Pattern Recognition is a novel by
science fiction writer
William Gibson published in 2003. Set in August and September 2002, the story follows
Cayce Pollard, a 32-year-old marketing consultant who has a psychological sensitivity to corporate symbols. The action takes place in
London,
Tokyo, and
Moscow as Cayce judges the effectiveness of a proposed corporate symbol and is hired to seek the creators of film clips anonymously posted to the internet. The novel's central theme involves the examination of the human desire to detect patterns or meaning and the risks of finding patterns in meaningless data. Other themes include methods of interpretation of history, cultural familiarity with brand names, and tensions between art and commercialization. The
September 11, 2001, attacks are used as a motif representing the transition to the new century. Critics identify influences in Pattern Recognition from
Thomas Pynchon's postmodernist detective story The Crying of Lot 49. The novel is Gibson's eighth and the first to be set in the contemporary world. Like his previous work, it has been classified as a science fiction and
postmodern novel, with the action unfolding along a
thriller plot line. Critics approved of the writing but found the plot unoriginal and some of the language distracting. The book peaked at No. 4 on the
New York Times Best Seller list, was nominated for the 2003
British Science Fiction Association Award, and was shortlisted for the 2004
Arthur C. Clarke Award and
Locus Awards. (more...)
... that the homemade
Israelimortar memorialized in
Jerusalem's Davidka Square was totally inaccurate, but it made such a huge noise that it sent the enemy fleeing in panic?
A c. 1890
Korean illustration of a litter (gama in
Korean), a type of
human-powered transport, for the transport of persons. Gamas were primarily used by
royalty and government officials, or in traditional
weddings. Because of the difficulties posed by the mountainous terrain of the
Korean Peninsula and the lack of paved roads, gamas were preferred over wheeled vehicles.
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