PR: Brainstorming

In William Gibson's novel, Patter Recognition, there is always a concentration on the internet and online social network. Whenever Cayce has the chance, she checks F:F:F to see if she gets any messages from Parkaboy or just to see what's going on in there. For example, she sees "that her friend Parkaboy is back in Chicago, home from an Amtrak vacation, California" (4). The forum is her mean of knowing what's happening, especially when it comes to the footages that are posted there by the maker and with all of the attention that they are obtaining. The forum is also her mean of networking and communicating with other people. When Cayce needs help with tracking down the maker of the footages that are posted, she seeks help from Parkaboy, thinking that he could really help her. "The forum has become one of the most consistent places in her life" (4), demonstrating the way that the internet is being used through the forum. Cayce says that she has told Parkaboy about her phobia. It's not something she can just tell anyone; yet, she tells it to someone she's never even met but has only talked to either through email or by phone. Plus, with the internet, it's basically accessible anywhere.

There is also a relationship between style and culture in Pattern Recognition. When Cayce is in London, she see three men gathered around what turns out to be calculators, two of whom are trying to sell them and the other being Voytek. "As to why she notices them [now], these three, she later may not be able to say" (27), but it may as well be due to what they are wearing. Hobbes, one of the two men selling the calculators, "is zipped like a sausage into something shiny, black, and only approximately leather like" (27). Then the other man is "hunched within greasy folds of an ancient Barbour waterproof, its waxed cotton gone the sheen and shade of day-old horse dung" (27). Then there's Voytek, who's in "baggy black skater shorts and frayed jean jacket" (27-28). Cayce then thinks that shorts "are somehow always wrong in London" (28), suggesting the relationship between style and culture. There are styles in places that just doesn't go or suit one another. The characters are in London, a place of British/English culture; yet, there are so many variations of style, though there may be many rising trends that seem to be dominating. Then, there's Japan. There Cayce sees "whole seas of Burberry plaid...Mont Blanc...even Gucci" (127). These trademarks/brands "have no effects on her" (127). They are only somewhat in Japan more now. She's different from the Japanese and has moved on with newer, different brands due to culture, leading to the relationship between style and culture and its differences.