More nerd stuff.

I'm still hung up on these minimalist products.

William Gibson writes about the intersection of information and people in a more mature way then he did with the Sprawl trilogy. I didn't make the connection before, when Brent sent me the link to the Muji store (now posted to a Facebook near you), but it turns out that when Gibson wrote Pattern Recognition, he mentioned that the minimalist can't-look-at-logos protagonist bought clothing, she bought them at Muji.

Me, I'm hung up on Gibson's Spook Country, which continues a narrative that is structurally similar to that of the Sprawl trilogy. I became interested in his writing about information, but it may be that I'm specifically interested in memes and identification.

Muji was just short for a Japanese term that indicated high-quality, no-brand goods. It opened up a chain of stores (or something) and now Muji has branches internationally, including a website, ect, et al. The confusion of recognizing and approving of a chain that sells items with no particular logo scrambles us, because it's a contradiction that the most cynical of us attribute to trying to hijack a counterculture, or an approximation thereof.

Postmodernism has signs and signifiers. When we look for signs, a lack of obvious signs stands out. By standing out, it makes itself a sign. When something says 'no sign', that denial is a sign. Rationally, we can only say that when it says 'no brand', it is not saying 'no sign' but that you can't depend on a brand for quality. Not that it can't be recognized.

Gibson had a protagonist who recognized brands but was adorned in none, specifically.* Someone without this kind of identification is a cypher, especially when you realize just how concerened with brands and identification that Gibson's writing is.

This is what I do in my free time.
* Except a Rickson's jacket, which is important.