that's MISTER William Gaddis to you, pal

[Andrew Dinn]

Brian Stonehill Media Studies Pomona College writes:

> Please forgive the contumely of the subject line.

> But when grip asks, with that certain tone, 

> >Should I bother to order Recognitions?


> one has to say Yes, yes of course you must.  That's landmark
> material, and if Bill's punctuation scheme looks unfamiliar to you,
> look back at _Ulysses_ (or _A Portrait_) for the authority of it.

That's Yes as in YES. Stumbling over punctuation (or lack thereof) is
to Gaddis what tripping over plot (or lack thereof) is to Pynchon i.e.
you have to snap out of it. And just as Pynchon tells a whopper of a
story (history) without the safety net of a plot, so Gaddis is a
master of dialogue sans the normal accoutrements of quotation and
attribution.

Brian is quite right to refer to Ulysses. Gaddis' only speech mark is
JJ's leading dash. Where Gaddis differs is that there is almost no
interlarded descriptive to connect the dialogue - voices just drift
from one scene to the next (this most extremely and brilliantly in JR,
less so in The Recognitions). The voices are realistic *and*
distinctive so it is not as hard work as it seems at first read (and
of course that implies, like JJ and TRP, that you have to reread).

If you really want to appreciate Gaddis technique at his best then
read the opening section of JR (about 3-4 pages) and reread until you
can identify the voices, characters behind them and their family
history in miniature (it's all there - Gaddis, like Pynchon and
despite appearances to the contrary, puts all the info you need right
on the page). Then go back and be boggled by the skill with which so
little text and no overt *interference* from a narrator has rendered
so much understandable.


Andrew Dinn
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O alter Duft aus Maerchenzeit / Berauschest wieder meine Sinne
Ein naerrisch Heer aus Schelmerein / Durchschwirrt die leichte Luft