quote:

Originally posted by Corso:
...is a bitch. A judgemental, defensive, above-it-all bitch. And of course, I love her.

She's kind of a lovable mess; jaded, cynical, doesn't trust anyone except for her only friend, Inchmale. I bet she is chronically attracted to unavailable men.

I'm not sure if this post says more about Hollis or more about you.

I like HH as a protagonist. She's got self-confidence and a gutsy streak, something that Cayce certainly didn't have. I enjoyed spending time in Hollis's head.

To be honest, I find Cayce a slightly irritating character. Probably because it's difficult for me to adequately suspend my disbelief in someone who's chronically 'allergic' to certain brands/logos, yet has a magic ability to sense whether a particular design will be successful and is comfortable using this to make a living (despite her 'condition' being debilitating enough to require the removal of all logos from her clothing and personal effects). Gimme a break, Bill...

Add the fact that Cayce spends about 80% of PR in a state of heavy and frequently-described jetlag, and she's not exactly great company.

I should say that I like PR and enjoy reading it, but it's despite Cayce rather than because of her.

HH is less passive (less numbed?) than Cayce, for which I am thankful. She's a less singular and unlikely creation - probably a bad thing if you're writing a paper on WG's novels, but better if you're simply reading them.

quote:

Originally posted by Gromit:
it's difficult for me to adequately suspend my disbelief in someone who's chronically 'allergic' to certain brands/logos, yet has a magic ability to sense whether a particular design will be successful and is comfortable using this to make a living (despite her 'condition' being debilitating enough to require the removal of all logos from her clothing and personal effects). Gimme a break, Bill...

If you mean you can't believe the "allergy" itself, that's fair, but if you can't accept the allergy and the "logo success sense" (...tingling!) together, well, I think they're supposed to be one and the same. That is, if the logo makes her feel sick, then it's going to be successful.

I agree.

I'm probably just dim, but it's never occurred to me that Cayce would know that a potential logo would 'work' because it made her feel sick. I've always seen her ability as more mysterious than that.

After all, she's immune to any number of very successful logos in the real world - eg Starbucks, Apple - and WG makes it clear that her condition is dependent on context. Logos that make her ill in Europe don't affect her in Japan, for example. Would a brand new logo, possibly for a brand new product, affect her in any way?

Although I find Cayce a less congenial character than Hollis, there is much more to say about her. She's more interesting than Hollis, because her oddness quotient is off the scale. And there are the post-9/11 themes of sickness and healing, seeking and finding peace, some degree of redemption.

All of which are part of the reason I like PR very much.

But I'd still rather spend time in HH's headspace than in Cayce's!

My name is Hollis Henry. And I am female. Really! People keep telling me about this book, so I guess I'd best buy and copy and read it.

quote:

Originally posted by HollisHenry:
My name is Hollis Henry. And I am female. Really! People keep telling me about this book, so I guess I'd best buy and copy and read it.

Hi HH-- how's the book comng?
Are you really her?
And do you know William Gibson, or he about you perhaps...hmmm.

My ambition is to be in the last of thetrilogy, Aisha, nice ring to it.

:-)

Aisha

quote:

Originally posted by UberDog:---
On a side note, I thought the last image of the worm having penetrated the corporate spire spoke well for the theme of the entire book.

Me too.

Also, Hollis does have a heart: she takes the Blue Ant figurine with her so it won't feel left behind and all alone in Bigend's Vancouver apartment.

Sentinel, knowing as you do about vinyl: would it be like a smurf? or.. how does it look?

Pressing on thru my dogear markers of notable stuff.

WG and I actually talked about this very thing at dinner... but it wasn't conclusive. I picture something quite geometric, a little bit like the FLIK character from A Bug's Life but with the cuteness slapped out of him.

Not like a Smurf. More like:

quote:

Originally posted by HollisHenry:
My name is Hollis Henry. And I am female. Really! People keep telling me about this book, so I guess I'd best buy and copy and read it.

She really is Hollis Henry, and she's a Realtor in Idaho.

I think I met a version of Hollis Henry tonight. She was blonde, drunk and from Vancouver. She said she was an ex-rock musician, knew Motorhead, Dee Dee Ramone and Evan Dando and that the Pixies wrote a song about her roommate. She kind of freaked us out when she guessed that all of us, including her, were 38 years old.

You are not kidding are you?

Coll.

Sentinel,
Interesting, and now I come to think of it, that figgers. Not cute. Yes.