Help Wanted

Sorry to post this on our blog, but does anyone have the Professor's e-mail address? I tried to e-mail him but to no avail. I have received a message failure notification and I'm wondering whether I have the correct e-mail address.

Thanks Guys,

-Perry

Dead or Alive?

For me it was a surprising ending to Platform. To think that a terrorist attack was bound to happen is true. But for Michel to return to the "Scene of the crime," that being the place where he lost Valerie is surprising. As Michel explains he has pretty much given up on life. His catatonic state and mental disjunction did not prevent him from recover. He could still see what was going on, such as his visits from Jean-Yves and Marie-Jeanne. He seemed to be living in a surreal existence which for some reason felt to me as it was Michel, pre-Valerie. If he was "Paralyzed" by the terrorist attack the lost of Valerie ended up "Killing him." It is a tragic "Loss of life" but despite losing Valerie he felt loved finally recognizing as the saying goes "Tis better to have loved..." It is as if Houellebecq already wants us to forget about the book and move on to the next one, as he has.

Conversely, the "Non-innocence" of the victims does not appear to have numbed the libido of pot-bellied western men. As evidenced by the Irishman's experiences with Englishmen and Frenchmen, the global fantasy lives on.

What's Your Pleasure?

Michell Houellebecq has a palpable talent to alarm you. I use palpable because this strategy entails most things that are tangible that you can feel and touch. They are not all of a sexual nature either but involve other creatures. It is a kind of literary pestilence that he uses to disgust or attract the reader. At the same time the reader is forced to make a decision about what kind of writer Houellebecq is. Also, you are encouraged to dislike him by this same method of writing. The writing is in your face with a cake mixer full of shit. Either you like him or you don’t. But even if you don’t like him you are forced to laugh at some of the absurdity that he uses. Are they coming from him or the protagonist? Who can tell?

On page 50 he reveals how “It was just the right time for a cockroach to make an appearance in my life.” Then he proceeds to juxtapose their mating customs with ours. As if he has been studying them over time and simultaneously comparing us to cockroaches. In the next paragraph he “Pays homage to Oon and all Thai prostitutes.” His way of shocking and upsetting you but also keeping you interested because you have no idea what he’ll say next. On page 54 he talks about how farmers “Desperate violence” was displayed by “Gutting pigs” and “Dumping tons of slurry” in front of Palais Bourbon and Esplanade des Invalides. So it should not surprise us when he meets Valerie, the one girl he likes and calls her a “Slut.” On page 56, as if trying to confirm this he talks about Valerie’s lesbian tryst with Berenice at age fourteen.

I find it ironic that Houellebecq’s voice is one that does not allow you as a reader to “Relax” and “Take pleasure” in his words. Whether you enjoy his writing style or not, as the reader and having purchased the book you feel you are “Entitled” to said pleasure. And yet as you read you are kicked off balance and must be “On your guard” for the next expletive or “Pussy” that he’s about to spit out. Simultaneously ironic, is that people who patronize resorts or patronize countries that offer “Sexual tourism” in their repertoire feel they are entitled to satisfaction as well. This evidenced by the slogan used, page 256 “The right to pleasure.” Stating that the use of this phrase “The right” hits a nerve with western civilization and its foundation of hypocritical and democratic tenets. The other exploits the misfortune of one in the name of Hedonism and Republicanism.

What lies Beneath

I find Houllebecq's writing style to be very honest and unapologetic. I find it comforting to know that someone is being curt for the reasons of full disclosure. Often times we find writer's (and people alike) dancing around words just to be overly illustrious for literary sake.

It may not be what you want to hear or may be too much information, but the truth of the matter is that there are people in this world who think exactly like this. How can we be honest with each other if we do not allow an open platform (no pun intended) to express everyone's views? Personally, I like to take part in a the whole plethora of mindsets whether they be- timid, appropriate, lewd, crude, eloquent, and so on. I think art inspires, but it is important that art be controversial as well. Controversy gets topics of interest or of non-interest stirring so we can pick apart the psychology of our society.

Houllebecq's protagonist has lived his life seemingly in his head and out of his pants. He finds himself seeking visceral gratifications that he can grasp emotionally. He hasn't had the time or the gumption to further analyze his unwillingness to do so. Hopefully, by venturing abroad he will start to meditate on these issues... we will have to see.

