'At The Heart of Everything a Row of Holes'

William Gaddiss latest and shortest novel is also his most

unfathomable.
by Wolfgang Fuhrmann
translated by John Soutter
with Anja Zeidler
Music has a special place in William Gaddiss monumental satires. In a key scene rom
his !"#$pa%e no&el' J (' the music teacher )dward *ast tries to show his pupil' the
ele&en$year$old but soulless inancial wi+ard J ( who also happens to be *asts employer'
the &alue o music, -and I looked up the .uote' p. #//0, 12hats what Im tryin% to' listen
all I want you to do take your mind o these nickel deductions these net tan%ible assets
or a minute and listen to a piece o %reat music' it3s a cantata by *ach cantata number
twenty$one by Johann Sebastian *ach damn it J ( can3t you understand what I3m tryin%
to' to show you there3s such a thin% as as' as intan%ible assets43
2he attempt runs a%round most disastrously5 but it is ne&ertheless si%niicant that in this
passa%e that hope' which mi%ht allow J ( some humanistic e6istence' is based upon a
piece o music. Moreo&er 7not necessary' I think -40 it3s not in the German te6t anayhow8
It is a liberal bour%eois hope or societys uture5 the idea o the 9ineteenth :entury that
education the $ inner ac.uisition o art $ can help the de&elopment o an indi&iduals
personality. ;ike all satirists' Gaddis' born in Manhattan in <!""' was a moralist. =is
artistry is a testament to this act' and althou%h not oten declared' the unsubstantiated
%eneral misunderstandin%s and the base carni&alistic and triumphant prattle is arran%ed to
such an e6tent that the authors despair is plainly e&ident. 2his lead Gaddis to in&esti%ate
the system o art and its unctions in 2he (eco%nitions 7<!//8' society in J ( 7<!>/8'
reli%ion in :arpenters Gothic 7<!?/8 and justice in A @rolic o =is Awn 7<!//8. When he
died in <!!?' he let a radio play 71Ghostly Boices8 and the no&el Agap Agape that has
now appeared in German under the title 2he Mechanical Ciano.
Agap Agape is an oddity or those just holdin% the book5 with only about <"D &ery thinly
printed pa%es to do its work' it is by ar the smallest o Gaddiss swellin% epic no&els'
almost like the slim :arpenters Gothic that similarly only needed about EDD pa%es.
Gaddiss %reat no&els are a complaint about the senseless operations o societys
structures' only it is e6pressed in the precise presentation o the social processes' into
which his characters are swept by a whirlpool o corruption and sel$contempt. Agap
Agape %oes into re&erse procedure. It be%ins with 1thats what my work is about' the
collapse o e&erythin%' o meanin%' o lan%ua%e' o &alues' o art' disorder and dislocation
where&er you look' entropy drownin% e&erythin% in si%ht' entertainment and technolo%y
and e&ery our$year$old with a computer' e&erybody his own artist where the whole thin%
came rom' the binary system and the computer where technolo%y came rom in the irst
place' you see4
2hat sounds rather like some conser&ati&e traditional critic o culture' who can be
labelled with the phrase 1blessed with a morally soured inde6 in%er and readers can ask
themsel&es, can Gaddis himsel up in his old a%e %i&e to a deliberate declaration o his
<
intentions rather than %i&e some artistic delineation o them4 Inasmuch' the nameless
irst$person narrator is ob&iously an old man' who is chronically sick and is a writer in
despair about the world and his own work. Instead o the dialo%ic ambi%uity and
endlessly entan%led authorial threads o Gaddiss earlier no&els' there is a concentration
in this no&el around one place and one person, the sickbed' rom which the I$narrator
speaks in an uninterrupted monolo%ue to a ne&er$answerin% Fou' but rom whom soon
emer%es another splintered sel' a shadow o a shadow and is addressed as 1the other.
