Recog ch 2

[edmoorester at gmail.com]

n Fri, Apr 22, 2011 at 9:29 PM, Michael Bailey
<michael.lee.bailey@[omitted]> wrote:
I guess Wyatt doesn't hope for an eternal reward.
All his history to me at one point suggested that.

which things made you think that?

for me the idea cropped up when he talks about "the vanishing point"
which is suggestive but I'm not sure how to express why that makes me
think about post-life planning...

mainly, though, the best indicator is that he doesn't act in his own
epicurean interests, but refuses Cremer's kind offer --

If he doesn't believe in some kind of transcendental rightness that he
has to answer to, be judged by, and expect non-earthly rewards from,
then why does he do that?




"It is the bliss of childhood that we are being warped most when we
know it the least." p26 penguin '93 edition

I guess Wyatt doesn't favor the "pornographic phantasms" of the afterlife
with the harps or the 40 virgins or whatever else but he sure puzzles me.

I need to reconsider the vanishing point. . .that concept flew over my
head

I like seeing how Wyatt is trying to suss out a pattern of living. .
some code to live by that will serve him well. . .

I notice that Gaddis teases Dale Carnegie sometime later in the story
and want to see if Wyatt will try on different codes/masks to deal
with what chance/life will bring him

I think back to Pascal's wager and wonder if Gaddis is trying to
drape Wyatt with a certain "puzzle logic" that will cripple him

I think he got "warped" early on and places a huge value on his own work
(some protestant thing) in a dysfunctional way but that is my own
opinion.

I hope he adapts.

I don't expect a self-righteous indignation speech later in the story.
Wyatt doesn't strike me like that. . a stoic.

But hell. . .I don't mind if he bitches because he deserves it and
needs to interact with someone vis a vis discussing his "pattern"
or way of looking at the world which actually is pretty admirable in my  
opinion.

ed
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