Technology in Bleeding Edge
The technology most described and focused on in Bleeding Edge is cyberspace, including the Internet, Deep Web and DeepArcher. According to Lento, cyberspace in its present state, includes “nearly any form of interaction between humans and computers” (4-5). This definition was subtracted from William Gibson’s novel Neuromancer, in which he describes the connection between human and computer as “a consensual hallucination…. A graphic representation of data abstracted from the banks of every computer in the human system. Unthinkable complexity. Lines of light ranged in the nonspace of the mind, clusters and constellations of data. Like city lights, receding” (qtd. in Lento, 4-5). In his novel Bleeding Edge, Pynchon also tries to establish a relation between humans and the Internet. Actually, he tries to do more than that by imposing on the Internet urging matters in society such as capitalism and paranoia. The first element I want to discuss is Pynchon’s definition of Luddism in which he makes a distinction between the dystopian and utopian world view, especially in relation to technology. This means that there is no clear delineation when it comes to loving or hating technology as a capitalist system. To put it bluntly, Pattel states that “Pynchon’s novels view freedom as an endangered value on the verge of extinction in a complex modern world driven by exigencies of economic gain and technological process” (xviii). Furthermore, he explains that