My meeting with Mr.Gaddis

[Eric Alan Weinstein, Centre For English Studies, University Of London]

>
     I met Bill Gaddis about a year ago when he came to the 
Univ Of London's School of Advanced Study, paid for by the 
Institute of United States Studies, a right-wing sister institute to
the Centre For English Studies. (How right? It's chaired by 
Baroness Thatcher.)

      The title of Gaddis' lecture was "Why Its Not Possible
For Me To Give Lectures On My Work." He began his lecture
by making fun of the stupidity of the introduction to his work given
by Prof Gary McDowell (former US Solicitor General under Regan).
This went on for ten minutes and was very entertaining. He then
spoke about how The Recognitions suffered from a lack of
 recognition. In doing so he was defensive and self-effacing 
in equal measures. He seemed a bit, let us say, fragile. Finally,
 he spoke about some of the other writers he felt an affinity with:
 Pynchon, Vonnegut, Delillo and Volman amongst them. In a 
time hoodwinked by Reganisms, they were offering a different vision 
of America, for America and the world. But he felt them to hold 
a minority position vis a vis the Bellow's and the Updike's of this
world.

   Later there was a lunch, and my friend Garreth and I spoke to 
both Gaddis and also a lovely old buffer who was (something like)
Henry the Eighth Prof  In Physics at Cambridge. This chap
wore the best hand-made suit I have seen in some time, complete
with colourful bow tie, real (!) collars, RMA cufflinks and braces.
 His wife was a Keats/Shelly scholar, A VERY BEAUTIFUL  
woman of about 70 odd years. She, evidently, was an old friend
 of Mr. Gaddis, and called him (I think) Willy. Mr. Gaddis offered
 Garreth and myself, from a very fine gold cigarette case, two very 
long, very thin cigarettes. In fact they were extraordinary. He told me 
he had begun to smoke them in order to cut down on fags: thinner
 must mean less nicotine, mustn't it? (I mean, what a geezer!)

Gadddis said a few things I recollect. He said writing must be 
beautiful, what ever else it is. In writing the Recognitions, he had 
tried, in his way, to make a  well made object. In that, he admitted 
the influence of Eliot upon him and his generation. Further he said
 that he had written the Recognitions already, and critics should 
not  wonder why he had not, and could not, write the Recognitions
again. He also said that he wrote one book purely for money, 
and in the end, it had been no worse in many ways than books 
written for love. Iin this way there was a parallel with the relationships
 one has with other people. Some seemingly  based on mutual
  convienence at the time prove more rewarding and disinterested 
than relationships entered into for love which end their days as 
relationships of convienence.) 

    Sadly, not many students turned up to hear him read, sadder than
the telling fact that  some of our best-known celeb lecturers failed to 
appear as well. Still, Bill couldn't be too sad: after good drink
in London and more later in Cambridge at the Prof's house, he got to
fly home to a house in the Hamptons he shares (still, I think) with his
wife, Lauren Hutton.  
 
E.A.Weinstein
Centre For English Studies
University Of London
E.A.Weinstein at qmw.ac.uk