URTH |
From: Dan Schmidt <dfan@harmonixmusic.com> Subject: Re: (urth) Modernism continues (long and sort of boring) Date: 27 Oct 1999 14:28:02 "Alice Turner" <pei047@attglobal.net> writes: | When I was quite young, the hot modernist book was -The | Recognitions- by Wm Gaddis, which, thank goodness, I did not attempt | to read at the time. Much later, after I became interested in church | history, I did read it (with a pony, I confess) and now I love it in | a qualified way. But it's a hard read, then and now, and for people | *not* interested in church history or the abstract New York School | of art, maybe not worth it. I'll bet a lot of the younger people on | this list haven't even heard of it. They *have* heard of | D.F. Wallace's -Infinite Jest- the hot modernist book of the moment, | but, for similar reasons (not church history, difficulty), the next | generation very probably will not have. I administrate the David Foster Wallace email list, and I know a lot of people there, at least, have heard of THE RECOGNITIONS, if not read it. I read it back when I was twenty or so and enjoyed it a great deal; I keep on meaning to go back to it now that I have the Reader's Guide. Gaddis did get some recognition for winning a National Book Award for A FROLIC OF HIS OWN a few years back (which is the best book to start with, in my opinion). And for dying, unfortunately. I am sure that a lot of people here would find Gaddis interesting for the same reasons that they like Wolfe. -- Dan Schmidt | http://www2.thecia.net/users/dfan/ *More Wolfe info & archive of this list at http://www.urth.net/urth/