/lit/ - Literature

>>19818771
The Recognitions.

>>19818771
Needed an editor's attention.

>>19818785
Name one novel that was bettered by an editor.

>>19818789
I genuinely don't know. Apparently some of Goals Dahl's children's books were improved after his discussions with a trusted editor.
Probably a better way of summarizing The Recognitions would have been: "sprawling, indulgent, and repetitive to the extent that characterization and narrative become difficult to appreciate, yet nonetheless bestowed with some some superb prose and excellent passages". It could have done with being a quarter shorter.

>>19818810
Goals Dahl, Roald Dahl, whoever

>>19818810
>sprawling, indulgent, and repetitive to the extent that characterization and narrative become difficult to appreciate, yet nonetheless bestowed with some some superb prose and excellent passages

what a load of soulless word salad
you sound like the biggest nerd on planet earth

>>19818822
Go on then, (You) summarize The Recognitions in one sentence.
>>soulless word salad
eat a dick, cowboy

>>19818838
Nowadays it's more like

>Boys can eat
>Boys can cook
>Boys invent things
>Girls think that they don't have to contribute anything in a relationship, because it's a privilege that they even want to talk with Boys

>Merry Christmas! the man threatened.

Fire.

CHRAST

Thank God there was the gold to forge!

>Don't know, haven't read it.

>>19818771
A portrait of an artist as a young man.

>>19818771
Parenthood is the only art.

The story loosely follows the life of Wyatt Gwyon, son of a Calvinist minister from rural New England, his mother dies in Spain and he plans to follow his father into the ministry but he is inspired to become a painter by The Seven Deadly Sins, Hieronymous Bosch's noted painting which his father owned and Gwyon leaves New England and travels to Europe to study painting and discouraged by a corrupt critic and frustrated with his career, he moves to New York City and he meets Recktall Brown, a capitalistic collector and dealer of art, who makes a Faustian deal with him and Gwyon is to produce paintings in the style of 15th-century Flemish and Dutch masters (such as Bosch, Hugo van der Goes, and Hans Memling) and forge their signatures and Brown will sell them as newly discovered originals and Gwyon becomes discouraged and returns home to find that his father has converted to Mithraism and is preaching his new ideas to his congregation, whilst steadily losing his mind and back in New York, Gwyon tries to expose his forgeries and he travels to Spain where he visits the monastery where his mother was buried, works at restoring old paintings, and tries to find himself in a search for authenticity and at the end, he moves on to live his life "deliberately" and interwoven are the stories of many other characters, among them Otto, a struggling writer; Esme, a muse; and Stanley, a musician and the epilogue follows their stories further and in the final scene Stanley achieves his goal by playing his work on the organ of the church of Fenestrula "pulling all the stops" and the church collapses, killing him, yet "most of his work was recovered ..., and is still spoken of, when it is noted, with high regard, though seldom played."

>>19820053
Dang. Is it worth reading after reading this summery, or not s this pretty much all there is to it? And one might as well read JR because it's about money and money is the only thing that matters?

>>19820216
I don't know if you're being ironic or not but that summary is kinda shit. Also, Wyatt's story is like 10% of the novel, the guy is barely in it.

>>19818838
>girls can cook

U wat m8?

Fire the bastards!

>>19819926
By Gaddis' own admission, this is this one.

>>19820849
If he is only 10%, what are the other % breakdowns of characters? The muse and the other guy and rektall brown, anyone else?

From reading the summary it seems that painting aspect of the book has to do with:

Reverence of the past, coping with change, the challenge of originality. Inspiration of the past .

He went from making forgeries of others paintings. To restoring others paintings.

He had an artistic love and ability, but couldn't develop a unique personal style?

The forgeries do contain more originality then restoring, hans Memling is also so dank that inventing new works in his style are worthier works of art then many minor artists works that would need restoring. None the less a noble task, aslong as done with immense humility, subtlty, and perfection.

Part of the artistic possibility being personal glory, this sensation resigned when working behind the scenes as a restorer, but still getting to spend time among beauty

>>19821365
Dude why dont you just read the book instead of coming up with interpretations of what you think the book is about lol

>>19821365
Not him, but it does that late modernist deal where a character is told basically through the impressions they leave on other people. This becomes increasingly obvious in the middle of the book, but I won’t spoil it since I think you should just download the pdf and read the fucking words.

>>19821381
>Dude why dont you just read the book instead of coming up with interpretations of what you think the book is about lol
Because there are 1000 books to read today and 100 more to read tomorrow, you are certain this is the one?

>>19821663
Yet here you are, not reading any of those 1000 books

>>19821534
>>19821381
Do you guys think JR is a better?, more important novel?

Particularly if the early work is about art and ideals, as gaddis grew out of this naivete and realized only money matters, and only art matters in relation to it's relation to money, Gaddis himself likely upset with his attempt at sentimental artistry in his youthful folly novel, Gaddis grew up, wised up, and matured to write JR. Would it not follow then that it is the superior text, written by the superior version of the man?

>>19818771
bad cover, so not reading.

>>19821695
>as gaddis grew out of this naivete and realized only money matters
hahahaha what

>>19821365
wtf you dork just read the book

>>19818789
Look at most authors of the past 100 years, they all have a marked increase in quality after they get some success, their work becomes more focused and consistent, they define their style. Once you prove your worth to your publisher they spring for more than a basic line edit. A few examples from the memes on the board, BM, IJ, and GR, compare to their previous work, you may like their previous work better but there is no comparison when it comes to technique. This sort of editing was a formalization of the old way which was to use trusted friends and mentors, but it had the nasty habit of destroying these relationships and even some careers. Even before this sort of editing came about there were people who took on the role, like Stein for the Paris crowd, but they were few and far between since it did not exactly pay well (or at all) and you had to deal with a lot of shit.

>>19821776
this edition's façade does, in fact, suck. i don't know why the NYRB has such awful covers. the book's wonderful though. get another edition if you can't stand the lazy serif garbage; i'm willing to be seen reading this edition simply because it was the first one i got and the prose's quality almost apologizes for the cover designer's lethargy 70 years in advance.

>>19821695
Read the book and find out

>>19818771
It was long and I've forgotten most of it.

>>19821695
>Gaddis grew up, wised up, and matured to write JR. Would it not follow then that it is the superior text, written by the superior version of the man?

by that logic we should all only read agape, agape or resurrection or finnegans wake or the confidence man. but in doing so we would pass up the recognitions, war and peace, ulysses, and moby dick. because they were at their most mature? also read the books bro. if you wanted a summary you could've just googled it.a thread died for this ffs