Unbelievable! They have no right to call themselves representatives of the people. Republican legislators across the nation are selling out and abandoning their responsibilities to their constituents. #FireTheBastards
#Green25 #FIRETHEBASTARDS #JackGreen #TheRecognitions #WilliamGaddis #ReadingAnActOfSharedSolitude #paperpills🇵🇸❤️ #beedoubleokayess📚🐦 #ReemReel #AThingOfBeauty
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In 1957 anthony west listed the recognitions as 1 of 25 great books
from world literature ("the most interesting and remarkable novel
written by a young American in the last twenty-five years. It will one
day take a place in classic American literature #Green25 #FIRETHEBASTARDS
the most favorable reviews was one of the worst don stevens'
insincere puff in the worcester telegram—a typical jargonized "rave"
review & not a response to the recognitions at all
#Green25 #FIRETHEBASTARDS
17 critics, 29 quotes—pitiful! & what the list lacks in quantity it
doesnt make up in quality a mediocre crew
#Green25 #FIRETHEBASTARDS
the recognitions has no happy ending hollywood overdoses have
weakened the demand for lastpage euphoria, even berger demands
only "a clue to the way out"
#Green25 #FIRETHEBASTARDS
"Surely it is disturbing to find a
book which is potentially so very fine but whose method of attitude is
calculated deliberately to exclude us" (hartman)
youre in it, buddy!
#Green25 #FIRETHEBASTARDS
& heres to 1 reviewer feeling no pain:
The constant use of literary allusions and book
titles in the narra-
tive fascinated this librarian. (herbert cahoon,
curator of autograph
mss & later printed books, morgan library)
#Green25 #FIRETHEBASTARDS
the "undisciplined" cliche
The book has the formless disjointed quality of a nightmare. (parke)
#Green25 #FIRETHEBASTARDS
the reader must be ambitious too, he'll have to work too hard:
lazy reader dont buy! but critics underrate readers who arent
that lazy after all who read books voluntarily, not like critics doing
work they hate for money
#Green25 #FIRETHEBASTARDS
revanche! critics "ambitiously" love to identify with the
average reader, who like them cant create anything of value & as
the history of bestsellers shows prefers not to read anything of value
#Green25 #FIRETHEBASTARDS
To claim they give you 956 pages of novel in return for your money
is like offering you a giant headache in return for your aspirin.
(powell)
the physical labor of turning 900 pages when 300 would have been
sufficient. (klein)
#Green25 #FIRETHEBASTARDS
names most often dropping: hartman managed 17, fremantle 8
playing the comparison game: gaddis inferior to other writers per 15
critics, equal—7, superior—1 (to sironia, texas) purpose of the
game: to keep the new writers out
#Green25 #FIRETHEBASTARDS
its chic to play the influence game but a great novels always at heart
uninfluenced, for it has work to do of its own the recognitions is
very much its own book.
#Green25 #FIRETHEBASTARDS
since the plot is complete fantasy, somewhat reminiscent of Rex
Warner's "Wild Goose Chase."
the plot doesnt resemble the wild goose chase in the least! is there
no limit to what these hacks will drag in to fill space?
#Green25 #FIRETHEBASTARDS
does geismar really believe that failures by characters in a novel are
failures of a novel?
who never really engage our sympathy or interest; who never represent anything but themselves.
#Green25 #FIRETHEBASTARDS
he tops it off with the strawman trick in his last para having projected his own views wrongly onto gaddis,
he blames gaddis for not living up to them:
#Green25 #FIRETHEBASTARDS
FIRE maxwell geismar for his stupid saturday review review built on
the "strawman" trick like fremantle's & livingston's its procrustean.
he starts with a corny reprise of "it cant be that good":
the bed—tough!
#Green25 #FIRETHEBASTARDS
prescotts whole review of an ordinary novel encourages the potential
reader as hicks discouraged him from reading a great one thats the
ny times for you, past present & future
#Green25 #FIRETHEBASTARDS
poetry should be translated to ny timesstyle so you get the
literal meaning without difficulty critics prefer the same old unchallenging mush they get no pleasure from reading so they prefer
anesthesia to the choice between pleasure & pain
#Green25 #FIRETHEBASTARDS
I say to the avantgarde, dont abdicate!part of our work has always
been pushing neglected masterpieces & if we retire to contemplate
our clippings we cant be replaced by who, the academics, the
reviewers?
#Green25 #FIRETHEBASTARDS
where are the enthusiasts now? where are the people who should have been writing, pushing the recognitions
long ago? even if im wrong about its greatness, where are they
pushing some other neglected work?
#Green25 #FIRETHEBASTARDS
soon reviews will be no help at all
#Green25 #FIRETHEBASTARDS
You used to be able to find the best books by reading thereviews the most hated books were the best now its harder.
but often you cant tell at all, because the critic has read so carelessly
that he doesnt know even unconsciously what kind of book it is.
#Green25 #FIRETHEBASTARDS
He takes a smack at everything and everybody in the manner of
Eliot and Joyce and Cummings, but they do it much better and
much, much shorter. (bass)
#Green25 #FIRETHEBASTARDS
indifference:
He rambles on and on, needlessly and even disgustingly, striving
ineffectually to do in 956 big pages what Evelyn Waugh accomplishes in less than 200 small ones. (hill)
#Green25 #FIRETHEBASTARDS
Is the book at least a magnificent failure?
And we must reply that there is nothing magnificent about it. And
we go back to rereading Joyce's "Ulysses" for the umpteenth time.
(bass)
#Green25 #FIRETHEBASTARDS
condescension:
the polysyllables, sentence fragments and foreign words give the
novel too "arty" a tone. Sometimes these devices are effective.
But please, Mr. Gaddis, not through all 956 pages. (dixon)
#Green25 #FIRETHEBASTARDS
FIRE sterling north for flipping over the wrong book, formoralizing instead of reviewing:
an evil book, a scurrilous book, a profane book, a scatological book
and an exasperating book
#Green25 #FIRETHEBASTARDS