Henry (character name)

Having kicked this off with a post on the famous Case/Cayce connection, the first part of Case's name reminded me that Henry has also popped up several times in Gibson's work.

Henry Dorsett Case; male protagonist of Neuromancer

Slick Henry; male protagonist of one of the main story arcs of Mona Lisa Overdrive

Hollis Henry; female protagonist of Spook Country and Zero History

Henry; male background character mentioned in Count Zero

"Wish I'd got some. Every time Henry sees you dance, he won't let me alone ..." She laughed, and refilled Bobby's cup from a black plastic thermos."

Henry; male tattoo artist in Virtual Light

"There was a knock at the door. It opened a crack, and somebody, not the man who jingled when he walked, said: 'You having any luck picking a design? Henry's gone home...'"

The name also shows up in Pattern Recognition in a reference to an actual place.

Henry Africa's; Roppongi expat bar from Pattern Recognition. It's a real place.

"...Shabby, it turns out, after a twenty−minute wander, orienting to the napkin, and at one point spotting Henry Africa's in the distance, that expat bar she remembers, though that's not where she's heading..."

Case and Cayce (character name)

Might as well lead off with a big one.

There had already been plenty of examples of connections, coincidence and common elements in Gibson's works prior to 2003, but the publication of Pattern Recognition (PR) brought us a zinger; protagonists with the same name (at least homophonically).

Henry Dorset Case; male protagonist of Neuromancer. Referred to almost exclusively as Case.

Cayce Pollard; female protagonist of Pattern Recognition. She explains in PR that, although she was named after Edgar Cayce (whose last name rhymes with 'Stacy'), she pronounces her given name to rhyme with 'face'.

In a 2003 interview with Fiona Graham of The Telegrpah Gibson stated,

"I actually arrived at her name without having thought of Case in Neuromancer, and just as it clicked and Cayce became the name of the character (character names are very important for me) I remembered Case, and I thought, oh, well they're gonna think that this is significant."

His face creases into a mischievous grin:"And then I thought 'Ha! Let them'. You know, I'm giving someone a thesis."

A Matter of Intent

I hope that it will be clear from what I write here, and how I write it, but just in case there is any question I would like to state for the record that I am a great fan of William Gibson and of all his written works. Certainly, I like some of his stories better than others, but I do like them all. Immensely.

This project is in no way intended to be critical of the author or of his work. It is simply a record of the interesting patterns, juxtapositions, self-references (intentional or otherwise) and recurrent themes that have struck me over the course of many readings.

Also, I will probably use this space to try to answer some of the questions that Gibson invariable generates, especially in his more recent works. Case (no pun) in point; the question of the 'black-faced watches' reference in Zero History - I can't be the only person driven to distraction by that odd little offhand sentence. Juju indeed.

Anyway, this project is mostly for me, a place to document and organize, but if you get something out of it as well, so much the better.

.