TR . . sure Gaddis is christian in perverse way (shade of gray)

[Mark Kohut]

Since my early Faust postings, I have learned from wikipedia article
on Gaddis that he started this novel as a PARODY of Faust....

what's that mean, I ask myself? That the 'hero' lives in the hell
of this world and then gets 'saved" rather than the reverse? (Although
as kai informs, goethe's Faust beats the devil's rap)....


 


----- Original Message ----
From: Edward A Moore <edmoorester at gmail.com>
To: pynchon-l at waste.org
Sent: Wed, April 13, 2011 1:11:56 AM
Subject: TR . . sure Gaddis is christian in perverse way (shade of gray)

definitely christian writer of sorts (campbell, cs lewis, tolkien
have same epic hero monomyth appreciation) and i want to see how one
of the heroes wyatt transforms

> does wyatt sell out? i guess his soul . . . kind of . . . .if the story starts 
>with faust quote on the making of a man which fills the first chapter function 
>as background info on wyatt and the faustian thing has ominous overtones with 
>outcome of the character

faust is definitely christian tale which recognitions quotes at beginning

In Joyce's ‘Shem the Penman’ of "Finnegans Wake" , Joyce describes the
work as an ‘epical forged cheque’ made up of ‘once current puns,
quashed quotatoes, messes of mottage’.

ironic in unintended way that people thought gaddis was directly
derivative of joyce's "ulysses" as his book "recognitions" questions
authenticity and originality

this book never would have been written when "divine" right of kings
was in effect

ed