The prophetic genius of BLEEDING EDGE

[rich]

i would guess Mr P himself would argue with the prophetic label. i always
assume great artists are good at soaking up what's around them, some just
better at making connections. isnt that what Pynchon is about? picking his
spots? funny, i think of lot 49 instead of BE when thinking about the
thoughts of today. he had something with that preeterite thing. but his
success must have given him a strange thought. how could he continue to
write about the lost. he carries a lab coat now not an open can of warm
beer. a heavy burden, man.

On Thu, Jul 5, 2018 at 6:34 AM, Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:

> Well said. I especially like the yoking---to me--of near opposites--maybe--
> in your
> combination of smug and prophetic.
>
> The start of a nuanced case against, I guess, but
> if your second sentence/paragraph is about BLEEDING EDGE then I disagree
> strongly, no surprise.
>
> I leads me to reflect that my steady-enouogh posting about how BE grows in
> my mind might be
> my smugness, so I'm recalibrating.
>
> BE might be behind the big three now in my personal best ranking.
>
>
>
> On Wed, Jul 4, 2018 at 12:25 PM David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > I hate art that is propaganda. So I agree with your complaint against
> > "usefulness."
> >
> > But I also hate smug, no heart, punditry-prophesy , especially by fiction
> > writers in novels.
> >
> > Like pornography, you only know it if it gets wet.
> >
> > On Wed, Jul 4, 2018 at 10:55 AM Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >> This dramatic prophecy which is BLEEDING EDGE
> >> has that survival theme beautifully embodied (as his other works have.
> He
> >> knows how to end a work of art, all of them, some more than others.
> >>
> >> I do not believe in more, --whatever "strategies for survival" and
> >> "usefulness" mean--for most Art.
> >>
> >> I especially believe TRP does not proscribe some course of action(s).
> His
> >> ambiguities allow lots of human responses.
> >>
> >> Sent from my iPhone
> >>
> >> On Jul 4, 2018, at 11:43 AM, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>
> >> Dramatic prophesies, however sharp, require strategies for survival, not
> >> "I told you so's" afterwards, to be useful.  Be useful.
> >>
> >> And strategies also require personal commitment to action to be
> credible.
> >>
> >> David Morris
> >>
> >> On Wed, Jul 4, 2018 at 10:25 AM gary webb <gwebb8686 at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>
> >>> Yes, I remember revisiting this conversation sometime in March back
> when
> >>> we
> >>> discussing Ernie's soliloquy, and Thomas sent me a link to discussions
> >>> past
> >>> about this subject. This late capitalist world we inhabit, the
> >>> digitization
> >>> of our lives, which is a long arc TP has been chronicling, but to
> >>> furiously
> >>> raid a cliche, but an apt cliche (I Promise...) the bacchanalia of the
> >>> digital world presented in Bleeding Edge is contrasted with brutal
> >>> reality
> >>> of life on the streets of NYC (Think of Nick Windust's pad) ... Once
> the
> >>> checks stop clearing, or whomever calls in the tab, the party's over,
> and
> >>> it's back to the streets or worse... In the cold hard light of dawn the
> >>> fraud becomes clear, the nascent fraud that underpins reality, it
> >>> hearkens
> >>> back to Lang's Metropolis... at least the social stratification...
> >>>
> >>> On Wed, Jul 4, 2018 at 9:08 AM Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >>>
> >>> > One aspect.
> >>> >
> >>> > All over the mid-world of intellectual chatter which I surf ( your
> >>> mileage
> >>> > may vary), highlighted by an oft-cited cover story Harper's piece on
> >>> how
> >>> > late capitalism money has driven all but the rich out of NY CITY,
> >>> >
> >>> > I remember the Plister who said, when we were reading it, Where are
> the
> >>> > Preterites?
> >>> >
> >>> > I think our group consensus was that P showed they were going, gone,
> >>> from
> >>> > NYC. (Maxine working for $500 -- if I remember right--was sorta the
> >>> last,
> >>> > so to suggest. )
> >>> >
> >>> > Sent from my iPhone
> >>> > --
> >>> > Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
> >>> >
> >>
> >>
> >>> --
> >>> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
> >>>
> >>
> --
> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>