Reset

I’m reading Zero History now, started it on the flight out to Newark. I began reading Pattern Recognition under similar circumstances a few years ago, and started Spook Country on the way back to the UK from JFK last January.

For me Gibson – and Gibson’s writing voice – is tied to New York/traveling/jet-lag and all that stuff. It means I notice more around me (I always interpret Gibson’s novels as being predominantly about the noticing of details), and more about what I leave behind.

Which is perhaps why last night’s gaming in Barcade was so useful. Barcade exhibits a retro space, yes, but not in quite the way Wiliamsburg might usually be accused of such things. It’s been there six years now, exactly enough time to no longer be part of something emergent, something trending. It has tilted into ‘familiar’; for the neighbourhood; for its patrons; on its walls; in its booths.

It’s a reminder that accumulation of stuff – retro or otherwise – can have a purpose, can fulfil a void between archive and nostalgia without feeling like junk.

Held up against Hollis Henry’s minimalist bohemia that’s a more powerful notion than it might otherwise be.