TRTR: Racking my brain over The Rackignitons....

[Bekah]

The Recognitions was first published in 1955.  So Gaddis was writing it while McCarthyism was in full swing  but it died out in the mid and late '50s.   Folks kind of came to their senses.  It's very difficult to write fiction about something that's going on in the moment.  (Suite Francaise by Irène Némirovsky is an obvious exception.    Besides,  Gaddis might have been black-listed himself.    

TRP was 18 when The Recognitions was published.  V. wasn't published until 8 years later,  1963.    So TRP wrote about McCarthyism  almost as history - as hind-sight at any rate.   No one was going to put him on a blacklist - no one was going to have him testify.  
**
 McCarthyism was dying out as The Recognitions went to press: 

Richard Nixon in 1954 -  "Men who have in the past done effective work exposing Communists in this country have, by reckless talk and questionable methods, made themselves the issue rather than the cause they believe in so deeply."  

Louisville Courier-Journal, reported that:   "In this long, degrading travesty of the democratic process McCarthy has shown himself to be evil and unmatched in malice." Leading politicians in both parties, had been embarrassed by McCarthy's performance and on 2nd December, 1954, a censure motion condemned his conduct by 67 votes to 22. 

more at:   http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAmccarthyism.htm

feeble thoughts at first-cup AM
Bekah



On Jun 21, 2011, at 7:51 AM, Mark Kohut wrote:

> Where do some thoughts come from,  I ask myself, in ways that won't much 
> interest you plisters?
> 
> But, last evening I was ill, chills and fever and waking up often and once when 
> I did I had this thought:
> Do you know what isn't in The Recogntions, given its time frame? 
> 
> McCarthyism.  
> 
> Pervades TRP; compare and contrast.