Your search for: gaddis AND writer

William Gaddis is one of the most significant postwar American novelists. His three large and experimental works - The Recognitions, J R (which won the National Book Award in 1975), and Carpenter's Gothic - sell to a reverential underground. In this first discussion of the ethical dimension of ...

William Gaddis is one of the most significant postwar American novelists. His three large and experimental works - The Recognitions, J R (which won the National Book Award in 1975), and Carpenter's Gothic - sell to a reverential underground. In this first discussion of the ethical dimension of Gaddis's novels, Gregory Comnes maintains that Gaddis writes "epistemological" novels, narratives whose form provides readers with the means to understand how a postmodern ethics is possible. To establish this position Comnes argues three points. The first is that ethical concepts derive from fundamental epistemological principles - that "oughts" are legitimated by what passes for what "is". The second is that Gaddis's novels employ the epistemological concepts, grounded in quantum science, as principles of composition and form. From this interpretation, the novels dramatize the truth described by contemporary science. Readers of Gaddis come to realize what Bohr and Heisenberg understood, Comnes argues: that life is not linear, aimed at one fixed point and seeking consummation there. He concludes that Gaddis wants readers to understand the issue of ethics in a way that one of his characters describes as "Agape agape". Within the constraints of an indeterminate world, love itself can serve as the basis of meaning and value. The three novels, each postmodern and ethical, correlate the worlds of science, religion, art, and economics to show that ethical choice (not conformity and passivity) is possible, even when the absolute is replaced with the probable as the basis for judgment.

These essays and panel discussions made up the Writer and Religion Conference held at Washington University in St. Louis. The six essays, all by writers of international stature, were followed by panel discussions, with audience participation. The featured essayists are Eavan Boland, J. M. Coetzee ...

These essays and panel discussions made up the Writer and Religion Conference held at Washington University in St. Louis. The six essays, all by writers of international stature, were followed by panel discussions, with audience participation. The featured essayists are Eavan Boland, J. M. Coetzee, William Gaddis, Amitav Ghosh, A. G. Mojtabai, and Hanan al-Shaykh.

"A masterly review of the early pahses of the conflict between the United States, Russia, China and their respective allies from 1946 to the Cuban missle crisis in the autumn of 1962. It is clear, thorough and judicious; in short, magnificent."--The Economist "...Gaddis has done a thorough job of ...

"A masterly review of the early pahses of the conflict between the United States, Russia, China and their respective allies from 1946 to the Cuban missle crisis in the autumn of 1962. It is clear, thorough and judicious; in short, magnificent."--The Economist "...Gaddis has done a thorough job of collating material from these diverse sources...and constructing a trenchant analysis that puts these fascinating tidbits into context."--San Francisco Chronicle & Examiner Based on the latest findings of Cold War historians and extensive research in American archives as well as the recently opened archives in Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, and China, We Now Know provides a vividly written, eye-opening account of the Cold War during the years from the end of World War II to the Cuban missile crisis. The book brims with new information drawn from previously unavailable sources, with fresh insight into the impact of ideology, economics, and nuclear weapons, and with striking reinterpretations of the roles of Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Khrushchev, Mao, and Stalin. Indeed, Gaddis concludes that if there was one factor that made the Cold War unavoidable it was Stalin.