Bleeding Edge , riffs on the title

[Christopher Simon]

Prior to reading BE, 99% of the time when I saw the term it was referring to certain Linux distros like Arch. Everything (software) new enough that it came with warnings. Possible instability, much tinkering required to operate. I think that was a main point for title. The dot com bust, 9/11, DeepArcher-level gaming experiences ... all stuff new enough and dangerous enough that everyone was a new user without the requisite skills to see the clear path forward ...

-----Original Message-----
From: "Bekah" <bekah0176 at sbcglobal.net>
Sent: ‎9/‎26/‎2013 10:41 PM
To: "John Bailey" <sundayjb at gmail.com>
Cc: "David Morris" <fqmorris at gmail.com>; "Joseph Tracy" <brook7 at sover.net>; "P-list List" <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Subject: Re: Bleeding Edge , riffs on the title

Not to neglect the fact that part of the plot concerns a murder with a lot of blood and the knife handle gone missing. Only the blade - the edge - is left in the victim.  

(trying not to be specific due to spoilers) 

Bekah

On Sep 26, 2013, at 7:33 PM, John Bailey <sundayjb at gmail.com> wrote:

> Both/And? Don't think there's any primary reading - pretty polyvalent metaphor.
> 
> When I think of the word 'bleed' I think of sound bleed, or image
> bleed in print, where a signal or whatever travels where it's not
> supposed to. Noises from next door, or a photo that's accidentally
> escaped the border it was given on the page. (I recall someone posted
> a different, more technical definition of edge bleed in relation to
> publishing).
> 
> So Bleeding Edges are those points where a very Pynchonian line has
> been drawn, a border or fence or 0/1 split, but where things
> nonetheless make it across the excluded middle.
> 
> Among many, many other things, I imagine.
> 
> On Fri, Sep 27, 2013 at 12:23 PM, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
>> So "bleeding edge" means primarily financial bleeding.  Losses. Of
>> speculators, and all the rest.  Money, not Tech.
>> 
>> 
>> On Wednesday, September 18, 2013, Joseph Tracy wrote:
>>> 
>>> At first I thought the reference in the title was obviously to 2 modern
>>> phrases with similar meanings- the cutting edge and the leading edge.
>>> Somehow I just amalgamated that into a Detective style title with blood
>>> where the cutting was and didn't think much about it. But it is rather a
>>> sinister spin on the known phrases themselves. Cutting edge has somehow
>>> become a generic reference to the borders of technology and we use it that
>>> way without any real sense that something is actually being cut, let alone
>>> something that could bleed. But Pynchon has a long history of looking at the
>>> very bloody cutting edges of  all colonialist and all technological front
>>> lines. Where there are blunderbusses, rockets, surveyors, trains, mining,
>>> drilling, doodoes, hereroes, native north americans, electrical marvels,
>>> photos killing souls ...there will be  greed, lust, fighting, blood and
>>> mangled bodies. I didn't know that leading edge is not just a similar term
>>> but also refers to the forward edge of a wing.
>>> 
>>> So even in the title there may be a hint that the cutting edge and the
>>> leading edge may be the forward momentum of something dangerous to the soft
>>> flesh of the human, something destructive and possibly something self
>>> destructive.
>>> 
>>> But then I started looking up terms in wikipedia and came across the
>>> phrase itself-
>>> 
>>> Wikipedia:  Bleeding edge technology is a category of technologies
>>> incorporating those so new that they could have a high risk of being
>>> unreliable and lead adopters to incur greater expense in order to make use
>>> of them.[1][2] The term bleeding edge was formed as an allusion to the
>>> similar terms "leading edge" and "cutting edge". It tends to imply even
>>> greater advancement, albeit at an increased risk of "metaphorically cutting
>>> until bleeding" because of the unreliability of the software or other
>>> technology.[3] The first documented example of this term being used dates to
>>> early 1983, when an unnamed banking executive was quoted to have used it in
>>> reference to Storage Technology Corporation.[4]
>>> 
>>>    Obviously we are seeing the downside risk of internet technology
>>> threatening to become its most pervasive political and social character as
>>> Cheney's Total Information Awareness is started under Bush and secretly
>>> finished under Obama with much help and side benefits from google, verizon,
>>> apple, microsoft  hackers, etc.
>>> 
>>> Wikipedia:  The leading edge is the part of the wing that first contacts
>>> the air;[1] alternatively it is the foremost edge of an airfoil section.[2]
>>> The first is an aerodynamic definition, the second a structural one. As an
>>> example of the distinction, during a tailslide, from an aerodynamic
>>> point-of-view, the trailing edge becomes the leading edge and vice-versa but
>>> from a structural point of view the leading edge remains unchanged.
>>> 
>>>    ( This  aeronautic  meaning is clearly a use  pynchon would be
>>> familiar with. Along with the obvious reference to jet aircraft in the 9-11
>>> attack It adds a reference to GR  that suggests we are not quite in the
>>> clear from colonialist blowback.)
>>> 
>>> Wikipedia: Cutting edge or The Cutting Edge may refer to:
>>>        • The cutting surface of a blade or other cutting tool
>>>        • State of the art, the highest level of development, as of a
>>> device, technique, or scientific field
>>> 
>>>   Interestingly, in the Margaret Atwood trilogy I just finished , the
>>> character who kills most of humanity with a bio-engineered disease packaged
>>> in a sex drug has a scene where he goes from one part of the
>>> bio-enngineering complex he manages to another constantly referring to the
>>> work taking place as cutting edge.
>>> 
>>> The leading edge has taken on a more genaric spin-
>>> 
>>> The Leading Edge:  Journal of the Society of Exploration Geophysicists.
>>> 
>>>  And finally just for fun -here is an actual company who works in close
>>> alliance with the Golden Fang, Goldman Sachs, The Golden Triangle and
>>> wherever else the  shiny yellow gold is: Leading Edge Alliance: LEA Global
>>> www.leadingedgealliance.com/  A U.S. based international association of
>>> independently owned accounting and consulting firms whose services are
>>> listed as:
>>> ACCOUNTING & AUDITING,  BUSINESS ADVISORY,  CORPORATE FINANCE, EMPLOYEE
>>> BENEFIT SERVICES, ESTATE & EXECUTIVE FINANCIAL PLANNING, FINANCIAL PLANNING,
>>> HUMAN RESOURCES,  INFORMATION SECURITY, LITIGATION SUPPORT, RISK, TAX
>>> PLANNING & COMPLIANCE, TRANSACTION ADVISORY SERVICES, TRANSFER PRICING,
>>> VALUATION
>>> 
>> 
> -
> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l

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