Recognizing The Recognitions

[Mark Kohut]

Greeaaate f'in quote....Great!

I am gonna tweet it..presently!



________________________________
From: Erik T. Burns <eburns at gmail.com>
To: Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com>; pynchon -l <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Tue, March 22, 2011 9:09:49 AM
Subject: Re: Recognizing The Recognitions


yes, laugh -- 
 
"--He said, It makes the present. He said, it must be shared, and being so, 
makes the present. Laughter."
 
(p380)
 
This is one of my favorite quotes from _The Recognitions_ and I think central 
(pivotal!) to Gaddis' concerns. To reduce it to a twitter-sized soundbite: The 
past is very serious, the future is very serious. In the present, all you can do 
is laugh.
 
 
 
 


On Tue, Mar 22, 2011 at 12:12 PM, Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com> wrote:

Analytic 'spoiler"..(let's get some of this labeling out of the way, I say): 
>
>
>To play a big joke on modernism is one of the ways postmodernism is born?   
>
>
>Therefore, pivot [The Recognitions is a pivotal book?] and laugh? 
>
>
>
________________________________
 From: Erik T. Burns <eburns at gmail.com>
>To: pynchon -l <pynchon-l at waste.org>
>Sent: Tue, March 22, 2011 7:37:20 AM
>Subject: Re: Recognizing The Recognitions
> 
>
>
>"The novel began as a much shorter work" 
>
>Don't they all? ;-)
> 
>I would like to argue that the "amazing erudition" of _The Recognitions_ is in 
>large part a very big joke by WG on modernism, on the Eliotic need to 
>shore fragments against one's ruins, this being the most evident in Gwyon's 
>gusher in Chap 3 where there are pages and pages of references, an attempt to 
>assemble a modern mithraism out of his broad and eccentric reading. What gets me 
>is that Gwyon knows this is mostly mumbo jumbo, to ensure that the priesthood 
>retains mystery, and to ensure that the majority remains "outside the 
>mysteries."
> 
>As impressive and enlightening and fun as scrabbling through these deep piles of 
>references can, as with TRP that should not be the main point of the exercise. 
> 
>I expect we will eventually get into an argument about whether Gaddis is able to 
>create characters that are not flat, in contrast to the typical critique of TRP. 
>I find the characters in The Recognitions to be wonderful, yet often deeply 
>etched stereotypes as Gaddis works his allegory -- but then, as is so often 
>mentioned, The Recognitions is a roman à clef, and many of the characters are 
>real people Gaddis knew (incl Ernest Hemingway and of course Sheri Martinelli; 
>http://www.williamgaddis.org/recognitions/martinelli/smartinellismoore.shtml), 
>so it cuts both ways.
> 
>I am currently listening to the extraordinary audiobook of _The Recognitions_. 
>Nick Simpson proves that the characters are anything but flat.
> 
>etb  
> 
>   
> 
> 
> 
>
> 
>On Tue, Mar 22, 2011 at 11:13 AM, Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>Gaddis spent seven years writing The Recognitions. The novel began as a much
>>shorter work and as an explicit parody of Goethe’s Faust. During the period in
>>which Gaddis was writing the novel, he travelled to Mexico, Central America 
and
>>Europe.
>>Gaddis also found the title for the novel in The Golden Bough as Frazer noted
>>how Goethe’s Faust originally came from the Clementine Recognitions, a
>>third-century theological tract (See Clementine literature). It was from this
>>point on that Gaddis began to expand the novel. The novel was completed in
>>1949.[3]
>>[edit]
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>



      
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