Which do you prefer ?

Which do you prefer ?

GR, but J R is better than both.

>"there are a few books that over the years have changed the way I’ve thought about literature and what it can do and just changed the way I think generally, Gaddis’s JR was one of them, Ballard’s Atrocity Exhibition was another, Gravity’s Rainbow too, and McElroy’s Plus joins that list"
I think this quote gets me closer to what I'm trying to say. There's no doubt GR and JR have changed the way I see and think, but The Recognitions speaks directly to my heart, because it's everything I ever wanted from a novel, what it can convey and accomplish.

It's great, but I don't really agree. It runs afoul of a few pitfalls as a result of Gaddis's inexperience and being intermittently written over the course of seven years.

J R Is a lot better than both of those. but pynchon has nothing on gaddis. pynchon is like "gabba gabba hey!" and gaddis is like all smart and stuff.

The Recognitions becomes preachy as hell only seventy pages in. It's tedious and grating.

Gaddis is nothing compared to Pynchon.

The Recognitions is overrated and people force themselves to like it.

Gravity's Rainbow is difficult but once you finish it you become obsessed with it.

JR is Gaddis' only good book. Pynchon wrote many masterpieces.

Its Gravity's Rainbow just a cluster fuck of stories and characters, or will actually read something insightful/learn something from reading it?

What makes it so good?

/thread

>The Recognitions is overrated and people force themselves to like it.
This is wrong, because I haven't forced myself to like it, and enjoyed it so much I'm going to get around to rereading it soon. I think it's not just great but even underrated. There's a vogue with modern authors like Franzen, Ozick, Gass, DeLillo, Wallace, etc..., variously giving shout-outs to Gaddis and directly praising The Recognitions, but nevertheless Gaddis has gotten nowhere near the critical attention he deserves even yet. A Frolic of His Own is a great book, JR is a great book, the Recognitions is a great book. Agape Agape is a very minor work but still has a great style, and I can't speak for Carpenter's Gothic yet but I still have high expectations for it considering everything else I've read by him has been great.

Anyway, as for the OP, I actually prefer The Recognitions, although I'll admit GR was more of an important and influential work; if you've read both, though, you can see how much of Pynchon's style is itself cribbed from Gaddis's in The Recognitions.

Part of the reason for the lack of critical attention (I think) is because his works are genuinely difficult, and also very abrasive; he makes fun of the very reviewers and critics and literary scene he would've done better to kiss up to, if he wanted greater acclaim (as Gass points out). I mean, shit, Gass loves the book. It's well-written and very moving, even if darkly cynical and even hilarious a lot of the time.