The Platform

I finished The Platform this weekend, and I was really surprised by its ending.  The novel came full circled with Michel ending up in exactly the type of place and situation that it seemed his destiny to inhabit at the start of the novel.  His relationship with Valerie was the only thing that brought any fire or color to his world, and it appears that her death has left him just as gray and pointless as he was before, if not more so for losing his enthusiasm for the female body.  He has no ambition, no real desire, nothing left.  If the novel is centered around the theme of love, what is Houellebecq saying about love? 

I also found the idea that it is Michel's suggestions put into practice that "explode" the novel very shocking.  He is a character with no real life of his own, and it is odd that his observations of humanity become integrated into cultivating a market as a part of the capitalist system.  Is Houellebecq making a statement about the "Westernization" of sexual tourism?  Without a doubt it is already a part of the capitalist system, but is the world ready for it to become a large-scale mainstream operation?  

I’ve been thinking about yesterday’s class and how we discussed the overall theme of globalization and its portrayal in Pattern Recognition in different ways but mainly through cyberspace. That theme is pretty obvious when you think about how so much of the communication in the book is through email or blogs. The footage is discussed on the blog, Cayce uses email to contact the maker of the footage etc. Because this was the central theme I liked how the last chapter of the book was called mail, you find out what is going on in everyone’s lives through emails. We find out that Cayce’s phobia is gone through the email with her therapist etc. This seemed a bit predictable but fitting that the theme was cyberspace.

Gibson also described things in a technology/cyberspace/digital way. On page 187 (paperback) Cayce is describing how Marina looks, “She looks like, Cayce decides, like a prop from one sequel or another of The Matrix; if her boobs were bigger she could get work on the covers of role-playing games for adolescent boys of any age whatever.” Also the character that Parkaboy and Darryl make up, Keiko, is digitalized, she’s a digitally made Japanese schoolgirl. These are just other ways Gibson tied in his theme of cyberspace.

Michel Houellebecq -- literature and insolence

Please read Julain Barnes's review essay of The Platform published in the New Yorker:

http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2003/07/07/030707crbo_books

You should also post comments about your reaction to the first chapters of this book. Remember that you need to post at least once a week to get full credit for the blog.

Blue Ant

While reading Pattern Recognition, the name of Bigend’s Blue Ant struck out at me. Although I didn’t know what a blue ant was at the time, it seemed like a peculiar name that Gibson deliberately chose. At the beginning of the novel on page 6, when Blue Ant is first introduced to the reader, Gibson’s description of this company as a, “Relatively tiny in terms of permanent staff, globally diluted, more post geographic than multinational, the agency has from the beginning billed itself as a high-speed, low drag life-form in an advertising ecology of lumbering herbivores. Or perhaps as some non-carbon-based life-form, entirely sprung from the smooth and ironic brow of its founder, Hubertus Bigend, a nominal Belgian who looks like Tom Cruise on a diet of virgins’ blood and truffled chocolates.” at first, sounded like an interesting stylistic writing approach that Gibson used in describing this company but when I ‘wiki-ed’ what a blue ant actually was, I realized that Gibson was in fact, literally describing was a blue ant was! The blue ant, as Wiki has defined, is actually a wasp that is about 1 inch in length, and is a wingless and ground dwelling parasite that hunts its prey (crickets) by paralyzing it then laying its eggs inside its victim (while it’s still alive) so that when the larva hatch, it has a source of food readily available. The contrasting images of Bigend’s Blue Ant and the blue ant are very clear. Both are described as small sized, both are situated in an ecology of lumbering herbivores in which they prey and both are described to have eerily emerged from a physical body with a suggested image of a gruesome devouring of its victims’ bodies.

-Haeji

Jameson on Pattern Recognition

Fredric Jameson, the well-known Marxist literary critic, has written a short article about Pattern Recognition. This is the link:

http://newleftreview.org/A2472

Please copy+ paste in a word doc. in order to print.

