Discussion - Week Two - The Recognitions - Part I, Chap. 4,5,6, & 7

[Jim]

This discussion covers Part I, Chapter 4, 5, 6, & 7



Part I, Chapter 4

Les femmes soignent ces féroces infirmes retour des pays chauds.

[Women nurse these ferocious invalids returned from the tropics.]

- Rimbaud


Otto finishes his play by night and pushes paper by day in the office of a banana plantation in a banana republic. He returns to New York with a plan and a strategic black arm sling.



Part I, Chapter 5

America is the country of young men.
- Emerson


Back in Manhattan, Otto goes to a downtown arty-party where we meet a room full of grotesques and gargoyles in love with the smell of their own excretions. Anselm performs the ritu quadrupedis and accuses Esme of being a succubus.



Part I, Chapter 6

“Father,” he asked, “are the rich people stronger than anyone else on earth?” “Yes, Ilusha,” I said. “There are no people on earth stronger than the rich.” “Father,” he said, “I will get rich, I will become an officer and conquer everybody. The Tsar will reward me, I will come back here and then no one will dare…” Then he was silent and his lips still kept trembling. “Father,” he said, “what a horrid town this is.”
- Dostoevski, The Brothers Karamazov


Otto wakes up the morning after and heads to Esme’s apartment to discuss their tryst. She plays coy and their talk is interrupted by a visit from Chaby Sinisterra, the drug-addicted, dance-instructing son of Frank Sinisterra, who killed off Wyatt’s mother Camilla in Chapter 1. Disturbed and unsatisfied, Otto roams the streets and has a beer with a new acquaintance, R.L. Jones of Sun Style Films, who inexplicably wants to collaborate with Otto after knowing him for all of five minutes. Late afternoon finds Otto back at Esme’s apartment, where his lust overtakes him and he, in turn, takes Esme.



Part I, Chapter 7

And as Jesus Christ, of the house of David, took upon himself human nature in order to free and to redeem mankind who were in the bonds of sin because of Adam’s disobedience, so also, in our art, the thing that is unjustly defiled by the one will be absolved, cleansed and delivered from that foulness by another that is contrary to it.
- Raymond Lully, Codicillus


Recktall Brown’s black dog takes Fuller for a walk. Basil Valentine (a more sophisticated and likely more dangerous version of Monsieur Crémer) meets Wyatt at Recktall’s apartment to discuss a business proposal. On his way home, Wyatt meets his old friend Reverend John, who tells him a tale of his father and his sermons. Esme and Wyatt have a deep moment of connection when he realizes she may be able to help him complete his mother’s portrait.


To avoid spoilers, please restrict your comments to Part I, Chapter 4, 5, 6, & 7 (and the earlier chapters)

[MarkB]

Characters are starting to pile up at an alarming pace. Does anyone know of a character guide that we could access?

[Jim]

Mark wrote: "Characters are starting to pile up at an alarming pace. Does anyone know of a character guide that we could access?"

This should help:

http://www.williamgaddis.org/recognit...

[Aloha]

This is my favorite part of the book, since the art world is of interest, so I retain and notice what each of the characters do much better. I'm a little past the halfway point of the book, and it's getting back into the religious references again, but with other things thrown in. For some reason, whenever I encounter religious references and religious characters in the book, I tune out and stop paying attention. Wyatt the artist is interesting, Wyatt the religious guy is not, although both handled satirically. I'm going to put it aside since I'm ahead and read my other book commitments for the month.

[Ellen]

I am living off the index page-such a big help! and Wikipedia for art images and am having a wonderful time.

For some reason, the name Agnes Deigh just never gets old for me; I laugh every time.

And there are places where I feel the prose soars. But mostly I am finding the book both hilarious and painfully depressing. The view of life and people and all that is a bit bleak.

I love all the echoes of Eliot, the 4 Quartets is everywhere.

[Whitney]

Ellie wrote: ...But mostly I am finding the book both hilarious and painfully depressing. The view of life and people and all that is a bit bleak. ..."

Exactly how I feel about it! This is the kind of humor that really speaks to me (maybe it's because I'm a positive negativist). On that note, it's amazing how little (or not at all) hipsters have changed in the last 60 years.

[Ellen]

It's kind of amazing, comic, and sad that the parties sound so much like the ones I went to 10 years ago and the people sound pretty much the same as now.

The world is always the worst it's ever been. And catty people thrive everywhere and always.

[Jim]

Ellie wrote: "It's kind of amazing, comic, and sad that the parties sound so much like the ones I went to 10 years ago and the people sound pretty much the same as now.

The world is always the worst it's ever been. And catty people thrive everywhere and always..."

Ellie! I think you've just had a Recognition!!!

[Ellen]

*stupefied*

[Ian]

*astonished*