PATTERN RECOGNITION

Mystery and/or spy genre of fiction

This novel at many points in the story seems like a mystery or spy novel. There are many mysteries that are unsolved that perplex and confuse the people trying to unravel these mysteries. The main mystery in the novel is the odd appearance and uploading of random pieces of video. These videos do not seem to have any relevance to each other, until more research is done and a pattern forms. Cayce travels the world to unravel this mystery in hope of taking one more step forward to answering the questions these videos put forth. It seems like a spy novel in the way Cayce and Boone keep their findings away from their boss, Bigend. They need to keep the information in a tight knit group without informing those outside of their answers. It almost seems like a Sherlock Holmes story in the way they pick up clues one by one to bring them all together in the end to have an answer.

Marketing and/or commodification

Cayce, the main protagonist of Pattern Recognition by William Gibson, is a advertising counselor that the company, Blue Ant, uses to figure out if their logo is “cool.” It is quite ironic that Cayce is a “coolhunter” when she is almost allergic to brand names and labels. She creates CPU’s, Cayce Pollard Units, which are her clothes that consist of black, gray, and white colors that have all of the brand labels cut off and covered. For a person that consults on brands that will sell well, it seems odd that she would herself be scared of some of these brands. But it is odd in the way brands become popular and how they become products that sell well. In the novel, Cayce uses pattern recognition to check and see if the product will do well in the market. In today’s market, if the product is endorsed by someone famous, the product will most likely succeed. It is no longer about the product being durable or well made, but by who endorsed it and how much it cost.

A Rose for Tobe?

In William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily,” the first person plural point of view plays a crucial part in the telling of the story. If the point of view was changed to Tobe for instance, the story would change dramatically. A drastic change that would change would be that the reader would have more of the full story. Tobe is the only character that interacts with Emily and the townspeople that watch Ms. Rose from the outside. Tobe is Emily’s servant and has the most contact with her, so he is the one that can most likely answer the townspeople’s questions. If the story was in Tobe’s point of view, the reader would be able to see everything that Emily does in her house. Some points that would become more visible to the reader would be the problems and sickness that have affected Emily because the original point of view only has hypotheses of Emily’s status. Some facts of the story that would become more hidden would be the thoughts of the people for Emily Rose. The townspeople are somewhat the main voices of the story and Tobe does not interact with the people except to purchase groceries, so the part of the story that is the townspeople’s thoughts would be totally hidden. The new point of view would also take away some of the themes that are in the story. With the short story from the point of view from Tobe, it is possible that the reader might possibly feel sad for Emily or on the other side, know that Emily is crazy.

ALL WATCHED OVER BY MACHINES OF LOVING GRACE

In All Watched Over By Machines of Loving Grace, Brautigan has a seemingly positive tone towards machines and animals living in harmony, but it seems to have a different meaning. In the first paragraph, Brautigan mentions a “cybernetic meadow” (3) where the mammals and computers can interact with each other. Although a meadow does bring images of a grassy plain where animals graze, Brautigan calls it a cybernetic meadow giving it a computer-like feel that cannot have animals.

In the second paragraph, Brautigan comments on the “deer [strolling] peacefully past computers as if they were flowers” (13-15). In this image, it seems as if the computers are on the ground as flowers are and they are not functioning. Brautigan seems to be revealing that the kind of peace that comes with animals strolling peacefully will only come when computers are extinct. In the third paragraph, Brautigan talks about all of our mammal brothers and sisters being watched over by the “machines of loving grace” (24). This line gives a feeling of a Big Brother watching over all of the actions of the people.

On the other hand, Braugtigan also sheds a positive light on a possible future where technology and animals can interact peacefully. The image of the mammals and computers living together in “programming harmony like pure water touching clear sky” (6-8) has a peaceful feeling as if everything is as it should be in that moment. Brautigan also gives an image of a utopia where we are “free of our labors and joined back to nature” (20-21). This evokes an image of a time where people will not have to work anymore and can go to a peaceful future.

At first read, it seemed like the poem only had good things to say about computers and animals living together. After reading a few more times, it seems like Brautigan has more negative than positive comments to say about computers and technology. As the evidence was being searched for for the first part, there was more to say about the negative Brautigan was trying to convey through his poem. The reader needs to pay much attention if he/she is going to see the message Brautigan is sending to his readers.