*ut whoe&er reads this book in such a way is already cau%ht in the authors trap. ;ike all
literature' Agap Agape is also contaminated by the themes o which it speaks. Althou%h
leadin% the reader to belie&e that the book' which the prota%onist wants to write' is the
one Gaddis would ha&e liked to ha&e written' or the ailure o the ictional was the ailure
o the real author' it draws the reader into a ceaseless process o decay' the destruction o
e&ery order possible. 2he 1pestilence o entropy holds sway rom the irst to the last
pa%e. 9ot only does the te6ts embodied I ind itsel in awul disinte%ration' just like the
collection o notes8' newspaper clippin%s' articles and books that are all piled to%ether
waitin% in an e6treme perilous e.uilibrium by the hospital bed' but it also alls into
hopeless disarray' becomin% drenched and meltin% down into one massi&e lump caused
by %lasses o water bein% spilt e&erywhere' blood pourin% rom his skin which because o
his medication has become as brittle as paper rom the urine o an incontinent body.
)&en the stream o consciousness o the monolo%ue alls into despair. =e does try to hold
on to his %reat themes which are the same as William Gaddiss appear to be, American
a&ariciousness' the sti%ma o ailure' intellectual &acuity' and the masses ollowin% the
pleasure principle in entertainment which are the solitary despair o this elitist author,
1We are only a couple o thousand' but they are in the millionsG this I .uotes 2olstoy'
who' howe&er' concluded that the artists duty was to the de&elopment o the masses.
1(ule by the %reatest number has become the new tyranny. And the symptom o this
detestable democratisation o art is mechanisation' and the mass de&elopment o
mechanised musical instruments' whose row o holes and artistic wooden in%ers sets
substitutes a work o arts authenticity, 1And now e&en untrained people can do itG *ack
with Clatos chance people pourin% out @Hr )lise without a law till the last peroration in
the roll passes o&er the correspondin% hole in the tracker bar and democracy comes
lumberin% into the room.
At the same time as worryin% about the row o holes there is also the worry about any
necessary order. And inally the stack o notes collapses. 2he more the narrator de&elops
and stren%thens his thesis by citin% his notes' until he seems to be buried as is the plan o
his work by the lood o papers and books that are spread out by his bed' the more he ails
not just in his ar%ument' but e&en his own attack o these morals alls to dust between his
in%ers. What would be a summum opus remains part o the ceaseless corruption o the
whole, 1It %ets worseI..-and .uote has to be inishedI0' but where is it.
JKas =er+ aller Kin%e ein ;ochstreien'J Berliner Zeitung' "nd June "DDE' p.<E
2ranslated by John Soutter and Anja Zeidler
"
Art without the Artist or the History of a estru!tion
"y Guido Graf
translated by John Soutter
with Anja Zeidler
All his lie' William Gaddis has been concerned about the history o the player piano'
which or a lon% time was enormously popular especially in America'. =is irst
publication' a short essay in <!/<' also %a&e a short historical prLcis. Gaddis may ha&e
seen it dierently when compilin% the sources and material all those years' but ha&in% his
last book in our reach we can certainly be %lad that he did not compile a lar%er essay rom
his research. Anly throu%h the ner&ously conused speech o his characters with which he
orchestrated his literary work' does Gaddis make it inally possible to lay this subject at
rest. MShoot the God damned pianistN' says Jack Gibbs in J R, Gaddiss second no&el o
<!>/. =e too tries in &ain to write a book about the player piano and tries to tell the not
too bri%ht (hoda what it is about, M2he player piano plays o itsel and so you can shoot
and be rid o the piano player' I&e e&en read it out to you. God damn it' here it is' here
where e&ery new in&ention was eliminatin% the &ery possibility o ailure as a condition
or success which especially aected God damn art.N In Gaddis' the artist is abandoned'
whose e&ery possibility has the carpet pulled under it by automation. In Agap Agape, the
artists possible ailure is linked closely to the idea o the authentic, Mthat lo&e or the
beautiul creation beore its createdN. 2ranscendence e6ists by its unrepeatability. In the
de&elopment' within which Gaddis lets his alter e%o %ather an actual entropy that is
produced rom his scraps o paper and notes' a short decisi&e method that leads rom the
unction o the player piano to the tabulatin% machine and punch cards and also the
be%innin%s o I*M and the triumphal procession o the computer a%e. 2he artist now
seems superluous. In his irst epic no&el' The Recognitions 7<!//8' this .uestion is
per&asi&e as is the increasin% automation o our artistic en&ironment and indi&iduality'
which is steadily takin% up more room. Music' art' literature' all acknowled%e their
industrially produced simulacra. 2he authenticity o a thin% is no lon%er o any interest'
but what is now important is its abilities to impose a conormity and to pro&ide
satisaction or whate&er is supposed to need satisyin%. 2wenty years between the ailure
o The Recognitions and J R, Gaddis did e&erythin% possible in order to ser&e money' like
contract work' scriptin%' ad&ertisin%. In this period' Gaddis also did the lar%est part o his
research into the player piano and the cultural conse.uences o automation. 9ow Agap
Agape has appeared' it can hardly be called a summa. 9or is it a lyrical epode. Gaddis
does not loose accuracy nor timin% when askin% e6istential .uestions' but there is the
problem o alter e%os that are let to speak o their hopes and disappointments within this
polyphonic but mundanely monotonous world. Kespite his mockery' Gaddis is
ne&ertheless serious when he uses Clatos disturbin% notion about the souls culpability
and its recei&in% just punishment or its sins. 2his is the reason why we are on the earth.
