pitch for our Patreon.
2:20.6	You know what I'm going to say.
2:22.2	Patreon helps independent, creators stay independent,
	...

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