Gaddis & Pynchon

[eburns at gmail.com]

A-and the new covers are really swell.

A book of Gaddis' correspondence is also in the pipeline, thanks to the tireless steve moore.

Gaddis is the perfect gateway drug to Pynchon, and vice versa. Together they take you from the 1940s in America through the current day. Plus Mason & Dixon.

Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

-----Original Message-----
From: rich <richard.romeo at gmail.com>
Sender: owner-pynchon-l at waste.org
Date: Wed, 5 Oct 2011 11:39:54 
To: David Morris<fqmorris at gmail.com>
Cc: P-list<pynchon-l at waste.org>
Subject: Re: Gaddis & Pynchon

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
>