During in class discussion, we went over the fact that 9/11 happened in the midst of Gibson's writing the book.
Immediately after 9/11, books about the middle east, terrorism, Bin Laden and the like were being thrust onto the market with lightening speed. There seemed to be a plethora of information about this new enemy that until then the public didn't have much of an interest in. That certainly changed.
Gibson could've altered the plot by sending Cayce to Iraq, or one of the 'Stans, even Morocco or Egypt. But we should take note that Cayce is chasing after the maker of something that is rooted in digital technology. Globally, the epicenters of digital technology are in the West and in Asia. In all likelihood, the plot wouldn't necessarily zigzag into the Middle East.
Regardless, such a world-quaking event could not go unmentioned. On September 11, 2001, a new epoch began, birthing a pre and post 9/11 world. Gibson carefully interwove this event into Cayce's life without giving it center stage in the plot. And I say this to his credit; at that moment in history, it would've been very easy for him to go full-tilt in that direction.
In Pattern Recognition's Post-9/11 world, Cayce travels all over the world with relative ease. Granted, we are talking about a fantastical work of fiction so, perhaps it doesn't need to be explained in great detail...But globe trotting on a moment's notice the way Cayce does (New York, London, Japan, Russia...am I leaving some place out???) might not have been so easy in the year or two after 9/11. I recall being told to be at the airport three hours in advance for domestic flights, perhaps longer if one was flying inter-continental. Gibson makes it seem as though she grabs a duffel bag and hails a cab. Boom! She's in Japan!
But those details aren't essential to the story...in fact if Gibson included them, it could slow down the plot to the point of being difficult to tolerate. One mainstay in the plot is her jetlag. Cayce tries to control so much of her life, but she can't control the way "soul delay" hits her "like a hammer". Perhaps through the expression of "soul delay", the reader can group all of the sitting in airports, waiting in long lines, tolerating long flights, and all the other misery that goes along with air travel.
- Aaron Kinchen
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The theme of 9-11 is brought up several times throughout the book, although I am not done the book, I have noticed that there doesn’t seem to be any past mentioned prior to 9-11, which brings up the point Aaron made about there being a pre and post 9-11 world. Instead of directly using 9-11 as a theme by involving the Middle East, he uses it in a different manner, as if the world is beginning again after 9-11. The world is forever changed since that day for many reasons including the disappearance of Cayce’s dad.
ReplyDeleteThere is also an interesting quote about the past and future that Cayce says on page 59, “The future is there looking back at us. Trying to make sense of the fiction we will have become. And from where they are, the past behind us will look nothing at all like the past we imagine behind us now.” I think Cayce is referring to the inability for us to really know what will happen in the future, no one was anticipating 9-11 to happen except the people who did it. Several lines earlier Cayce says “We have only risk management. The spinning of the given moment’s scenarios. Pattern Recognition.” There is no predicting the future and knowing what will be in the past. But we try, and use pattern recognition to predict what will happen, and put people’s mind at ease about what’s to come.
Very nice points! Gibson is indeed using 9/11 in a smart way. He doesn't let the narrative being absorbed by the event. It is a difficult task, particularly because the magnitude of the (media) event has made it difficult for writers to frame it in a literary image. See other attempts at this: Don DeLillo, Falling Man; Claire Messud, The Emperor's Clothes and Jonathan Safran Foer, "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close."
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