{"id":36,"date":"2003-02-10T23:28:47","date_gmt":"2003-02-11T03:28:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shaviro.com\/Blog\/?p=36"},"modified":"2003-02-10T23:28:47","modified_gmt":"2003-02-11T03:28:47","slug":"first-impressions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shaviro.com\/Blog\/?p=36","title":{"rendered":"First Impressions"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m only part way through William Gibson<\/a>‘s new book Pattern Recognition<\/i><\/a>, but I already think it is the best thing Gibson has ever written, better even than Neuromancer<\/i><\/a>…
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\nPattern Recognition<\/i> is, simply, a novel that describes, with dead-on accuracy, what it means to live in our global culture of simulacra, corporate logos and brand names, and electronic networks. The prose is cool and yet precise–it reads as if everything were underwater, sounds and all experience somehow muffled, and yet at the same time all the details are preternaturally, hallucinatorily clear. <\/p>\n

And now and again, there’s a sentence that just stops me dead in my tracks, and sends shivers down my spine, it is so right<\/i>: <\/p>\n