Gaddis Letters

[rich]

oh yes indeedy.

On Thu, Aug 17, 2023 at 4:22 PM Erik T. Burns <eburns at gmail.com> wrote:

> The Gaddis letters are great stuff.
> As for his beat cred, I assume you know he was the model for Harold Sands
> in Kerouac's The Subterraneans...
>
> On Thu, Aug 17, 2023, 16:01 Cobi W.S. Powell <cobiwspowell at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> I'm always so taken with that pynch letter to Condadio. she suggests he
>> write an autobiography; he responds: "I'm always trying to spill my life
>> story. It just seems that no one wants to listen."
>>
>> the biography that the opening of the huntington library archives will
>> inevitably produce will be quite the eye-opener. how much of his work is
>> covertly autobiographical? makes sense too, all of his characters and
>> narrators are so afraid of reticulation, of being assigned coordinative
>> placement on the grid... i seem to remember him saying once that Gravity's
>> Rainbow is a novel in which he put "all his friends," but a quick google
>> has proven this quote difficult to find, so more likely than not it is
>> apocryphal, like so much of his life.
>>
>> cp
>>
>> On Thu, Aug 17, 2023 at 9:38 AM rich <richard.romeo at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> > Hiya
>> >
>> > Making my way through the NYRB edition of Wm Gaddis letters, edited by
>> > Steven Moore. I'm not surprised the letters are erudite, sarcastic,
>> > self-deprecating, etc etc, but having read gaddis for many years, I can
>> > only claim them to be revelatory. It feels like when Get Back  was
>> released
>> > a few yrs ago, having read so much about the sessions and seeing what
>> > transpired in living color decades later. The letters provide one with
>> such
>> > insight into his thoughts, struggles, travels, etc. that you can see
>> how he
>> > ended up writing what he did. Granted, i'm in the Recognitions years.
>> > Kudos has to go out to his mother, since in the early years that is who
>> he
>> > wrote to predominantly, hearing his pains and goofs, helping with money
>> and
>> > books and clothes.
>> > Gaddis is ever the traveler, mentioning how Robert Louis Stevenson and
>> > Eugene O'Neill and others bounced from city to city, odd-jobs here and
>> > there and writing, though Gaddis had more money troubles which he
>> laments.
>> > Of course, all the wittiness in the novel is in the letters. His
>> letters to
>> > Katherine Anne Porter are particularly eye-opening. He met many other
>> > luminaries along the way: Walker Evans (Wyatt Jr's appearance is based
>> on
>> > him), Auden, Robert Graves, Evelyn Waugh (who was aware of him at
>> least),
>> > and more I'm sure.
>> > What shines through is his 'beat-like' perspective but without any of
>> the
>> > pretentiousness (think Zappa and his attitude to the rock scene), a man
>> > with similar characteristics to those later known in the scene (I know
>> he
>> > knew Ginsburg and others), but still an outsider.
>> > It also led me to think what would a Pynchon equivalent look like--who
>> were
>> > his main recipients over the years. But I realize these letters did not
>> > appear until decades after Gaddis' death.
>> > In any case, a pleasant addition to the Gaddis canon.
>> >
>> > rich
>> > --
>> > Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>> >
>> --
>> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>>
>