After September 11th I scoured the net for some comment by Mr Gibson.

I was sure that the news media would have beaten his door down for his opinion on this, the mother of CNN moments.

Then I checked the SF media; other SF writers pointedly commented (most pointed was David Gerold! Hell, he was more pointed than Jerry Pournel!).

But there was nothing to be found.

Now I see that he was saving his thoughts for Pattern Recognition.

Worth the wait. I think

jaydee

I stumbled across the chapter where Cayce is remembering her experiences of 9/11 and I had to read it. (I'm not actually there yet.) But I was blown away. The Rose Petal was pure poetry. I loved his line about it being an experience outside of culture. One of the best bits of 9/11 related writing I've read.
I was thinking about what if Pattern Recognition was made into a film, and I thought that chapter would be so powerful if you could do it without showing the event itself. Just keep the camera on Cayce and and the people around her. We've all seen it a million times. The real drama for me was in the reactions of the witnesses, not the constant replay of the event. That's the way I envisioned it in my mind anyway.
But god what a great piece of writing.

If your not outraged, you're not paying attention!

... he wrote a very moving piece for Canada's National Post. It was on the Commentary page, titled "Mr. Buk’s Window" , on saturday september 22nd, I think.

Why Martin,

Thank you, I thought I was au fait with all manner of Gibson Ephemera. But here is one that slipped me by.

I am more than a little gratefull

JayDee

quote:

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Originally posted by Igpajo:
I stumbled across the chapter where Cayce is remembering her experiences of 9/11 and I had to read it. (I'm not actually there yet.) But I was blown away. The Rose Petal was pure poetry. I loved his line about it being an experience outside of culture. One of the best bits of 9/11 related writing I've read.

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I was blown away by "Singularity" too -- my favorite chapter in PR. I do consider PR to be an explicit response to 9/11, but as you indicate, part of the incredible power of the novel AS a response to 9/11 lies in its reticence, in the fact that for most of the book the event is barely even mentioned, yet it's this huge gaping hole just on the periphery of our vision, a singularity we can't escape but that will blind us if we peer too unwaveringly into its heart.

Gibson's line about the event existing outside of culture is not only true in itself, it points to the freak show of culture desperately trying to encompass it, to cover it over with its patina of hysterically insistent interpretation, and it just doesn't work and never will -- it's an event, a moment, that will ALWAYS remain outside of culture.

Reading Pattern Recognition, I was reminded of something Kim Stanley Robinson wrote to me days after 9/11, that we were left "trying to create a meaning for something that won't be mitigated by its meaning." The emptiness of loss and the emptiness that IS the inability of meaningfulness to inhere in or displace or mitigate the heart of the disaster become one emptiness. For me, the responses that acknowledge or embrace that emptiness within the fullness of our continuance are the ones that speak most powerfully TO our continuance. It's what Gibson succeeds in doing in Pattern Recognition. And it's what I've tried to do in my design for the World Trade Center Memorial --



-- where the lower portions of the WTC towers are turned inside out and become vast empty wells sunk into a gigantic staircase climbing into the sky and covered with gardens. By embracing the emptiness, we recognize that it can never be filled. Unfortunately, my design is in danger of being disqualified before the international memorial design competition even begins, because the authorities seem determined to finalize everything BUT a memorial first, and then limit the competition to designs that can be shoe-horned into the small patch of ground left over. Not unlike the culture's attempt to shoe-horn 9/11 itself into a convenient corner.

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I was thinking about what if Pattern Recognition was made into a film, and I thought that chapter would be so powerful if you could do it without showing the event itself. Just keep the camera on Cayce and the people around her. We've all seen it a million times. The real drama for me was in the reactions of the witnesses, not the constant replay of the event.

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Absolutely. Not showing it would be much more powerful, for precisely the reasons discussed above. And it's interesting, because in another thread -- "Footage is Hot!" in the PR-with-spoilers folder -- I argued that a film version of PR must not attempt to show us any of the Footage, that to do so would ruin it because how could any director match the richness of the Footage in our imaginations? And somehow those two things go together, the emptiness that is 9/11 and the emptiness at the heart of Footage. Outside of culture. Outside of time. Always happening. Two singularities recognized -- by the patterns they share -- as one.

