The Wrecking Read

[Mark Kohut]

'We can reach back for centuries" quoted here in Chap 1.
Which could sum up the title for this chapter, as Gaddis does this. 
I am trying to write a thematic summary of this chapter but it ain't
easy and I'm hopping around soon. 

On the comparison: did The Recognitions enable TRP to "reach back for
centuries' in V.---to contrast with the present, which, hardly a spoiler, Gaddis
is going to do in upcoming chapters. Seems very like it.