3. Bleeding Edge: waiting to be reassembled
The ‘Word’ is definitely an interesting concept in The Crying of Lot 49, simply because of the myriad of analyses and meanings it received (cf. Grant 2008; Schaub 2013). What perhaps then is even more intriguing is its reappearance in Pynchon’s latest novel, Bleeding Edge, almost half a century later:
‘[Maxine is talking in DeepArcher to an enigmatic woman, after September 11. The woman says:] “Only here to have a look. Find out how long I can stay just at the edge of the beginning before the Word, see how long I can gaze in till I get vertigo – lovesick, nauseous, whatever – and fall in”’ (Pynchon 2014: 358).
The ‘Word’ can only make its appearance in the almost utopian space of DeepArcher. Some …show more content…
There are three clear representations of this order, restoration or consensus, in Pynchon’s latest novel. The first is the depiction of Ziggy and Otis’s New York City, or Zigotisopolis, in DeepArcher. The boys recreated a New York City, one before the attack, and it has a utopian quality: ‘rendered in a benevolently lighted palette […] this city that can never be […] their more merciful city […] this not-yet-corrupted screenscape’ (Pynchon 2014: 426-429). It is possible they attempt to return to a New York that is ‘whole’. In this light, it could also be interesting to look at the depiction of younger generations in Bleeding Edge, which, unfortunately, falls beyond the scope of this …show more content…
I began my paper with a simple question: is there a connection between The Crying of Lot 49 and Bleeding Edge? Are both novels similar because they sit between two periods? Furthermore, do both books display a sense of consensus? I first argued that The Crying of Lot 49 is indeed a novel that sits between modernism and postmodernism, and that opting for just one of the two genres, like Harvey (2013), does not do justice to the intricate, sometimes subtle, motifs and themes in the novel. Indeed, Pynchon’s concept of the ‘Word’, linked with consensus (Schaub 2013), does not fit into the postmodernist frame. Although Harvey (2013) is never explicit about it, he does believe that McHale’s theory of dominants is applicable without any problem on The Crying of Lot 49 (see: de Bourcier 2014), because the work is situated between two periods. Next, I analysed Bleeding Edge to see if this notion of ‘consensus’ was also present. In Bleeding Edge, the notion of consensus appears to be inherently linked to the idea of restoration or reassembling. Therefore, this motif, or perhaps even theme, appears prominently in the final third of the book, after the attack on World Trade Centre. Pynchon critics such as Albert Rolls (2013), Simon de Bourcier (2014) and Luc Herman (2014) certainly seem to notice the change in style in the finale of Bleeding Edge. Critics such as McLaughlin (2013) and Akbar (2007) reason that 11 September did influence
The ‘Word’ is definitely an interesting concept in The Crying of Lot 49, simply because of the myriad of analyses and meanings it received (cf. Grant 2008; Schaub 2013). What perhaps then is even more intriguing is its reappearance in Pynchon’s latest novel, Bleeding Edge, almost half a century later:
‘[Maxine is talking in DeepArcher to an enigmatic woman, after September 11. The woman says:] “Only here to have a look. Find out how long I can stay just at the edge of the beginning before the Word, see how long I can gaze in till I get vertigo – lovesick, nauseous, whatever – and fall in”’ (Pynchon 2014: 358).
The ‘Word’ can only make its appearance in the almost utopian space of DeepArcher. Some …show more content…
There are three clear representations of this order, restoration or consensus, in Pynchon’s latest novel. The first is the depiction of Ziggy and Otis’s New York City, or Zigotisopolis, in DeepArcher. The boys recreated a New York City, one before the attack, and it has a utopian quality: ‘rendered in a benevolently lighted palette […] this city that can never be […] their more merciful city […] this not-yet-corrupted screenscape’ (Pynchon 2014: 426-429). It is possible they attempt to return to a New York that is ‘whole’. In this light, it could also be interesting to look at the depiction of younger generations in Bleeding Edge, which, unfortunately, falls beyond the scope of this …show more content…
I began my paper with a simple question: is there a connection between The Crying of Lot 49 and Bleeding Edge? Are both novels similar because they sit between two periods? Furthermore, do both books display a sense of consensus? I first argued that The Crying of Lot 49 is indeed a novel that sits between modernism and postmodernism, and that opting for just one of the two genres, like Harvey (2013), does not do justice to the intricate, sometimes subtle, motifs and themes in the novel. Indeed, Pynchon’s concept of the ‘Word’, linked with consensus (Schaub 2013), does not fit into the postmodernist frame. Although Harvey (2013) is never explicit about it, he does believe that McHale’s theory of dominants is applicable without any problem on The Crying of Lot 49 (see: de Bourcier 2014), because the work is situated between two periods. Next, I analysed Bleeding Edge to see if this notion of ‘consensus’ was also present. In Bleeding Edge, the notion of consensus appears to be inherently linked to the idea of restoration or reassembling. Therefore, this motif, or perhaps even theme, appears prominently in the final third of the book, after the attack on World Trade Centre. Pynchon critics such as Albert Rolls (2013), Simon de Bourcier (2014) and Luc Herman (2014) certainly seem to notice the change in style in the finale of Bleeding Edge. Critics such as McLaughlin (2013) and Akbar (2007) reason that 11 September did influence