Cayce n' Russia

It seems that Gibson is trying to steer our attention towards Russia. By having Cayce "Globe-trotting" and ending up in Russia he seems to be trying to "Revive" interest in Russia. It seems almost nostalgic how he refers to Russia's gloomy side in a very "Renaissance" manner. Recalling how dark, dismal and "Shitty" its brown and grey colors appeared. "A brown you can smell." How visual is that? He talks about how Cayce's cab drives under a Prada logo while billboards of "Antique, (Nostalgic) Socialist Realist style "Flat reds and whites and grays overshot with the black of absolute authority," pun intended. Gibson is giving a look into how Russia is trying to "Re-enter" this network we call globalization, exorcising her from her very communist past. Gibson does this in a sensory way achieving it with color and semiotics. On page 272, (Hardcover) Gibson has Cayce describe her surroundings. Telling us her hotel room looks like a "Western hotel room from the eighties," how "The tiles are three shades of brown," and there are signs claiming this is "Disinfekted" and that one saying "Visit the Bisniz Sentr." Gibson shows us how, in a disjointed and comical way Russia is approaching this effort.

One other thing I noticed is that even though Russia is NOT the "Mirror-world." Cayce seems comfortable in it despite her acute sensitivity. On page 275 Cayce says how Moscow is a "Dressy city" and in some way she wouldn't care if she stayed there long. Cayce is almost relishing the fact that it is not a "Mirror-world" place. She even decides to wear make-up and doesn't mind "Playing the part" of an "Obsure sub-NPR cultural radio operation." This symbolically shows a progression in Cayce's character. She doesn't seem afraid since she is approaching closure regarding the footage aaand her father. And also how Russia (Which has a mafia to boot) is progressing towards globalization. Though it seems Gibson has never been to Russia.

Gibson and 9/11

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

Devices

William Gibson employs at least two interesting ideas as literary devices to keep us curious and keep the wheels spinning in his pattern. He uses the idea of the "Mirror-world" to keep us interested. Gibson is leaving it up to the reader to see if this is a detail that we can use to aid us in deciphering what the footage means. Gibson mentions the real as "Unreal" meaning the "Mirror-world" is a reflection of Cayce's world but not actually Cayce's world. In addition, methodically peppering the story with phrases like "Mirror-world traffic" and "Mirror-world mode" gives the chance to follow her with this issue of connection and disconnection in her travels. Calling it a "Mirro-world" gives Cayce some comfort because she is always traveling or disconnected from the things she's familiar with. The issue of "Soul delay" is another thing Gibson employs. For instance on page 120 and 126, (Hardcover.) Cayce says: She imagines her soul bobbing back at Heathrow and later adding soul delay coming from a novel angle. It adds to the mysticism of who Cayce really is since has issues regarding repression, making her more "Like" us. But also it adds another dimension literally and figuritively to hers and the world of Pattern Recognition. This two traits offer us a glimpse into what Cayce may be like with her mystic beliefs of real/unreal and connetion/disconnection. They offer the reader options with which to connect to Cayce and follow the plot. In turn it may help the reader journey with Cayce in her quest to find the true meaning of these video segments and get her life back "In time."

Some thoughts on Cayce's phobia

In class we've mentioned Cayce's phobia, the fear and anxiety that is caused by her exposure to labels and trademarks.  While there has been some debate about whether Cayce actually has a phobia,  as we move along in the reading there can be no doubt that it is in fact a phobia.  I did some looking into what makes fear a phobia and what the causes may be.  Web4health.info describes a phobia as "extreme fear, a disrupting, fear-mediated avoidance that is disproportionate to the danger of the feared object or situation."  It is pretty obvious that Cayce experiences a disproportionate adverse reaction to the "danger" of labels and logos.  Her fear is also disrupting: it causes her to avoid certain stores and streets, and even causes her physical sickness; for example, when Dorotea "accidentally" shows Cayce the wrong logo, she becomes "unsteady" and has to repeat a mantra that usually helps her to calm down.  

Something that I believe would be a good starting point for a discussion about this is Freud's theory about what causes a phobia.  According to Freud, phobias are a defense against anxiety produced by repressed impulses.  In order not to deal with the repressed conflict, the person avoids the object or situation.  I would argue that Cayce's phobia is largely caused by the self-repression she engages in with regards to her father's disappearance on 9/11.  Cayce does not want to deal with the grief and the questions that this situation brings up, which is obvious in her reluctance to open e-mails from her mother, who claims to be able to decipher messages from Cayce's father, Win.  Cayce acts similarly regarding these emails as she does to her trademark/label phobia.  She repeats her mantra and closes her eyes, bracing herself for the unpleasant situation.  This connection may be more obvious as you read further in the book.  What does everyone think?