negative cliche: what! no resolution?

the recognitions has no happy ending      hollywood overdoses have
weakened the demand for lastpage euphoria, even berger demands
only "a clue to the way out"

he explores extensively the possibilities of religion in our time. But
his alternative is far less clear than his indictment, and this be-
comes an extremely pessimistic novel. (stocking)
(tho lightened by "often hilarious" portraits)      do novelists have to
cure the world?
Everything in the book ends in death or destruction, the end of the
road for nihilism. (laycock)
what does life end in?       hartmans too sophisticated to use the cliche
without apology       so he uses it with apology, whats the difference?
I will say that the creation of the minister is nothing short of
wonderful, and that that of his son is even better. I wish only that
Mr. Gaddis had stuck more closely to these people, as centralizing
devices if nothing else, and not depended instead on the divergent
density of his writing to provide a center we can cling to. In that
case he might have been able to work out some sort of resolution—
or whatever you want to call it: an ending, perhaps—which might
have enabled us to see this book as a true novel and not a brilliant
but diffuse polemic.
a counterfeit sentence       the non seq couldnt have been really a con-
dition for hartmans approval, he lies when he says it could      like
when he says if the real ambiguity of gaddis position—"whatever it
is"—had been fully stated "we might have had here a book we could
consider side by side with the very best"      a fake if & a fake then

simak too starts apologizing for dragging in this old wornout cliche:

the one objection which sticks in this reviewer's craw—and it is not
by any means a legitimate criticism, but simply a matter of personal
prejudice
but gets brasher
—is that while indictment after indictment is trotted out and the
evidence set up, the world convicted and all but sentenced, not one
ray of hope is held forth for an escape from This Terrible Mess in
which we find outselves [sic]. The one glimmer that we can find, and
there is nothing to indicate that the author meant it so, is that we
might be better off if we went back to the old paganism of 2,000
years ago.
because he simaks learned the value of humility      if you seem to
laugh at yourself as well as your victim it shows youre modest & the
readers more likely to believe whatever nonsense youre peddling.
like the disgusting capital letters in "This Terrible Mess"

the grimmest work of art       being really there      can give the pos-
sibility of specific hopes      critics prefer commercial trash, literary
painkiller that promises much more but delivers nothing

in westerns & mysteries, the happy ending & invulnerable hero trick
has a social result       it reinforces peoples belief that somehow they
wont suffer growing old & being brutally wounded & smashed in dying.
so they read the world as a novel, theres great apparently unavoidable
danger—but everything will be all right      every time, this war scare
cant be it       since the bombs cant appear in the last chapter they
believe its all right to help build them

rolo says the recognitions "theme is familiar—the modern world is hell."
the "resolution of his theme of damnation" is in wyatts last scenes.
but the resolution "is presented too thinly and too obscurely to
emerge as a counterpoint to the thunderous chorus of perdition."
should get all the way to purgatory?      rolos own review has exactly
the strong fake resolution he demands of gaddis!      the recognitions
is "a somewhat incoherent semi-failure" & also "one of the half dozen
most remarkable first novels published by American writers since the
end of the nineteen-thirties"      he puts the kind words last so by the
rules of the review racket its a "favorable review"      if hed put them
1st it would have been unfavorable

                  rolo's last 2 paras
                  (favorable review)

                  <———————>

                  >———————< 		                       rolo reversed
                  (unfavorable review)

                  >———————<

                  <———————>

  The novel's central failure is
that the characters through whom
the corruption of the modern world
is dramatized are inadequate for
the purpose. Too many of them
are drawn from Bohemia, which
has always been (along with bet-
ter things) the refuge of fakers,
self-deceivers, and hysterics. One
does not convincingly demonstrate
that the world is insane by de-
scribing life in an insane asylum.
  A second failing is that the
theme has been elaborated before
the halfway mark and what fol-
lows is further illustration rather
than development. As for the
resolution, it is presented too
thinly and too obscurely to emerge
as a counterpoint to the thunder-
ous chorus of perdition. There are
other obscurities, some of them
due to excessive deployment of
the author's phenomenal erudi-
tion; and generally speaking, Mr.
Gaddis has been mastered by,
and not achieved mastery over,
the delirium he wishes to depict.
In spite of these flaws, which
make The Recognitions a some-
what incoherent semi-failure, the
book seems to me one of the half
dozen most remarkable first novels
published by American writers
since the end of the nineteen-
thirties. A work of 956 pages in
the nightmarish vein could easily
sink into unbearable dreariness;
but as far as this reader was con-
cerned, The Recognitions retained
a quality of excitement to the end.
Mr. Gaddis has wit and passion
and imagination in abundance, as
well as seriousness and learning.
A profound sense of irony enables
him to distill savage comedy and
atrocious farce out of his dooms-
day vision of the world. His ex-
travagant portraiture is arresting
and frequently brilliant. All this
adds up to something new in con-
temporary American fiction—a
highbrow novel of ideas which,
flawed though it is, has the
qualities which our intellectual
novels have tended to lack: mo-
mentum, range, and imaginative
vitality.
  A work of 956 pages in the
nightmarish vein could easily sink
into unbearable dreariness; but
as far as this reader was con-
cerned, The Recognitions retained
a quality of excitement to the end.
Mr. Gaddis has wit and passion
and imagination in abundance, as
well as seriousness and learning.
A profound sense of irony enables
him to distill savage comedy and
atrocious farce out of his dooms-
day vision of the world. His extrav-
agant portraiture is arresting and
frequently brilliant. All this adds
up to something new in con-
temporary American fiction—a
highbrow novel of ideas which
has the qualities which our intel-
lectual novels have tended to
lack: momentum, range, and imag-
inative vitality. In spite of these
virtues, which make the book
seem to me one of the half dozen
most remarkable first novels pub-
lished by American writers since
the end of the nineteen-thirties,
The Recognitions is a somewhat
incoherent semi-failure. The
novel's central failure is that the
characters through whom the cor-
ruption of the modern world is
dramatized are inadequate for the
purpose. Too many of them are
drawn from Bohemia, which has
always been (along with better
things) the refuge of fakers, self-
deceivers, and hysterics. One does
not convincingly demonstrate that
the world is insane by describing
life in an insane asylum.
  A second failing is that the
theme has been elaborated be-
fore the halfway mark and what
follows is further illustration rather
than development. As for the
resolution, it is presented too
thinly and too obscurely to emerge
as a counterpoint to the thunder-
ous chorus of perdition. There are
other obscurities, some of them
due to excessive deployment of
the author's phenomenal erudition;
and generally speaking, though
his work has many virtues, Mr.
Gaddis has been mastered by,
and not achieved mastery over,
the delirium he wishes to depict.