Bleeding Edge’s publicity

December 30, 2013 · by · in Uncategorized

Before its official publication, Bleeding Edge was promoted online by unorthodox and perhaps unauthorized means. More cryptic and oblique than the author’s narrated video “trailer” for Inherent Vice, the viral campaign included:

  • a leak of the novel’s first page to Vice in April
  • a web site created to represent hashslingrz.com*
  • and an amateurish (or seemingly amateurish) home video, referring only glancingly to the plot of the novel but starring a college-age actor in a “Hi, I’m Tom Pynchon” t-shirt.

A post on the pop culture site deathandtaxes (sounds like Thurn and Taxis?) broke the news about the web site and video on Sept. 4.

A second excerpt from the novel, featuring a description of DeepArcher, was posted on Vice on Aug. 21.

*This project is the work of a fan not officially connected with Pynchon or Penguin, according to research done by Paul Benzon (@pbenzon).