_V._: Inconclusive Unscientific Postscript

[Otto]

I've only read Gaddis in translation up to now but I see more "parallel, not
series" between "The Recognitions" and "Gravity's Rainbow" than between "V."
and "The Recognitions," but this is just an opinion.

Gaddis appears on the cover of the German Thomas Pynchon-cd "Rasterfahndung"
but I haven't found out yet for sure who he is but I have the idea that he's
the one speaking some of the English quotes (The "Train"-poem, "Sold on
Suicide" and the very last poem of "GR") from "Gravity's Rainbow" -- so I
see his participation on this cd as kind of hommage to Pynchon.

The other names are Saul Bellow (who is identified by the "narrator") and
Philip Roth. The Germans are Harry Rowohlt plus Naumann, Ickstadt and
Kittler from that radio "discussion" which makes out most of the cd --
insofar it is a little bit disappointing and doesn't include very much
information. Moreover it lacks any additional bibliographical information.

Given all the religious questions and the Rilke-connection they're not so
far from each other working out the postmodern discourse.

Compared on this level even "Mason & Dixon" and "A Frolic of His Own" have
much in common in re-writing American history and its European philosophical
roots, the one dealing with post-revolution- and the other with post-Civil
War America.

Otto

Alan :
> > 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...
>

Robert:
> 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
>