Contemporary Fiction/Gaddis

[Tore Rye Andersen]

>Date: Thu, 14 Sep 2006 16:31:40 -0400
>From: jd <wescac at gmail.com>
>Subject: Re: Contemporary Fiction
>
>I have a constant debate in my mind as
>to whether The Recognitions or GR should truly be considered the best
>of the last half of the 20th century.

The Recognitions is truly a great novel, but I have to say that I admire the 
novel more than I like it, and I don't think it comes close to Pynchon's 
achievement in GR. In some sense, I even think Gaddis' debt to Pynchon is 
greater than Pynchon's debt to Gaddis. The Recognitions didn't really 
receive the recognition it deserved before Pynchon's first three novels were 
published. Just as it took the advent of Modernism to teach readers to read 
Moby-Dick, it took the advent of Pynchon to teach readers to read Gaddis. 
(The Recognitions was reissued in paperback in 1974 and received a glowing 
review by Tony Tanner in the NYTBR: Tanner naturally compared Gaddis' 
achievement with Pynchon's).
Furthermore, I believe that the critique you level at The Brothers Karamazov 
(and I totally agree with your critique) can also be leveled at The 
Recognitions: Gaddis really wants Wyatt Gwyon to be the true hero of his 
novel, but for me he seems so much less interesting than a lot of other 
characters in the novel (Otto, the hilarious phony, is my personal favorite, 
with Recktall Brown as a close second). I found Wyatt interesting as I first 
read the novel, but in my re-readings I've found him a bit annoying, to tell 
the truth. He seems too much the prototypical tormented artist to be truly 
interesting. There is way too much about his "feverish looks", "burning 
eyes" etc. (which in fact seem to come right out of Dostoevsky), and way too 
much tormented agonizing over metaphysical questions, at least for my taste. 
Gaddis himself has claimed that The Recognitions was his attempt to write 
"the last Christian novel", but in my opinion he should have let Dostoevsky 
take care of that and focused his energies on other areas.
Still, The Recognitions is undoubtedly a masterpiece (as is The Brothers 
Karamazov), and what is especially impressive is the fact that it was 
written during the stale 50'es. Gaddis' novel went against the grain 
('Against the Day', as it were) and the critics kashered him. Gaddis' was 
not the only masterpiece out of the 50'es, though: Invisible Man and Lolita 
come to mind, and I think both of these novels will last as long as The 
Recognitions.