What does Veeky Forums think of William Gaddis?

What does Veeky Forums think of William Gaddis?

One of the absolute greatest authors of all time. It's a damn shame it took so long for that to be acknowledged and an even bigger one that he's still criminally underread now.

What makes him so great?

he uses words real good like

started the recognitions a few days ago, only managed to get through part i so far but it's fucking amazing

>tfw for once the memes were right.

He wrote the recognitionists(?) right? I feel like I've seen a lot of people here talk a lot of shit about that book
Which is it

This, essentially

I've always been a sucker for stuff with overt religious themes and also for themes of blurring the lines of genuine artistry and being a "hack", so that book takes the goddamn fucking cake for me

>the recognitionists
>mangling so bad the title of The Recognicitators

could not stand that his last book was some long rant about the player piano being terrible

what a pleb

wait until you get to the last quarter of the book and find out the memes were wrong

You should read The Apes of God

Essentially this. Dude was untouchable

read the recognitions. it was good. dragged a bit at the end. but what do you expect it's 900 pages. reading J R now and so far I like it more than the recognitions. it's really funny.

that's a shame but i dout it can become that much worse

and the prose is nice in any case so whatever

it's his first novel as i understand so im willing to overlook quite a bit. the strengths in the first 1/3 have more than outweighed any weakness.

JR's last third part or so is more succint as far as I remember.

My opinion is the same as Bloom's.

what's that?

Idk never read bloom or gaddis. Harold is just an agreeable guy.

Upvote

This is not me but it is my thought.

He cannot think, he cannot write. There's no discernable talent

Bloom likes Recognitions, doesn't care for the rest of his books.

He's also been affected by Gaddis's meme magic IRL as the pic shows.

holy shhiiiiiiiii
that's true meme magic

Bloom's criticism is the Pitchfork of the humanities.

> first paragraph consists of a personal anecdote
> second paragraph name-drops other authors for "context"
> remaining paragraphs are meaningless adjectives MUCH STRANGENESS, SUCH UNCANNINESS

what a fucking hack

If you ever spent the time to go into any of the 'list your favorite books' threads, then you would have your answer.

I have read many passages of his work. He is a bad writer: he should have invested his energy in some other occupation. If you can’t be either clear and simple like a Tolstoy, Chekhov, Borges or a Homer, neither beautifully poetic and exuberant like Shakespeare, Neruda, Proust and Nabokov, if you can only produce some prose garbage that is the equivalent of cubism and modern-art condescend in enormous paragraphs, then writing is not for you.

Thats a subjective taste you're projecting there buddy

It's pasta.