3 ms·
I discovered Gaddis at an impressionable age and his books, especially The Recognitions, had a massive influence on me. What I took away was basically a spiritu
by lordgrenville 5y ago
I discovered Gaddis at an impressionable age and his books, especially The Recognitions, had a massive influence on me. What I took away was basically a spiritual critique of capitalist modernity and nostalgia for the pace, longtermism, and religious meaning of the middle ages (while recognising that we can't go back to it). Definitely not ideas he invented (you can find some of this in Wordsworth and Blake, without the fatalism, and a lot in Eliot) but Gaddis was my gateway drug.
- hwers 5y agoWould you say The Recognitions is readible? I've wanted to read it for a while but it felt intimidating and it was lumped into the 'post modern' category in book stores etc which has made me afraid it's one of those samuel beckett-esque books where they just repeat the same word or phrase for pages and pages (maybe meaningful through some lens but also somewhat nonsense and not really worth my limited time). I read a few pages of The Recognitions and it seemed pretty novel-y so I feel like it might be not too bad. What's your take (reviews I've read doesn't give me a satisfying answer)?
- lordgrenville 5y agoAbsolutely! Reading it with notes (I used Steven Moore's from here https://www.williamgaddis.org/recognitions/trguide.shtml https://www.williamgaddis.org/recognitions/trguide.shtml ) makes it totally understandable, and it is very novel-like. Totally unlike e.g. Beckett or Gertrude Stein or Finnegans Wake where the text isn't meant to have a clear meaning.