_V._: Inconclusive Unscientific Postscript

[jbor]

on 7/29/01 2:09 AM, Alan Westrope at awestrop at dimensional.com wrote:

> While the question of whether Pynchon read Gaddis before writing _V._
> seems to me one of the most interesting in postwar U.S. fiction, I'm
> not much interested in whether he read Gaddis *after* _V._ was published.
> (It would hardly be surprising if TRP decided to read Gaddis after seeing
> published assertions that he actually *was* Gaddis, though it's equally
> conceivable he chose to avoid Gaddis so as to avoid any possibility of
> contamination from the influence of a similar writer.)
> 
> I expect we'll never know...

Steven Moore has an article in _Pynchon Notes_ 11 entitled "'Parallel, Not
Series': Thomas Pynchon and William Gaddis" which picks up on the issues
Alan raises here. 

The reference to "carpenter gothic outhouses" early in _Vineland_ seals the
latter, less interesting, question for mine. As to the former, it is
certainly a possibility. While Pynchon, and perhaps more obliquely, Gaddis,
have both been quite forthcoming about some of the work they did read,
neither author ever denied reading the other's novels. (And Gaddis *was*
quite firm about not having read _Ulysses_ when it was suggested as an
inspiration for _The Recognitions_. I suspect that it would've been much
more difficult for him to argue that he hadn't read *about* that novel,
however.) I'd be inclined to attribute a certain Salingeresque obstinacy
rather than "fear of contamination" if either man had actively resolved not
to the read the other's work.

While not meaning to discount the pertinence of Alan's comparison, I'd also
add that that recourse to an almanac of events is not as uncommon as might
be thought. Ayn Rand uses the same and similar tactics on a couple of
occasions too, and there are other precedents I'm sure.

The Gaddis-list are doing a group read of the second novel, _JR_, starting
in September I believe, which some here might be interested in. Neither as
dense nor as erudite as _The Recognitions_, that novel does pose a whole
other set of problems for the hapless reader nonetheless.

best