the compassion cliches twin       rare the great writer not met with com-
plaints about gloomspreading, bitter negative attitude      refusal to
forge silverlinings       length of this section shows "negative"s the
favorite cliche of the hacks       who're amazed      at each good new
novelist because the poor bastards so dumb he cant even learn to nod
his head instead of shaking it

its easy to fake a positive attitude but creations something else      a
few recognitions critics spurn the cliche:

  To demonstrate a thesis which is in its concrete form pessimistic
but in its ultimate desire optimistic, Gaddis fires at us—repeatedly
and contrapuntally, exquisitely and vulgarly—various manifestations
of man's self-deception. (bloom)

  Gaddis is a cynic but he's young. Cynicism 100 per cent can't
write a book. Gaddis smashes hypocrisy with a real hate but when-
ever he lays something in ruins he discovers. Reading his book
makes one look at the world through dark-colored glasses that filter
out all but the strong, true light. Only reflections are lost. (desbarats)

  The fault with the novel, if such there is, rests not with the writer
but with the all-too-realistic characters that people his pages—and
with a society that has spawned a whole galaxy of forgery and
accepted it as real.
  Gaddis might be termed guilty of an unforgivable crime: He has
seen too much and has recreated it too well. He has produced a
range of characterization that blankets the deceit and cowardice of
of our generation. (corrington)

There is a bite, a dig, a little bit of sickness in everything that
happens and after a while you begin to hope that some day Gaddis
might meet a nice girl and settle down in a vine-covered cottage
with a white picket fence because he's had it and the change might
do him good. (bass)

  Of all the recent maledictions pronounced upon modern man, the
almost interminable invective of "The Recognitions" is certain to
achieve some special sort of notoriety. (morse)

  Unfortunately "The Recognitions" does not persuade us that it is
based on any but a narrow and jaundiced view, a projection in part
of private discontent. It is a clinical collection of slides showing
organisms of decay magnified grotesquely and stained to an un-
natural vividness. (rugoff)

  "The Recognitions" is undoubtedly the most nihilistic piece of
important writing since Ernest Hemingway's "A Clean, Well-Lighted
Place." (mccarthy)

Gaddis' nightmare world, a world which, though there is no person
in it you would like to meet, nevertheless exercises a fascination
over the reader. (parke)

I deplore the spirit of an age in which joy of life is completely lack-
ing. Tragedy, horror, pettiness all have a place in art but in the long
run the great books have affirmed life, not denied it. But it is pos-
sible that my vision is short, that these drab, petty, despairing
people who really do not find life worth living, express the spirit of
our age and will still live and speak to another generation. (parke)

(1) novelist & reporter arent the same job      itd be no flaw if the
recognitions presented the world worse than it is      (2) it doesnt