Gaddis & Pynchon

[rich]

fwiw...Dalkey is re-publishing both TR and JR in January at reasonable
$12 bucks each

On Wed, Oct 5, 2011 at 9:31 AM, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
> 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
>