Chekhov’s Mistess

Reading The Recognitions 3

I last left off talking about my early impressions of The Recognitions, the Bosch painting and a passage from T.S. Eliot that seemed quite relevant. I am now about a third way through the book and many of my early impressions remain in tact.

After reading in the Gaddis Annotations that W.G. had intended to – but ultimately did not – weave every line of Eliot’s Four Quartets into the novel, I re-read the poem and have been trying to spot any lines that did find their way in. No luck. I thought I found one and despite my excitement (at how smart I could think of myself) I couldn’t find the lines I thought were there. Somehow, “When he was gone the children forgot him and remembered themselves. The birds, forgetting nothing and remembering nothing, dashed the benches with spots of white” reminded me of “…Go said the bird, for the leaves were full of children…” You can see my thimble-brain confused coincidence of two words with meaning. The rest of the Eliot line is great, but I’ll spare it for here since it’s not apparently relevant to the book. There is a Four Quartets quote on page 202: “…distracted from distraction by distraction…” But that is all that I’ve seen in my 4Q hunting.

I had the pleasure of writing the synopsis of chapters six and seven for CAAF at the Gaddis-Drinking-Club site. It was a great process because I went back and re-read much of that section, read through the annotations and thought through the text much more than I might have otherwise – so that is where anything I have to say is contained. Many of the other folks contributing to the GDC are enjoying the slow pace of reading, but to me it feels more like we’re zooming through, but I’m slow that way.

Overall I haven’t found the book difficult to read in the least (despite my expectations), but there is a lot to chew on, including myriad literary allusions and foreshadowing. If I had any complaint at all, it would be that Gaddis’ mocking tone sometimes seems to be a bit over the top, as if he really wanted to make sure no one missed what he was trying to say. I do enjoy the impression that The Recognitions is a puzzle to be solved. I don’t really know if that’s the right way to go about reading a serious novel, but it is compelling. I love Gaddis’ ability to create dialogue and seamlessly overlay snippets from the radio (music and ads, both of which are a fairly constant). I get the sense that Gaddis learned from Joyce’s technique and even improved on it. Derik, who is on his third annual reading of The Recognitions, suggested that I read J.R., which is nearly all dialogue. I’ve been told it is an amazingly difficult read, but imagine it will find its way on my TBR pile soon.

comments

Bud, if you aren’t finding The Recognitions difficult, I doubt you’d have any trouble with JR.

    – derikb (12/18  at  06:28 PM)

Derik,

I don’t mean to say it’s a Grisham novel or anything, but I had expected to get lost in it, but I find Gaddis’ transitions, dialogue and asides to be really smoothly executed. Allusions and foreshadowing are another matter, but they don’t hinder the reading as much as make you want to think about it more.

I have a friend who has been telling me for years how difficult J.R. is, so I’m glad to hear your input.

    – Bud Parr (12/18  at  08:31 PM)

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About this Post

• Posted by: Bud Parr
• Date: December 18, 2004
• Filed Under:
  Wise Men Fish Here: Literature

Tags: William Gaddis

• Comments:2
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