TRTR, Pt 2, C 2 "does there exist such a thing as mermaids, sar?"

[David Morris]

Yes, I was agreeing.  And (like your point to mark re. Gaddis/Elliot)
I think one of the main points of the book is the degradation of
humanity by modern culture (which is what links him to Pynchon).  So
many of the characters in the NYC scenes of TR are so much like
Pynchon's Whole Sick Crew in V.  The ones that contrast with them
(Wyatt) have a deeply spiritual side, and have brushes with the
numinous.

David Morris

On Wed, Jul 27, 2011 at 5:59 PM, Richard Ryan <himself at richardryan.com> wrote:
> I *think* David may be agreeing with me (I think).   That sympathy is
> precisely why I wouldn't (at this point in my journey into The
> Recognitions) want to describe Gaddis as a "non-believer."   Aware
> agnostic?  Romantic skeptic?
>
>
>
> On Wed, Jul 27, 2011 at 5:50 PM, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
>> It's not only that Gaddis WROTE those supernatural sections into TR,
>> it's that he seems sympathetic to those sections, to their having
>> "really" happened in the world of this novel.
>>
>> On Wed, Jul 27, 2011 at 4:32 PM, Paul Mackin <mackin.paul at verizon.net> wrote:
>>> On 7/27/2011 4:45 PM, Richard Ryan wrote:.
>>>>
>>>> If we think that Gaddis is an atheist and a materialist, how do we
>>>> account for mystical/magical events in The Recognitions?  I.e, Wyatt
>>>> seeing his mother's ghost on her death; Wyatt's recuperation after the
>>>> sacrifice of the Barbary Ape; the supernaturally evil power that Brown
>>>> has over Wyatt, etc.?
>>>
>>> Also there's no inconsistency in an author's writing about supernatural
>>> goings-on and also not believing they could happen?
>>>
>>> Also the reverse is true.
>>
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Richard Ryan
> New York and the World
> ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
> "The reasonable man adapts himself to the conditions that surround
> him. The unreasonable man adapts surrounding conditions to himself.
> All progress depends on the unreasonable man." - Shaw
>