Bleeding Edge - A Rolling Assessment

[Monte Davis]

Maxine works pretty well as an Upper West Sider for me, as do the subtle
distinctions between her crowd and the Upper East Siders. Those haven’t
changed much since those two groups were 90% of my classmates’ families in
the 1960s, when I attended Collegiate. (My family lived on E. 23rd St; every
school day I passed the Flatiron building -- the title page image -- twice.)

In 1974-76 UWSers in publishing and media, the digerati of the day,  were
most of my social circle living in a prewar apartment on W. 76th St. I moved
to a Brooklyn loft in 1976, and to a NJ suburb in 1991, but was in Manhattan
on business at least weekly all along -- which by 2001 had me in a lot of
digital-media office lofts in Chelsea. To me, the mise en scene rings pretty
true, more fine-grained and textured than the Manhattan of V (which has
always seemed more like a “Cornell student on a road trip to hear Monk and
mingle with beatniks” version). One thing I remember from the UWS of the
1960s and 1970s was a strong seasoning of European émigrés from the 1930s
and 1940s, which survives to the BE era only in a few touches like
Kugelblitz.

I too prefer BE to IV – basically because it’s less frenetic and cartoonish
-- and may end up preferring it to Vineland. Of course, to the extent the
geographic resonances cited above contribute to that, I bring almost none to
the Southern and Northern California of those books.

 ---        

From: owner-pynchon-l at waste.org [mailto:owner-pynchon-l at waste.org] On Behalf
Of Laura Kelber
Sent: Monday, September 23, 2013 2:15 PM
To: pynchon-l at waste.org
Subject: Re: Bleeding Edge - A Rolling Assessment

I'm halfway through, and hate to make any blanket statements, particularly
until I've read his depiction of 9/11. I'm a lifelong New Yorker (Brooklyn
), like the protagonist, I'm Jewish and , though  I was somewhat older, and
definitely less hot than our protagonist appears to be, my kids were on the
same age range as Maxine's ( and Pynchon's) in 2001. But Maxine doesn't come
across as a typical NY Jew to me. And the specific references to streets and
neighborhoods read like gratuitous name dropping, rather than providing
atmosphere.

All this being said, I prefer BE so far to IV. 

Laura

On Sep 23, 2013, at 9:53 AM, Carvill John <johncarvill at hotmail.com> wrote:
Ok well based on the below - my own comments plus Joe's - I'm suggesting
this thread as a way of tracking our assessment of Bleeding Edge. I'm
currently rating the book fairly low on the scale, but that will probably
change (I hope so) and in all likelihood others' opinions will also
oscillate over time, before finding their level.

So I'm suggesting an ongoing discussion (spoiler free, at least for now)
around how we feel about the new Pynchon novel overall.

I feel sadness and anger when I see how Pynchon is treated in the mainstream
press. As a lifelong Guardian reader, I was shocked (but not surprised) that
a recent 'Arts Preview' feature failed to even mention Bleeding Edge in the
literature section, and their review of the book (by Theo Tait) was a
travesty. That said, around 100 pages into the book myself, I am beginning
to have serious doubts about this one, doubts I never had about IV. Maybe
I'll come out of this thinking that it's uneven, that it starts badly, but
that overall it's as good as Inherent Vice (some would say that's no big
claim but not me). Maybe others here are loving it from the off, or maybe
began with great enthusiasm which then waned?

I also expect these feelings to change as we move through the Group Read.

So, opening bids please....



> From: brook7 at sover.net

> That said after a slow reading of 10 chapters I am bouncing between
extremes of amusement, intrigue and strong annoyance. 

> On Sep 23, 2013, at 4:33 AM, Carvill John wrote:

> > I'll eventually be writing some sort of online review myself, and so far
I'm worried about that. I'm 100 page in and thinking so far this is
Pynchon's worst book by a mile. I have heard that it picks up and there have
been a couple of decent passages thus far, but on the whole I am finding it
quite annoying. If this wasn't Pynchon, I'd be rating this book, based on my
progress so far, as 'poor'.