I'd heard that William Gibson had written Pattern Recognition, this book that wasn't science fiction. So I didn't read it. That was years ago.
More recently, I read Spook Country that wasn't exactly science fiction. It had some science-fictiony elements, but they were just a few years out. I'd been tricked into reading non-science fiction by an author I thought of as locked in a genre! But I'd liked it anyhow. So I gave Pattern Recognition a try. OMG, it is awesome! It is better than science fiction--like Douglas Coupland, Gibson has teased out some aspects of real life which are even better than science fiction.
- signals intelligence
- historical computing devices
- the decline of undirected brand-based advertising
- the rise of astroturfy viral marketing
- did I mention Curta?
Oh yeah--and there's a plot and characters and plenty of references to pattern recognition, both as it relates to signals intelligence and to other things. So you can feel all brainy and literary as you read along and pick up on allusions and tsk at characters who make bad decisions.
Labels: book, vintage computing