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/lit/ - Literature

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7130542 No.7130542 [Reply] [Original]

Is there a sadder sentence in 20th century literature than when Esme leaves Otto and Gaddis writes "She walked away from him easily."?

Otto should be a legendary character in pop culture for how he exemplifies how pathetic, insecure, and scared aspiring writers are.

>> No.7130544

>>7130542
The banana passage in GR.
The toilet passage in GR.
The Tennis Passage in IJ.
Any passage from Ulysses.

>> No.7130547

Everyone in the book is pathetic, insecure, and scared. Otto is just despicable on top of it. I would argue that Anselm is actually a better person and marginally less disgusting than Otto.

>> No.7130559

hey, yeah, ive been meaning to get around to reading this book. gravitys rainbow is my favorite novel, but im afraid this book wont have the surreal drug (and shall we say) scatological humor of pynchon's masterpiece to keep me interested. does this book reference science at all or was it too early for that? if its just about religion i dont think its for me.

>> No.7130574

>>7130559
> too early for science
> 1940s

Get out kid.

>> No.7130584
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7130584

>>7130542
>She walked away from him easily

It always seems to happen like that. I feel like women are extremely pragmatic when it comes to dating whereas men are idealists.

>> No.7130686

>>7130584
More like they're incapable of love.

>> No.7130703

>>7130584
That feel fam...

>> No.7130708

>>7130584
you said it :(

>> No.7130721

>>7130686
You're thinking of obsession or dependency, which both men and women are capable of. Just because a woman has never been obsessed with or dependent on you doesn't mean they aren't that way with other men.

Love, on the other hand, is a much less dramatic emotion, and unlike obsession, it is not a synonym for "need".

>> No.7130736

>>7130721
nice roastie ;)

>> No.7130753

>>7130584
This is entirely untrue, there are plenty of pragmatic men and idealistic women. It's just that the idealists tend to go for the pragmatists, because people who are pragmatic are better at appearing ideal.

Your problem is that you've exposed yourself to media created by idealistic men, talk to your average "chad"-type frat bro, and I guarantee you he'll have been the pragmatic one in all his relationships.

>>7130736
If you stopped being obsessed and dependent, you wouldn't feel the need to reply to that post.

>> No.7130795

>>7130753
>Your problem is that you've exposed yourself to media created by idealistic men, talk to your average "chad"-type frat bro, and I guarantee you he'll have been the pragmatic one in all his relationships.

I've been with a lot of women myself, as have some of my friends, and I'd still say that we are romantics at heart.

>> No.7130829

>>7130795
Never said it was impossible to be promiscuous and romantic, but there are certainly plenty of guys out there who are far from romantic or sensitive. All I'm saying is it goes both ways, and the power dynamic generally falls in favor of the person who's less emotionally invested.

>> No.7131292

>>7130559
It's a lot wittier than Pynchon. It manages to be funny without the sort of gags and set-ups Pynchon uses (with the possible exception of two characters meeting in a hotel bar, which was hilarious).

No, it's not surreal and it doesn't go into poop or incest fantasies or anything like that. The dialogue is amazing, though, especially in the apartment-cocktail-party-type scenes. You will laugh.

There's not much science. A lot of art and, yes, religious references but I thought it was an incredible book and I'm not a huge fan of either of those things in general.

>> No.7131331

>>7131292
Adding to this: I've always felt that The Recognitions accomplished everything that Pynchon's V. tried and (for me) failed to do.

>> No.7131337

My copy is coming Tuesday.

>> No.7131358

I feel Gaddis is underappreciated in general, he is probably the most influential writer in English literature in the latter half of the 20th century.

I also think he indirectly influenced culture more than any other writer in his time period, you could argue that the 'mainstream irony' as in Seinfeld can be primarily traced back to Gaddis. I read an article some time ago about this but can't find it right now.

>> No.7131426

Otto is not really that likeable so when bad things happened to him I didn't actually felt bad. On the other hand, Stanley-Esme thing in the cruise is sadder.

>> No.7131435

>>7131358
Oh, that sounds very interesting. If you find it please share it.

>> No.7132052

>>7131426
what's the Stanley-Esme thing? I don't remember. Isn't Stanley kind of an asshole/bro?

>> No.7132073

I'm not smart enough to attempt this book.

>> No.7132469

Does anyone else think The Recognitions is the IJ of its time? Not just because it's long and "difficult," but because it talks about how modernism leads to a world of inauthenticity, while IJ talks about how post-modernism leads to that as well. The big difference is that IJ seemed to have more hope for people in the form of New Sincerety while, from my first reading (which may be inaccurate, I admit), The Recognitions seemed to be pretty pessemistic all around.

>> No.7132648

>>7132469
well, gaddis was a curmudgeon, and wallace was a good-natured optimist, so that explains that.

>> No.7132924

>>7132073
I am dumb and this is my favorite book of all time. I read it at least once a year. I failed calculus 1 freshman year and got below 2000 on my SATs (2400 max)