Crunch time: Bleeding Edge, Marxism, and financial capital

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis article argues Pynchon’s Bleeding Edge (2013) offers a more imaginative compass in which to navigate the complex cultural frames of finance, crisis, neoliberalism, and the market. It is divided into two main sections. The first uses Paul Crosthwaite’s recent arguments about the unsuitability of much of ‘crunch-lit’ – fictions of the financial crisis – to adequately capture the unreality of financial exchange, thereby prompting a search for other narrative modes to successfully address the abstractions of contemporary global finance. Through examining selected sections, the article argues for the formal superiority of Pynchon’s style in relation to economy-led critique. The second section excavates a narrative of radical left-wing affiliation, particularly in relation to the characters Maxine Tarnow and March Kelleher, demonstrating how Pynchon’s narrative remains remarkably close to the Marxist political tradition, and dialectical criticism in particular.