NP - new editions of Gaddis' JR, The Recognitions

[Charles Albert]

Unless you already have a copy, there's, like, 60 reasons to do so.....I
had a hard time finding a used copy of Recognitions for less than $75
bucks....

love,
cfa

On Wed, Jan 25, 2012 at 9:44 AM, rich <richard.romeo at gmail.com> wrote:

> I've been through a few copies myself. no reason not to buy new ones
>
> the awesome Steven Moore is editing a collection of selected letters of
> William Gaddis (which I'm sure you know all about)
>
> Gaddis' interview published in the Paris Review is also wonderful reading:
>
>
> http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/2577/the-art-of-fiction-no-101-william-gaddis
>
> "Even though I should have known from *The Recognitions* that the world
> was not waiting breathlessly for my message, that it already knew, and was
> quite happy to *live* with all these false values, I’d always been
> intrigued by the charade of the so-called free market, so-called free
> enterprise system, the stock market conceived of as what was called a
> “people’s capitalism” where you “owned a part of the company” and so forth.
> All of which is true; you own shares in a company, so you literally do own
> part of the assets. But if you own a hundred shares out of six or sixty or
> six hundred million, you’re not going to influence things very much. Also,
> the fact that people buy securities—the very word in this context is
> comic—not because they are excited by the product—often you don’t know what
> the company makes—but simply for profit: The stock looks good and you buy
> it. The moment it looks bad you sell it. What had actually happened in the
> company is not your concern. In many ways I thought . . . the *
> childishness* of all this. Because JR himself, which is why he is eleven
> years old, is motivated only by good-natured greed. *JR* was, in other
> words, to be a commentary on this free enterprise system running out of
> control. Looking around us now with a two-trillion-dollar federal deficit
> and billions of private debt and the banks, the farms, basic industry all
> in serious trouble, it seems to have been rather prophetic."
>
> he said this in 1986. how ever so true it is even today.
>
> and more on fire the bastards:
> http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2012/01/24/mistaken-identity/
>
> rich
>
>
> On Wed, Jan 25, 2012 at 8:10 AM, <rbollinger at austin.rr.com> wrote:
>
>>
>> Got an e-mail on this the other day - per Amazon it releases February 7:
>>
>> http://www.amazon.com/J-R-William-Gaddis/dp/1564784339/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_2
>>
>> J R
>>
>> A great masterpiece by William Gaddis, with a new introduction by Rick
>> Moody.
>>
>> "Winner of the 1976 National Book Award, J R is a biting satire about the
>> many ways in which capitalism twists the American spirit into something
>> dangerous, yet pervasive and unassailable. At the center of the novel is a
>> hilarious eleven year old—J R—who with boyish enthusiasm turns a few basic
>> lessons in capitalist principles, coupled with a young boy’s lack of
>> conscience, into a massive and exploitative paper empire. The result is one
>> of the funniest and most disturbing stories ever told about the corruption
>> of the American Dream"
>>
>> Also saw a new edition of The Recognitions in my local indie store last
>> Saturday night, although Amazon says it doesn't release until February 20
>> ....
>>
>>
>> Rob Bollinger
>> "I don't live in Texas - I live in Austin" - Molly Ivins
>>
>
>
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