The Identity in William Gibsons Pattern Recognition and Paul Austers The New York Trilogy - Essay Example

This paper is a discussion on the theme of identity in William Gibson’s Pattern Recognition and Paul Auster’s The New York Trilogy. It is discoveredthat both of these authors make imperfect use of language to confuse identity in the minds of their readers. Identity change is a recurrent theme in the works of both authors. Identity Warped William Gibson’s Pattern Recognition is a work of science fiction set in the contemporary world, which is why the search for identity as the most attention grabbing theme in the novel becomes all the more realistic. The novel has been referred to as science fiction for the twenty first century, and being thus find readers that relate to it not only throughout the cyber world but also those that are even minutely connected to the innovations in science and technology today. The novel is replete with neologisms. It therefore shares both its theme of identity in addition to its alternate use of language with Paul Auster’s The New York Trilogy, consisting of the City of Glass (1985), Ghosts (1986), and The Locked Room (1986). Auster’s unclear and indeterminate use of language ensures that open relations between humans would not be possible without interpretations of identity on the part of humans that wish to understand the language thus used. In other words, Auster builds a wall of invented identity among people. It is a mask of self-representation, whereby people hide their real meanings behind facades of ambiguity and indecisiveness. In order to communicate, human beings need a base from where to start out – a common standing that allows a communication to begin and progress – a mutual comprehension about the structure of the communication about to be started and advanced. This stable foundation is refuted by both poststructuralism and Auster’s books. To some extent, it is also refuted by Gibson. Neologisms are a façade, a way for the author to release himself from the trouble of communicating just about everything for the reader, who in turn must be ready for a good deal of interpretation before the identity of the author’s characters can be revealed in all propriety. In Auster’s City of Glass and in Ghosts, identity is akin to meaning – merely a creation in language. For Blue in Ghosts and by a long way for Daniel Quinn in City of Glass, endless redefinitions of identity are a norm. In fact, these continual changes in identity are so natural that both Blue and Quinn cannot escape them. Despair seems the only way to deal with this. At least Quinn gives in to it. He is a writer turned private detective who is descending into madness. Auster’s explorations of layers of identity and reality are marvelous in this story. Ghosts is about a private eye named Blue who is investigating a man called Black for a client who is known as White. Coming out of the City of Glass, Blue had to be blue. Yet, the names of the main characters in this novel indicate clearly that Auster is this time going to deal with the messy confusion of identity in a positive manner. Black and White turn out to be one and the same person, thereby easing the identity tangle that could have been the cause of despondency yet again. Black and White is actually a writer who is writing about Blue watching him. Does this seem psychopathic or like a mad hunt ritual? As it turns out, Blue has nothing to do with madness this time around. He has come out of the City of Glass to face Ghosts. Human resilience in this novel is so strong, as a matter of fact, that Blue will truly discover a positive attitude to an impossible situation. Where does he unearth this attitude? No doubt, it was beneath those layers of identity and reality all along. Auster’s The Locked Room is the last adventure in identity in The New York Trilogy. Here is a story of a writer who lacks the imagination to produce fiction, unlike his creative childhood friend. When the friend disappears, the writer assumes his lost friend’s identity to publish his work and even replace him in his family. In this process, the writer stumbles across his own creativity. He is the writer of the three stories of the trilogy, in fact! May we describe both Auster and Gibson as fumblers when it comes to knowing and being absolutely comfortable with one’s own identity? Pattern Recognition is Gibson’s eighth novel, and by no means the first one to fiddle with the theme of identity in a big way. Some of the author’s preferred neologisms in this novel are the gender-bait, whereby a male poses as a female over the Internet in order to elicit positive responses from people; cool-hunter, something picked up from the marketing industry by Gibson; and Mirror World, referring to England and driving on the wrong side of the road. Gibson, too, is dealing with despair on a subconscious level perhaps, as he gets the male to pose as a female only to elicit positive responses. Is he not confident about his identity? Is he not comfortable being who he is? In point of fact, there is a London-based firm in this novel called the Blue Ant. Are Auster and Gibson both not tackling with the same issue of the blue natural consequences of misunderstood identity? Cayce Pollard in Pattern Recognition has been hired by Blue Ant to appraise new logos for their client. Pollard, however, suffers from a psychological hypersensitivity that causes her to have allergic reactions to brands and corporate logos. As in Auster’s works, we meet here a protagonist that is psychologically unfit to do her job. Still, Pollard uses her extraordinary sensitivity to her advantage in her career – somewhat like Blue from Ghosts, unwilling to give in to total despair. The plot of Pattern Recognition evolves as Pollard is drawn into a mystery surrounding a film footage that has been placed at a variety of locations on the Internet. The film footage is accumulating a fanbase, while people speculate on the identity of the filmmaker. Knowledge of the identity would lead them to an understanding of the filmmaker’s motives and methods. As it turns out, Pollard is asked by Blue Ant to locate the filmmaker with unknown identity. Through a maze of mystery and adventure, Pollard finds out about the identity of the filmmaker. Gibson whizzes past the startling revelation of the maker’s identity, though. In the end, Pollard finds herself completely embraced by the new identity that she has paid much to unearth. It takes us back to The Locked Room: [S]he lives now in that story, her life left somewhere behind, like a room she’s stepped out of. Not far away at all but she is no longer in. Works Cited 1. Auster, Paul. The New York Trilogy. New York: Faber & Faber, 2003. 2. Gibson, William. Pattern Recognition. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 2003. Read More