Fontaine the “keeper of time”

When I first read the story, I always wondered what Fontaine’s purpose in the story was, what his character represents, and even what the relationship is between Fontaine and watches. However, after Dr. Ogden analyzed Fontaine’s character, I begin to understand Fontaine much better. As Dr. Ogden described, Fontaine is a keeper of time, a keeper of history that records the now and ensures the future. Fontaine adheres to the real (i.e. reality) and not the virtual world (i.e. made from technology). He collects watches, the symbol of order that is controlled mechanically by hand power, and not digitally by technology. "[Fontaine] is an anachronist: a historian" (49). He believes that everything has a story or a history, and these stories are alive, especially in watches. Evidently, this is seen when Chevette quotes, “[e]verything, to Fontaine, had a story. Each object, each fragment comprising the built world. A chorus of voices, the past alive in everything, the sea upon which the present tossed and rode” (158). Fontaine often speaks of or reminds people of the past through his collection of antiques. For example, he gathers “old-fashioned watches with their dials going rusty … some huge ugly telephone, sheathed in ridged black rubber. Fontaine [is] crazy about old things” (158). I feel that these antique items are indeed a form of history that may cause people to reminisce about the past, think of the present and how much things have or have not changed and the possibilities the future may hold. Hence, I believe these "old-fashioned watches" and items are the keeper of time and order, and becuase Fontaine is the keeper of them, it makes him the time keeper.

In addition, I find that there is an interesting connection between Silencio and Fontaine which is never really explained. Both characters appear to be intrigued and captivated by only watches. Fontaine was only first interested in Silencio because he wanted the Jaeger-LeCoultre military Konrad gave to Silencio. Nevertheless, Fontaine continued to care for Silencio and “found it impossible to explain to anyone why he had subsequently fed [Silencio], gotten him showered, bought him fresh clothes, and shown him how to use the eyephones. Actually [Fontaine] couldn’t explain it to himself.” (129). I feel that this special bond is a result of their fascination for watches and that the watches somehow have linked them together in an unexplainable way. Also, at the end, I think Silencio replaces Fontaine’s role, and becomes the “time keeper” himself.

By: Rosalie Pham

Berry Rydell the "rent-a-cop"

Out of all the characters, I feel sorry for Rydell the most because he seems to lead a misfortunate life and career. He was never able to accomplish or fulfill his dreams such as being a cop. In fact, he always seems to have the worst luck with trying to keep a secure or stable job and often gets himself fired. Rydell even tried to act in Cops in Trouble but was unsuccessful because the camera had unrealistically added twenty pounds on him which made him fat even though he was obviously “all muscles and long legs” (131).


I find that Rydell is a very interesting character, and sometimes his character is contradictory. For example, “[w]hatever it was [Rydell] was supposed to be doing here, for Laney, he wanted to do it right. Get all jangled, this way, you never knew what could happen. Calm down. Nobody was losing it here.” (121) and then, "he lost it immediately” (121). Rydell appears to be a cautious person who always wants to do things right and legally. However, because he has agoraphobia, it makes him nervous, easily tempered and loses control of himself (i.e. just like when he tortured the Chinese kid behind the counter because the kid wasn't able to provide the information Rydell wanted.) In addition, Rydell believes that killing is unnecessary and often doubts the need of killing when he quotes, “killing anyone was a terrible and permanent thing to enter into” (196). Nonetheless, after witnessing Konrad killed someone “silently and without raising a sweat … [like] the way another man might change his shirt or open a bottle of beer”(196) Rydell feelings begin to contradict his beliefs and felt “something in [him] yearned so to be that, that, feeling it now, he blushed” (196).

I feel that Rydell’s fictional character and life events actually portray and represent an aspect of real life and real people. There are people who dream of becoming lawyers, doctors, police officers etc… but due to unfortunate events that occur in their lives, they are prevented from achieving their ambitions and thus, have to take alternative paths to reach their goal. Furthermore, many people have strong beliefs and values of what they consider is appropriate but sometimes their thoughts and desires contradict eachother.

In lecture, Dr. Ogden mentioned that Laney is the mind and Rydell is the body. I agree with Dr. Ogden. Throughout the novel, Laney is the “master-mind”, the one that sees all the patterns and flows in the nodal points, feels all changes in the world, and only “go” to places via his mind, such as entering the virtual world. Laney feels a change, and sees the world as ending soon, but he never physically leaves his cardboard to stop this change. Instead, he hires Rydell to carry out his exact instructions and guidelines. Indeed, Rydell, “the body” physically carries out these instructions and task that Laney has ordered. Rydell is like Laney’s body, a being that performs Laney’s commands. This is my interpretation of it, what do you think?







(On a completely different) Side Note: Eversince tutorial class, each time I walked into a London Drugs, it keeps reminding me of Lukcy Dragon, except London Drugs is a Canadian convenient store and not American. I found out there are roughly 63 London Drugs across Canada, most of which has the same set up and appearance. hmmm.. sort of "freaky" if you think of it.





by: Rosalie Pham

The Silent, the Ignorant, the Mysterious: Silencio

Silencio is an unusual and mysterious Hispanic boy who first appeared in chapter 6 with Raton and Playboy. There are few descriptions given about Silencio, and little dialogues and conversations that occur between him and other characters until the end of the story where the readers discover more meaning of his existence and purpose.

