On First Looking Into Gaddis's The Recognitions
Not into exactly. I am still looking at the actual book. I bought my copy, paperback, a Penguin Classic if there ever was one, brand-new at the Barnes & Noble on Court Street. It was the only WTG45 selection available. It was on a shelf like all the other books, such that all of the page edges on the top and bottom and reverse-of-spine were kept away from sunlight and the page-yellowing physical damage associated with sunlight. When I was young I had a bunch of paperbacks on my desk at my parents' house, completely ruined because they were near the window and the sun pissed them yellow, so I tend to be sensitive to these sorts of discolorations, if not actively seeking them out.
Anyway I want somebody to explain to me how the keystone of American postmodern literature can sit on a shelf, its edges nowhere near sunlight, for so long that enough sunlight has crept into the atomic-sized cracks between shelf and book to permanently yellow the tops, side, and bottom of its pages. If I needed any more motivation to read this book, now I have it.
Sure we don't want to read Faulkner?
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