In the discussion at Theme of Pattern Recognition (p.2) user "the lazarus corporation" said:

"Perhaps you're right and it was just that Gibson didn't think it was necessary to change the dialogue to include more references to 9/11. But I feel that it effectively shows the differences in psyche between Europeans and Americans (huge generalisation, I know)."

Personally, I think that the lack of explicit references to 9/11 is the result of a spot-on cultural observation on wg's part. Living in NYC and traveling by air in the months after 9/11 I heard a great many indirect references to the attacks. It seemed like many people didn't want to talk about it directly. I remember a flight attendant referring to changes "since the previous September". Compare this sort of oblique reference to Dorattea's "It is still sad there, no?" during her first meeting with Cayce. Both the real comment and the fictional one are trying pretty hard not to look directly at 9/11, lest the speaker take a duck in the face...

(Sorry to respond to a dead, years old thread like this. I just found this site, though how I could have gone so long without stumbling on it I don't know. )

hello spork! it's true WG is fantastic with the cultural observations.

people mostly hang out in the random thoughts forum.

Welcome, spork. It's nice to see a newbie arrive and actually read a few threads before posting!

To an extent, we Brits do tend to avoid references to 9-11, or 7-7 (the London bombs) for that matter. I was tempted to put some more specific 9-11 references on the F:F:F site, but in the end I didn't.

I misread this thread as "Theme FROM Pattern Recognition", like one of those Mancini/goldsmith TV Cop show themes. "Theme from Ironside" for instance.
Wonder who'll do the movie version music...

So now i have this image of parkaboy kinda looking like peter seller, and thataint right, he's got a peter gun theme going on, time for bed.