Meeting Science Fiction/ Internet and the Prospects of Online Social Networks

Meeting Science Fiction

When I started reading the book, the only thing I knew that it was classified as a science fiction novel. That’s when I thought cool – looking forward to futuristic aspects like in Star Wars or the typical movie that is set in 2050. But as I turned each page, I didn’t see any laser guns or flying cars. I guess, I could do without the laser guns and flying cars but at this point in the novel, I really didn’t see anything that would seem to exist in the future that already didn’t exist. After paying a little more attention, I understood that Pattern Recognition wasn’t the typical science fiction novel that we are used to seeing. In a way, Gibson writes science fiction about the present time. He describes a world that we live in but in a different perspective than anyone is used to seeing it in. In this type of science fiction novel the world Gibson presents plays a crucial part in the story. Gibson wouldn’t be able to convey his themes without establishing a foundation – this futuristic-present world.

Internet and the Prospects of Online Social Networks

I believe Gibson constantly emphasizes the internet and the online social networks throughout the novel. In the first chapter, after Cayce finishes describing Damien’s apartment, she goes on her computer to check her blog. And when she does so, she gives the reader an insight about the importance of the forum, “It is a way now, approximately, of being home. The forum has become one of the most consistent places in her life, like a familiar café that exists somehow outside of geography and beyond time zones” (4). The forum has become a place that she can turn to no matter in what corner of the world she is in. This is becoming true for more and more people in the world we live in. People feel more comfortable socializing online than in person but this might be due to the fact that one can be anywhere and still talk to the people they know. The forum symbolizes the consistency people want to have in a world that far from consistent.

A Rose for Emily - Tobe and Homer's Version

If Faulkner wrote “A Rose for Emily” in first person singular instead of first person plural point-of-view, the reader would only get the perspective from one character. In the original story, different characters put their pieces of knowledge about Miss Emily together in order to form a general picture of what went on with her. With this shift in narrator, the plot of the story would change dramatically. With the plural point-of-view, the narrator didn’t know much about what went inside Miss Emily’s house; most of the time they had to speculate things about her. For example, they didn’t know why her house had an unbearable smell and why she never left her house. They even had to assume that she got married to Homer because of all the things she bought. If it was written in Tobe’s point-of-view, the exact opposite would of happen. The narrator would know everything that went instead the house and wouldn’t know what the people on the outside thought about Miss Emily. But with this shift, the entire mystery in the story would be lost because Tobe would know what Miss Emily was up to. Unless, Miss Emily was sneaky old gal and did everything while Tobe was out of the house buying groceries. But he should be able to put the pieces together. I would also assume that the perception of Miss Emily would change because Tobe knew her more closely that the people in the neighborhood. But I doubt that her motives would be known to Tobe because even though he had access to her house, she was still quite a mysterious woman. The theme of isolation would be more emphasized because Tobe was closer to her and saw how isolated she really was, but once again the reader doesn’t really know how close the two really were. The story would also been even more different if it was written in Homer’s point-of-view. Not only because he comes later into the story but also because he dies before it has finished. The story would have to end when Miss Emily poisoned him and we wouldn’t find out that she has been sleeping with his corpse. Practically we would get an abridged version of the story with many important gaps missing. Through his perspective, the theme of isolation wouldn’t be obvious because the two of them had a close relationship. Since Homer was always in the middle of the crowd, the theme of isolation might be completely lost in his version. 

The Two Perspectives

Richard Brautigan’s poem "All Watched over by Machines of Loving Grace" can be seen as having a pro-technology tone and message. In the first strophe, Brautigan begins to create a utopia where technology and nature coexist peacefully with each other. He plays with two juxtaposing ideas using phrases, such as, “a cybernetic meadow” in line 3 and “live together in mutually/ programming harmony” in lines 5 and 6 to promote the possibility of the perfect utopia. He continues to use the same juxtaposition between the two ideas in strophe 2 and 3 in order to maintain a pro-technology tone throughout the entire poem. Brautigan also employs figurative language to emphasize his pro-technology tone. The simile at the end of the first strophe compares the relationship between mammals and computers to “pure water touching clear sky”. The imagery gives an insight into Brautigan’s opinion of technology; he believes the two elements can work perfectly together. The adjectives he uses to describe water and sky also emphasize his view on technology and nature. Both of the adjectives “pure” and “clear” have a positive connotation and therefore Brautigan, once again, shows that nature cannot ruin the beauty of technology nor can technology ruin the beauty of nature.

The same literal devices that Brautigan employed to create a pro-technology tone could also be interpreted to create an anti-technology tone. Both the juxtaposition and the figurative language found throughout the poem have a sarcastic and satirical underline. The juxtaposing phrases in the third line of each strophe propose almost make the reader laugh because the two opposing ideas presented would never be able to coexist mutually together in one domain. When one thinks of computers and electronics, a mental picture of meadow or a forest never follows. When the Industrial Revolution hit Britain, preserving nature wasn’t a thought that followed after.  Brautigan also arranges the juxtaposing ideas in the third line of each strophe in a specific order. In the first strophe, he mentions a “cybernetic meadow” (3). In the next strophe he uses a different setting, a “cybernetic forest” (11). In the final strophe, Brautigan jumps to the extreme and uses a “cybernetic ecology” (19) setting. As each strophe progresses, the area of where technology becomes dominant also progresses, until technology takes over the entire ecology. And the similes just continue to contribute to the sarcasm and satire. The sarcasm and the satire found throughout the poem create a sly but persistent anti-technology tone.

After reading the poem dozens of times and analyzing it from both perspectives, I believe the anti-technology theme is more convincing when one knows the context of the period when Brautigan wrote this poem and the type of poems that he generally writes. But when looking at the poem without any background knowledge, I would have to say that the pro-technology tone is more appealing just because his idea is so farfetched. And the juxtaposition and figurative language prompt the reader to see the poem as having a pro-technology message and tone by creating a constant feeling of harmony between technology and nature throughout the poem.