NP - Gaddis

[Jochen Stremmel]

A lot of truth in what you say.

And, apropos of "It goes way beyond the call of satire" – do you really
know what you said there? I know that terrain exists – we have a lurid
example in Germany, a comedian who called an asshole a goat-fucker and when
the asshole went to court said: Oh, I was being satirical and therefore
innocent! – but neither Gaddis nor Pynchon did ever set foot in it, as far
as I'm concerned.

2017-07-15 14:42 GMT+02:00 Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com>:

> I will reference The Failures of Criticism by Someone Good (who I won't
> take time look up) as a terrific book on
> the whole long history of even the best and the brightest readers/critics
> missing real genius all the time. And,
> there are countless other examples and stories in almost any literary
> history.
>
> This book (and phenomenon) can lead one to this possible insight: many of
> the best reader/critics, full of seminal insight
> into many of the best of their time, are often so historically embedded
> with their insights and what supports them, that
> they, perforce, can be unable to notice originality of genius. [Johnson on
> Sterne: nothing so different can last (paraphrase, I'm sure).
>
> A--and, Pynchon was so appreciated sub rosa, what with his powerful
> so-smart agent; his story publishing reputation--including as we know, an
> early V. bit--his writing teacher's reputation and praise, etc. that that
> wide net cultural reader/presence that was George Plimpton--paris Review
> and all--who 'liked' most of what he wrote about (if he didn't it seems he
> did not write about it?) was, yes, lucky for Pynchon but also more and less
> than luck. It was a Faulkner First Novel winner, we know. Many/most good
> reviewers of the time probably would have reviewed it favorably, I suggest,
> largely because it deserved to be.
>
> Gaddis, however, as I understand, worked all alone on The Recognitions, as
> obscure as Pynchon became, I think. Attacking
> an ambitious stranger with no calling cards is easier for most.
>
>
>
> On Sat, Jul 15, 2017 at 5:37 AM, Jochen Stremmel <jstremmel at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> you can read it here: http://www.nyx.net/~awestrop/ftb/ftb.htm
>>
>> (you get the impression you either get the usual assholes or lucky like
>> Pynchon [getting Plimpton].
>>
>> 2017-07-15 11:11 GMT+02:00 Erik T. Burns <eburns at gmail.com>:
>>
>>> Have you ever read Jack Green's "Fire the Bastards"? Gaddis was bashed
>>> from the get-go.
>>>
>>> ------------------------------
>>> From: Mark Thibodeau <jerkyleboeuf at gmail.com>
>>> Sent: ‎7/‎15/‎2017 3:54
>>> To: L E Bryan <lebryan at sonic.net>
>>> Cc: jesse gooch <jlguuch at gmail.com>; Robert Mahnke <rpmahnke at gmail.com>;
>>> P-list <pynchon-l at waste.org>
>>> Subject: Re: NP - Gaddis
>>>
>>> So no help on the "who's bad-mouthing Gaddis" front? I'm genuinely
>>> curious.
>>>
>>> YOPJ
>>>
>>> On Fri, Jul 14, 2017 at 10:32 PM, L E Bryan <lebryan at sonic.net> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Frolic is worth reading just for the judge’s long decision about the
>>>> lost dog. My attorney friends loved it.
>>>>
>>>> On Jul 14, 2017, at 7:02 PM, jesse gooch <jlguuch at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Very nice. Now I need to get around to reading Frolic.
>>>>
>>>> On Jul 14, 2017, at 5:27 PM, Robert Mahnke <rpmahnke at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Apropos of Gaddis not being trashed, here is an appreciation of A
>>>> Frolic Of His Own:
>>>>
>>>> http://www.themillions.com/2016/06/william-gaddis-and-americ
>>>> an-justice.html
>>>>
>>>> Maybe someone else already shared this -- if so, apologies.
>>>>
>>>> On Tue, Jul 11, 2017 at 10:09 AM, Mark Thibodeau <
>>>> jerkyleboeuf at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Who is trashing Gaddis?! Particularly "beyond the idiot Franzen"?!
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> <http://www.avg.com/email-signature?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=webmail> Virus-free.
>>>>> www.avg.com
>>>>> <http://www.avg.com/email-signature?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=webmail>
>>>>>
>>>>> On Sun, Jul 9, 2017 at 12:18 PM, rich <richard.romeo at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> The New Yorker just had a long piece on Texas and it's politics, some
>>>>>> harbinger of the future of America with its starved and obscene, religious
>>>>>> wing nuts, ad infinitum.
>>>>>> Gaddis was and remains for me  a refreshing cudgel upon the heads of
>>>>>> such rampant stupidity and malice but reading the article leads one to
>>>>>> think it's gotten even worse.
>>>>>> It's funny how often Gaddis gets trashed now beyond the idiot
>>>>>> Franzen. Yet no one has reached the heights WG landed in just 4 novels.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> rich
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On Sat, Jul 8, 2017 at 2:54 PM Charles Albert <cfalbert at gmail.com>
>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> I've spent the past couple of years feeling like one of those
>>>>>>> halfwit monks described in The Swerve. This is the first period of time
>>>>>>> I've had to read something big on the ever expanding list.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Given how hard it was to find for so long, I'm certain not everyone
>>>>>>> has The Recognitions, so I wanted to share the moment when I believe I may
>>>>>>> have fallen in love....
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> -Your father's father, she corrected him sharply, but her voice
>>>>>>> broke, almost bitter as she looked away, not for the death of her brother
>>>>>>> but to insinuate that he had abandoned her in this bondage of mortality.
>>>>>>> She talked to Wyatt familiarly of death, as though to take him with her
>>>>>>> would be the kindest expression of her love for him possible: still, she
>>>>>>> never spoke directly of death, never named it so, but continued to treat it
>>>>>>> with the euphemistic care reserved elsewhere for obscenity.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> It sets up like Bierce, and then the punchline is not another
>>>>>>> artfully engineered clause or sentence - it's ONE word.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> It gives me wood......
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> love,
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> cfa
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>
>
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