Ron Drummond

http://www.oz.net/~jhawk/wtc/gardensteps/cityscape.html

[This message was edited by Ron Drummond on February 15, 2003 at 01:10 PM.]

Great Comments Ron. And by the way I checked out your website and your building design is beautiful. Very well thought out.

Concerning Gibson's article in Canada's National Post, does anyone know if it's available online? It tried the Post's website but their archives don't seem to go back that far. I'd love to read that piece.

And while I was doing a search for it, I stumbled across This. But I don't think that's the same William Gibson. Doesn't read like him anyway? Was he in NY on 9/11?

If your not outraged, you're not paying attention!

Thanks for your encouraging words, Igpajo, they're much appreciated. Folks interested in the design who think it deserves to be considered by the powers that be are encouraged to write to them -- names and addresses can be found at the website.

I searched National Post too, and after a little digging found an archive link to infomart.ca. But they wanted five bucks to download anything, and a quick search didn't turn up the Gibson piece anyway, though it's probably there somewhere (they claim to archive NP for the month in question).

Gibson makes it clear in his Blog for the 16th that his recent New York trip was his first since before 9-11.

What I'm wondering is:

Mr. Gibson, is there any chance you could post the text of your National Post piece in your Blog, like you did with your speeches? A lot of us out here would love to read it.

But then, if so, it would almost certainly have to wait till he gets home.

Best Wishes,

Ron Drummond

http://www.oz.net/~jhawk/wtc/gardensteps/cityscape.html

[This message was edited by Ron Drummond on February 17, 2003 at 11:43 AM.]

No, he was in Vancouver at the time.

quote:

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Originally posted by Igpajo:
Great Comments Ron. And by the way I checked out your website and your building design is beautiful. Very well thought out.

Concerning Gibson's article in Canada's National Post, does anyone know if it's available online? It tried the Post's website but their archives don't seem to go back that far. I'd love to read that piece.

And while I was doing a search for it, I stumbled across http://www.nycstories.com/places/911/3.html But I don't think that's the same William Gibson. Doesn't read like him anyway? Was he in NY on 9/11?

_If your not outraged, you're not paying attention!_

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Yeah, I didn't think it was him.

If your not outraged, you're not paying attention!

While searching for connections between Mr. Gibson and 9/11, I did , however come across the curious fact that he had signed an eariler novel at the Borders in the WTC.



JayDee

... in the blog. today. "Mr. Buk's Window"

WG proved again today that he read the discussion board and reply in his blog!

I know that this is not the first time... yesterday he did the same... I just want to congratulate him and hope that he will continue like that and do even more for his site in the future...

Manogr

At the Boston stop he said he wouldn't be blogging indefinitely, as he thought it would undermine his ability to write... to paraphrase, he suggested that being able to commune every morning with a bunch of friendly and like-minded people might have too much of a positive effect on his mental health ;-)

Yeah, I remember him saying somewhere that it probably wouldn't last much beyond the tour/promotion of this particular book. The good news is, once he stops blogging, we'll all know that he's begun work on the next book! huzzah!

I can see that as a 'practice' it could interfere with writing, which would be a bad thing, but I'm hoping that we might get an *occasional* post nonetheless.

Well, there you go Martin, your scholorship has helped liberate another chunk of ephemera from our Gracious host.

A digtal pat on the back to ya!


jaydee

... something should be done to keep this site alive! Our discussions will be here but something must be done for the site!

I am sure that this site is not intended to be just a promotion tool for PR only so the developers (and WB) should plan something for the future...

Manogr

Thanks, no problem at all. Now if someone will please encourage the webmaster to put up the pics from last nights signing/reading event...

quote:

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Originally posted by jaydee:
Well, there you go Martin, your scholorship has helped liberate another chunk of ephemera from our Gracious host.

A digtal pat on the back to ya!


jaydee

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Sad, I've heard it from many of my friends who're artists, and felt it myself, nothing produces art more than misery. Or at least a sense of dis-ease. Too bad such beauty can only be acheived by suffering.

What would we rather have, a healthy William Gibson, or a new novel.

Note: there are degrees of this, and WG doesn't sound like he's in a terrible state. Same with me and my friends, it's not like we're on the verge of suicide. Or stark raving. But you know you could feel better, be happier. And if you were, you wouldn't be using your art as a way to either articulate the feeling, or sublimate it. A vicious circle.