Bleeding Edge takes place in 2001

[John Bailey]

Oops, forgot to reply all.

On Tue, Feb 26, 2013 at 10:27 PM, John Bailey <sundayjb at gmail.com> wrote:
> V., COL49 and Vineland are the closest to contemporaneous, right?
> Vineland was published in 1990 and set in 1984, so it might be the
> most relevant comparison here, maybe? Is what I'm now thinking. I
> imagine it came together in the mid to late 80s. And Bleeding Edge
> might have been percolating for around the same time recently, though
> all probably have threads reaching back to whoever knows when.
>
> What really interests me is the way the 2001 setting of BE feels so
> current, when in fact it's more 'historical' than some of Pynchon's
> other novels.
>
> On Tue, Feb 26, 2013 at 10:10 PM, Heikki Raudaskoski
> <hraudask at sun3.oulu.fi> wrote:
>>
>>
>> William Slothrop and Kekule also come to mind from earlier centuries.
>> But yeah, there isn't that much century hopping in GR.
>>
>> I just realized that the main bulk of V.'s framing narrative is also
>> set in the NYC of the former decade.
>>
>> In V., the framing narrative acts as something of a sounding board
>> for the historical chapters. It remains to be seen if BE bears some
>> similarity to V. in this respect too.
>>
>>
>> Heikki
>>
>> On Mon, 25 Feb 2013 kelber at mindspring.com wrote:
>>
>>> You're absolutely right! Now I'm wracking my brain to think of all the
>>> sequences is GR and ATD. LK
>>>       -----Original Message-----
>>>       From: Antonin Scriabin
>>>       Sent: Feb 25, 2013 7:16 PM
>>>       To: kelber at mindspring.com
>>>       Cc: pynchon-l at waste.org
>>>       Subject: Re: Bleeding Edge takes place in 2001
>>>
>>>       Well V. takes place in the late 19th and early 20th
>>>       centuries, if I am not mistaken. Mason & Dixon is a purely
>>>       18th century affair, barring Vulcans.
>>>
>>>       On Feb 25, 2013 7:08 PM, <kelber at mindspring.com> wrote:
>>>             ATD spanned two centuries, late and early, and
>>>             it's hard to see how anyone could write about
>>>             2001, without referencing  back into the previous
>>>             century.  Aside from a brief hop back to the
>>>             demise of the dodos, doesn't GR (and all the
>>>             others) remain in a single century?  Previous
>>>             centuries are talked about in COL49, but we don't
>>>             actually go there.  Any other instances of
>>>             intra-book century hopping that I'm forgetting?
>>> Laura
>>>       -----Original Message-----
>>>       From: Antonin Scriabin
>>>       Sent: Feb 25, 2013 6:56 PM
>>>       To: kelber at mindspring.com
>>>       Cc: pynchon-l at waste.org
>>>       Subject: Re: Bleeding Edge takes place in 2001
>>>
>>>       Something tells me we won't be in this century
>>>       for long, or to the exclusion of other centuries.
>>>
>>>       On Feb 25, 2013 6:34 PM, <kelber at mindspring.com>
>>>       wrote:
>>>             Oops!  Working through earlier
>>>             emails, I see this was already
>>>             posted.  Exciting news, anyway.  With
>>>             all his zigzagging (yoyoing?) back
>>>             and forth in time, he's finally
>>>             arrived in our century.
>>>
>>>             Laura
>>>
>>>
>>>             -----Original Message-----
>>>             >From: kelber at mindspring.com
>>>             >Sent: Feb 25, 2013 6:22 PM
>>>             >To: pynchon-l at waste.org
>>>             >Subject: Bleeding Edge takes place
>>>             in 2001
>>>             >
>>>             >Dave Monroe posted this on Facebook,
>>>             but hasn't posted it here yet.  Dave?
>>>              Dave?!  Are you here?  Great find!
>>>             >
>>> >
http://www.theatlanticwire.com/entertainment/2013/02/thomas-pynchon-new-book-bl
>>>             eeding-edge/62483/
>>>             >
>>>             >"The book is about the early 21st
>>>             century tech scene in New York City.
>>>             According to the log line from the
>>>             reports' preview, "it is 2001 in
>>>             Silicon Alley, New York City, in the
>>>             lull between the collapse of the
>>>             dot-com boom and the terrible events
>>>             of September 11."
>>>             >
>>>             >Laura
>>>
>>>
>>>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://waste.org/pipermail/pynchon-l/attachments/20130226/42e4ce1b/attachment.html>