TT 1.3 - "The Recognitions"

[cfabel]

Well, not necessarily, right? Perhaps we recognize best the patterns we
create?

C. F. Abel
Chair
Department of Government
Stephen F. Austin State University
Nacogdoches, Texas 75962
(936) 468-3903




-----Original Message-----
From: owner-pynchon-l at waste.org [mailto:owner-pynchon-l at waste.org] On Behalf
Of David Morris
Sent: Tuesday, April 26, 2011 4:37 PM
To: Jed Kelestron
Cc: pynchon -l
Subject: Re: TT 1.3 - "The Recognitions"

Then Gaddis' intention is a rather doctrinaire one: insisting on a reality,
on patterns, that exist independent of an observer.  in GR (and elsewhere)
Pynchon goes into great depth exploring pattern recognition as being,
possibly, the paranoid invention of the observer.  Reality is never
confirmed nor denied.

David Morris

On Tue, Apr 26, 2011 at 4:27 PM, Jed Kelestron <jedkelestron at gmail.com>
wrote:
> [In his working notes for the novel Gaddis wrote: "The Recognitions as 
> title I like perfectly because it implies the impossibility of escape 
> from a (the) pattern"]
> ---------------------------------------
>
> The character Otto's character Gordon says, "Orignlty not inventn bt snse
of recall, recgntion, pttrns alrdy thr. q. You cannt invnt t shpe of a
stone." This is not the only way the word recognition is used in the text,
but it is an important one. Recognizing the underlying patterns, the
archetypal substrate, the Platonic ideals. Ties in with Aunt May's
demonization of human creativity. Reality is already there. It can't be
created, only recognized.
>