In chapter 6 when Silencio is introduced, the language, diction and style writing suddenly changes into simpler, straightforward, short, and non-complex sentences. This style of writing and language perhaps corresponds to his character. His name immediately signifies who he is: a silent boy. He appears very absent-minded from the world and is seized by only one thing: his imagination and obsession for watches, a particular watch known as the “Futurematic”. Sometimes it even seems like Silencio does not exist in the world, and has little significance or importance to the world and this is due to his strange silence and absences in his eyes and lack of facial expression and gestures. One of the few descriptions states him as “[t]here is nothing between the boys gaze and his being: no mask. No personality.” and “[n]othing. Nothing moves in the brown eyes. The boy regards [the man in the coat] as calmly as might some placid dog” (41). “Nothing moves in the brown eyes” gives an impression that he’s not physically present, but instead he’s somewhere else in his mysterious imaginative world, ignorant and naïve about what is currently infront of him. The “only absence behind the brown eyes, staring back at [Fontaine], either infinitely deep or of no depth at all, he couldn’t tell” (132) describes Silencio as very difficult to read or understand, especially when there is no emotion and “life” in his eyes.

Nevertheless, Silencio’s curious silence and absences continually plays an important role in the story and “the end of the world”. Just like the other characters, Silencio’s story line is a fragmentation that intertwines and comes together for one purpose.

Side note: I never knew the watch, LeCoultre “Futurematic” actually really does exist in real life! I was searching the internet for some pictures and coincidently, I landed upon the Futurematic! Here’s the website: www.jaeger-lecoultre.com if you’re interested in it’s collection, history and manufacture! The watches they have are very nice!

By: Rosalie Pham

Laney the Obsessed

In All Tomorrow’s Parties written by William Gibson, Colin Laney’s character is very suspenseful and difficult to comprehend, especially at the beginning of the story. It starts with Laney living in darkness, in a cardboard box in Tokyo city who is sick, never leaves the box unless he needs to empty his urine bottle, obsessed with Cody Harwood and talks of nodal points and people after him. The foreign, incoherent and disconnected information in the first few chapters made it very confusing to read. When I started the book, particularly the first chapter about Laney, all I thought was: what? who is he, what is he talking about, why is he living in a cardboard box?


However, as the novel proceeds and the plot unfolds, I realized a pattern: each chapter is devoted to and narrates one character. After recognizing how the novel is structured, it makes reading less difficult and much more easier to understand the various characters in the story. Laney’s character becomes more comprenhensible, interesting and very unique; nevertheless, there are times where he is still puzzling, for instance this is shown in chapter 8, "The Hole". "The Hole is that which Laney's being is constructed around ... into which he has always stuffed things: drugs, career, women, information" (40). I still don't quite understand what "the Hole" represents. Perhaps it is his mind? A place where he stores everything, including his life, his beloved and his emotions? Any thoughts and comments on this?

Laney was an orphanage in Gainesville, and infected with the syndrome 5-SB that made him become a psychic, gave him the gift to perceive and identify patterns or “nodal points” within enormous tracts of media information. He is able to feel changes that occurs in the world, and can form predictions, such as the world is going to end soon and it’s going to happen at San Francisco. This makes him special for he has the capability to “progress through all the data in the world (or the data’s progress through him)” (163). This ability has become “what he is, rather than what he does” (163). It makes him obsessive with data flows, and leads him to becoming obsessed with Harwood, who we find out near the end, is just very much like Laney. (Harwood has taken the 5-SB and has the same talent as Laney.)

On the side note: What strikes me the most is that Colin Laney reminds me of the movie Johnny Mnemonic starring Keanu Reeves, and surprisingly the movie is based and inspired by the short story “Johnny Mnemonic” which is written by Gibson. Likewise, Johnny Mnemonic has a cyberpunk plot. It is set in a futuristic time, consisting of hackers, artificial intelligence and large corporations just like “All Tomorrow’s Parties”. I find it interesting that Laney shares some similar abilities with Johnny. Although the two stories have completely different plots, the parallel ideas and characters helped me relate and understand Laney better!

By: Rosalie Pham

Reg the Misunderstood

Reg is misunderstood throughout the story. Not only is he misunderstood by his family but he is also misunderstood by himself. He does not even know the world in which he lives. I believe his arrogance has created a world that nobody else is allowed into and he isn’t allowed out of. It almost seems as though he has brainwashed himself against the world. Only a traumatic incident can weaken the walls of his world and allow the bliss of some peaceful escape where he can finally interact with another individual on the grounds of caring and understanding. The traumatic issues in his life which I am referring to, begins with the death of his beloved son Kent and heightens to a revolutionary point with the assumed death of his not so beloved son Jason. Once Reg finally opens his mind and enters a world where belief and doubt surround your everyday life does he realize the benefit of understanding and compassion for feelings. Unfortunately by this point, he is alone. He is lucky enough to have Heather as a friend with whom he can trust. To put it plainly, the only reason he has Heather is because she wasn’t around Reg long enough to create a deep loathing towards the man as the rest of his family did. I also personally believe that Heather communicates with Reg out of pure obsession with Jason. He is the only person who is a part of Jason that she has left, these factors make there relationship one of opportunity and convenience.
My feelings towards Reg are simply of anger and pity. I hate the psychological issues he inflicted upon his family. His cold hearted ways made there lives more difficult. It was no wonder his wife turned into an alcoholic, broke his knee and left him. All he ever did was kick his family when they were down. Like when he called Jason a murdered after the massacres, or when he told Barb that one of her twins did not have a soul. In my opinion, only a man with no soul could say either of those things. Yet another part of me feels pity towards Reg. Especially near the end of the story when he has had his revelation and is beginning to understand. He is so alone, so full of regret and remorse. It is unfortunate that his revelation or finding of identity, whatever you want to call it, did not occur earlier in his life. Before he pushed everyone away for his beliefs or before those he cared about left him because of them. On the other hand, maybe it would have been better if Reg would have never entered a world that had doubt, he would have finished his life and died vainly but maybe he would have died a happier man.