Carpenter's Gothic

From what I have read so far, I find it difficult to read and to understand, But after re-reading what I have read I have a better understanding. The book plays around with different people talking at different times and interrupting each other. It feels as if some of it should have been written as a play so that the reader could have a better way of following along throughout the novel. I feel that the author has created the book like this so people take more time to read and go into a deeper understanding of what is really going on throughout the novel and the different things that it touches upon. The scene that we have read it class clearly shows me that there is not only a barrier between me and the book and understanding it but also between the character and and there everyday lives. From the languages that they speak to someone times not really speaking and living in the same house-hold as someone else.

Beginning Carpenter's Gothic

This book so far is the most complicated book I've read when it comes to following dialogue and what goes on between characters. When the character Booth and her brother Billy speak in the story, it's difficult to know who is saying what to each other. Another example of this was when Booth was on the phone talking with someone but yet we have no clue who the person is or the meaning behind it. In this story, I feel that it's more important to analyze what is going on first before trying to get all the information from the story since it is confusing. I hope to have a better understanding of why Gaddis had written his story this way and understand why this novel is more difficult than the rest.

Reading the first part of Carpenter's Gothic, it is very hard to understand who is talking at which scene, and what exactly the characters are discussing. When introduced to Booth, we see that shes having a discussion with a person over the phone, but there is no person to us being "shown", this to me is kind of weird as to why Gaddis would do this. When two characters are having a discussion like Booth and her brother Billy in the beginning, it was hard to figure out who was talking at first, you have to kind of read it more in order to understand that oh its Booth saying this or Billy saying this. And then when Paul, Booths husbands, is introduced, we see that he is a man that likes to view his wife as an object and not his wife. He like to drink a lot, my analysis was because he cant seem to get any job working for him. He tries to start something from home, and always "forces" Liz (Booths first name) to be the one who does the work. always asking if anyone called today or if the checks came, and yelling about the expenses. He just seems like an angry man who doesn't have anything going for him.

The one question i have is Who is Adolph?
The more i read the book i still couldnt figure out who this guy is, or his role in the book

"Carpenter's"

I read a few pages of the novel and I was surprised to see that the story is known through dialog s.  I f we pause and come back reading, we lost who the speaker is because the names are not written next to the sentences. We need to go back and find out. We discover or the author introduce the characters through the dialog s. It an ingenious and an original style that Gaddis choose to write the novel. It's like the readers are watching and listening to the characters through a surveillance camera, like the behind the scene of TV shows. We can easily picture the background and get to know most characters personality even if they seem not really paying attention to each other.

Beginning Carpenter's Gothic

Look at the opening of the novel again. Do you feel a better understanding of what is happening in the opening since we spoke about it last week? Why or why not? Use the blog as we read this book over the next few weeks. What questions do you have? Ask them here and maybe you'll get an answer. If someone asks a question and you think you have an answer, then answer. All good questions and all good answers get points.

Dialogue in Gaddis

Much of Carpenter's Gothic is told in the form of unattributed dialogue. It sometimes makes the novel difficult to follow. I'd like us to consider why an author would tell a novel in this form. Often, it seems like the characters have difficulty understanding each other. They may not speak the same language, they may not be listening to each other, they may simply have no investment in understanding the pov of the other. In Morrison, as we discussed last week, dialogue was often used to express "local color" and to impart information in a dramatic fashion (i.e. like a Greek chorus). In Gaddis, it seems as if dialogue is used in a different fashion. Can you try to get at how/why he uses dialogue in the way he does?

Gaddis Annotations

William Gaddis is not only one of the most important po-mo writers, but also one of the most difficult. Check out this website where scholars have annotated specific passages from the novel:

http://www.williamgaddis.org/gothic/index.shtml