Gaddis & Pynchon

[Mark Kohut]

Seconded with other 'evidence' i could bloviate about but
my bloviating is too much with me.......at the moment. 

----- Original Message -----
From: David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com>
To: P-list <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Cc: 
Sent: Wednesday, October 5, 2011 9:31 AM
Subject: Gaddis & Pynchon

I recently finished listening (not reading - cheating, I know.) The
Recognitions, and am convinced that Pynchon read it, for many reasons.
If it did influence Pynchon, it can be most readily seen in V.  The
scathing satire, the vast "whole sick crew," the wrap-up fates of so
many (especially the "febes") at the end.

That said, I decided to buy the audio book of JR, and started it last
night.  I think it will require a bit more focus than TR.  But pulling
up the Wiki page for JR, I found the following:

**This chaotic writing style may, some critics argue, reflect Gaddis'
preoccupation with entropy and with the 20th century's rejection of
Newtonian physics, the narrative style thus reflecting a quantum and
Heisenbergian world of "waste, flux and chaos."**

And:

**Gaddis himself wrote in an essay, "the more complex the message, the
greater the chance for error. Entropy rears as a central preoccupation
of our time."  In J R, entropy manifests itself as "a malign and
centrifugal force of cosmic disruption at work scattering everything
in [people's] heads, homes and work"**

Again, parallels w/ TRP.

David Morris