The Poetics of Patination in the Work of William Gibson

Abstract

In Jim Jarmusch’s 2009 film The Limits of Control, a character called Molecules tells the protagonist that “each one of us is a set of shifting molecules … spinning in ecstasy. In the near future worn-out things will be made new again by reconfiguring the molecules. Pair of shoes. Tires. Molecular detection will also allow the determination of an object’s physical history. This matchbox for example. Its collection of molecules could indicate everywhere its ever been. They could do it with your clothes. Or even with your skin, for that matter.” Until that happens, however, obsolescence, generally understood as the state of being out of date or no longer in use, will remain the downside of a constantly changing world, in the same way in which nostalgia, as the feeling of longing for objects, people, or situations from the past, is its psychological effect.