Bleeding Edge , riffs on the title

Mark Kohut markekohut at yahoo.com
Sat Sep 28 11:10:30 CDT 2013 

"Richly associative", verbally inclusive with his titles (and metaphors) is TRP. Full of Empson's meaning to the wordambiguities in Seven Types of Ambiguity:  
from Wikipedia:  We have ambiguity when "alternative views might be taken without sheer misreading."  
Seven types
	1. The first type of ambiguity is the metaphor, that is, when two things are said to be alike which have different properties. This concept is similar to that of metaphysical conceit.
	2. Two or more meanings are resolved into one. Empson characterizes this as using two different metaphors at once.
	3. Two ideas that are connected through context can be given in one word simultaneously.
	4. Two or more meanings that do not agree but combine to make clear a complicated state of mind in the author.
	5. When the author discovers his idea in the act of writing. Empson describes a simile that lies halfway between two statements made by the author.
	6. When a statement says nothing and the readers are forced to invent a statement of their own, most likely in conflict with that of the author.
	7. Two words that within context are opposites that expose a fundamental division in the author's mind.[2]
 
 

________________________________
 From: Joseph Tracy <brook7 at sover.net>
To: P-list List <pynchon-l at waste.org> 
Sent: Friday, September 27, 2013 2:52 PM
Subject: Re: Bleeding Edge , riffs on the title
  

I think when it comes to double or triple entendres, usually P is more both-and, than either-or. The thing about the tech term is that it comes directly from and in reference to the phrases cutting edge and leading edge.  The metaphoric possibilities all fit the content of the story rather elegantly.  
On Sep 27, 2013, at 8:24 AM, Bekah wrote:

> 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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