Gaddis connection

[Sean Kinch]

I am interested by Andrew Dinn's Gaddis quotation to illuminate Pynchon's
style.  I'm a newcomer to this list and don't know if the Gaddis
comparisons have been overplayed, but I think they can be instructive.  In
a 1993 interview Gaddis was asked if he is in fact Pynchon, and he
responded flatly, "My own feeling is we are both on the same track.  We
both stumbled on entropy as a core concept."  He added that he hadn't read
that much Pynchon, so we may question whether the two are indeed "on the
same track."

 My initial observation, after reading GR and "The Recognitions" back to
back (which I don't recommend), is that aside from formal
similarities--including the absence of a traditional central
character--ideologically they are almost polar opposites.  Quickly:
Slothrop (somewhat figuratively) and V. (quite literally) disintegrate at
the end of their narratives; whereas Wyatt Gwyon achieves a certain
religious awakening.

Forgive the glibness, but I don't want to be guilty of dead horse beating
in my first Pynch-list posting.


***********************
"'Well done.' 'Bad luck.' 'Get cracking.' To this day I find it difficult
to imagine a situation that couldn't be fully resolved with one of these
phrases."

--DeLillo, "Ratner's Star"

Sean Kinch
University of Texas, Austin