Bleeding Edge , riffs on the title

[Bekah]

Oh absolutely!   I was not meaning to discount the geek-side meaning to the term at all!  I was only suggesting a certain amount of layering to the meaning.  And yes,  the techie meaning was probably the main point of the title.  I only said "not to neglect"  and "part of the plot."     I understand this is not mainly a murder mystery.  

I just checked -  pages 78 and 437 use the term "bleeding-edge"  (spelled like that) and in both cases it's about technology,  not knives or  murder.  

Bekah

On Sep 26, 2013, at 9:24 PM, Christopher Simon <kierkegaurdian at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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 ...
> From: Bekah
> Sent: ‎9/‎26/‎2013 10:41 PM
> To: John Bailey
> Cc: David Morris; Joseph Tracy; P-list List
> 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
>>>> 
>>> 
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