Is Cloudwebstore the real hashslingrz?

[Robin Landseadel]

I was being fictional and referring to a character in Bleeding Edge,  
Phipps Epperdew, aka "Vip" on account of the way "he always looks like  
he's just emerged from a Lounge or flashed a Discount Card with the  
acronym on it." I was extrapolating that sort of criminal but legal  
and NSA approved shenanigans an out and out crook like "Vip" would  
deploy is search of personal gain, I'm not is disagreement with you,  
The kid—Felix—who said that it's technology, it's beyond good and  
evil, he's the idealist. "Vip" isn't an idealist. I'm pointing to a  
character in the novel who obviously will become one of the  
perpetuators of the crash and one who will gain by the crash. Musical  
chairs/looting, six of one . . .

I'm projecting into the present, as is always the case with a new  
Pynchon novel. All of the author's novels are half-set in the  
'present', the time and zeitgeist happening while the novel is  
published. Cloudwebstore is a new entity. It obviously is built from  
an infrastructure of servers, lots of them. Big data = big snooping.  
Did Pynchon mention Cloudewebstore in "Bleeding Edge"? Not  
specifically. But when Gabrial Ice goes all out for servers in the  
Arctic? TRP is pointing to entities like Cloudwebstore. Surprising how  
a crazy idea with a crazy genesis like Facebook can become the nexus  
of so much digital espionage.

On Nov 25, 2013, at 8:31 AM, Joseph Tracy wrote:

> Who does "VIP" refer to? I thought it was virtual internet provider,  
> a generic term, not an entity. Are you talking about google (biggest  
> bandwidth owner) or how the conflicker virus invaded computer  
> systems and allows the rental of cloudspace to spammers and shady  
> internet enterprises? Isn't Cloudwebstore a newcomer? I'm probably  
> forgetting something from the book.
>
> The banks were looted? Looks to me like banks and finance industry  
> blew a big international financial bubble with mortgage backed  
> "securities/derivatives" and played a game of musical chairs as to  
> who would be sitting when the music stopped. Taxpayers were then  
> forced by the finance industry cronies in government to put money  
> into the banks so they could borrow it later. Weirder and weirder.
>
> One thing that should be noted as regards crash of 2008 is the  
> degree to which the MSM  or any other public or government medium   
> of information failed to see it coming, while there were quite a few  
> outsiders from all political and economic perspectives who predicted  
> the exact nature of the looming event.
>
> They remain outsiders with no increase in MSM respect.
>
>
> On Nov 24, 2013, at 12:08 PM, Robin Landseadel wrote:
>> Reading BE, seems like this is one of the real punchlines of the  
>> book: we are all looking at 9/11, that wonderful distraction, while  
>> the banks are being looted by the likes of "VIP", who somehow  
>> around 2004 starts buying up bandwidth like it's going out of  
>> style. Really, the financial stuff we ignored while we were boiling  
>> over over Iraq and that incredibly effective dunderhead in the oval  
>> office is what all that Bleeding Edge Webware really did to all of  
>> us. And control of information over every nook and cranny on the  
>> internet? Built right into the system from the ground up. This is  
>> really, honestly, the very best that DARPA and its many friends and  
>> affiliates has to offer. Doubtless Cloudwebstore and the Powers  
>> That Be are going to be really good buddies.
>>
>> Meanwhile, back in Echo Courts, filming commences on the opening  
>> credit sequence of The Crying of Lot 49. Black & White. A pocket  
>> transistor radio. Dark lacquered fingernail switches radio on,  
>> music commences. Credit titles flash over Slow zoom to small  
>> decoration over speaker grill, 'til the little oval fills the  
>> screen. Decoration is a silver and black muted posthorn, logo for  
>> this particular model. Music playing is "Have You Seen Her Face?"  
>> Only first verse of the song plays, up to "Can't hide from that  
>> look in her eye." Music and visuals are cut, screen goes to color,  
>> envelope of letter obscuring Oedipa's eyes as she scryes the back  
>> of envelope, muted posthorn overstamp visible to camera's pov but  
>> only just barely as the envelope and hand holding envelope descend  
>> and we see her face:
>>
>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Kr4xG-Zg9I
>> -
>> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l
>
> -
> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l

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Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l