Monday, February 23, 2004

I just started reading William Gibson's Pattern Recognition. I know I shouldn't write about books when I haven't finished them yet, but this is MY language. This is the English language if my cerebral synapses had total control over it. I'm welcomed into the novel with Google as a verb. Cleverly placed at the beginning of a sentence to avoid the debate over whether it should be capitalized. The fridge smells of long-chain monomers. I know what that means, but not everyone does. The character drags herself out of bed, sleepless, and goes to her favourite online forum. It's so natural, so real, so much like my life and so something I've never seen in a novel before. "No spoilers" she warns. Would my parents even know what that means?

Then, casually, idly, the most perfect verbing ever. The word could not possibly be more perfect for communicating the concept:

Zaprudered. Once again at the beginning of the sentence, to avoid capitalization issues. Zaprudered.

A sound that only mi cielito has heard escapes my lips.

I don't think the plot even matters any more.

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