Recognitions, Corrections; Corrections, Recognitions.
"It is the dawning of the second gestalt
in relation to the first
that is the experience of meaning."
— Jan Zwicky in "The Experience of Meaning"
(at 27:36 of 44:36 in the video of her talk)
Related remarks by the author of The Corrections —
" Even friends of The Recognitions have found it a daunting
text. Jonathan Franzen, the best known of the book's current
day champions, has offered both praise and words of warning
to potential readers. 'I loved it,' he proclaimed in the pages
of The New Yorker back in 2002, where he held up Gaddis's
novel as the preeminent example of what Franzen calls 'the
Status model' of literature. Authors who subscribe to the
'Status model' embrace fiction as the springboard for
'a discourse of genius and art-historical importance' freed
from the demands of the marketplace or the requirements of
mass consumption. Yet even Franzen acknowledges the toll
exacted by this particular masterpiece. He declares that The
Recognitions is 'the most difficult book I ever voluntarily read
in its entirety,' adding that he completed the task 'as a kind
of penance.' "
Now try Euclid.