2he idea o the body as prison hinders any attempt at escape and also %uarantees that this
reason is relentlessly imposed upon the collecti&e memory.
Ater the inal appearance o his last mammoth no&el in <!!O A Frolic of His Own,
Gaddis did not want to let Agap Agape remain uncompleted. *ut ater a %ood two years
work' Gaddis rom an impression let him ater readin% 2homas *ernhards books
E
decided to write no lon%er some kind o specialist book' but instead a literary monolo%ue.
Pnder the workin% title M2orschluQpanikN' a lar%e part o Agap Agape was put down on
paper as a radio play or the German radio network' Keutschlandunk. 2wo weeks ater
the plays irst broadcast in March <!!!' William Gaddis died.
As a surprisin% and e&en a serene inal de&elopment is Rin% ;ears in e&ery respect
mo&in% monolo%ue where he broods how in his declinin% years he di&ided his time
particularly between his belo&ed possessions and between his three dau%hters but mainly
as a ta6 dod%e. 2he material %athered o&er thirty years or the history o the player piano
waits in &ain or some order to be imposed. And here it becomes ob&ious on e&ery pa%e
o his lies concern bein% spent beore the window blinds that is about death as well as o
the little bit o lie now let him. It is not much use to know that Gaddiss alter e%o uses
Clato and Kostoie&sky as yardsticks. *ut what becomes so une6pectedly clear
particularly like a little window in the inal pa%es is Gaddiss contemptible uni&erse is at
work balancin% the losses' the desire and pain o a transient lie' Mwhen e&erythin% was
possible and still pursues us throu%h old a%e' and we look back rom where we are upon
that which we oursel&es ha&e destroyed' e&en destroyed the sel that could ha&e done
more and the work that is now my enemy' because it is the only thin% that I can tell you
about the youn% man or whom anythin% was possible.N
JRunst ohne RHnstler oder Kie Geschichte einer ZerstSrun%J. Basler Zeitung' "" May "DDE.
2ranslated by John Soutter and Anja Zeidler
O
#o Time for Fi!tion
by $laus %odi!&
translated by John Soutter
with Anja Zeidler
2he %reat American writer William Gaddis let behind him a sli%ht essay in the orm o a
no&el in which he speaks more authentically than e&er. Mortally ill ater a series o
operations and weakened by hea&y medication' a writer lies alone in a room. =e is
surrounded by a teeterin% pile o books and manuscripts T the material or his last %reat
work T but which he cannot inish. In a mi6ture o real and %hostly dialo%ue with authors
such as @reud and Kostoie&sky' @laubert and 2ur%ene&' Mel&ille as well as 2homas
*ernhard. With these writers Gaddis belie&es to ha&e a %hostly ainity and builds upon
them as a tradition. 2he old man at deaths door ties the loose ends o his uninished opus
ma%num into a loose network' an art that is an e6posL o the inachie&able. ;ike Gaddiss
earlier no&els The Recognitions' J R' Carpenters !othic and A Frolic of His Own, the
project ou%ht to ha&e been more o a radical risk, Nthats what my work is about' the
collapse o e&erythin%' o meanin%' o lan%ua%e' o &alues' o art' disorder and dislocation
where&er you look' entropy drownin% e&erythin% in si%ht' entertainment and technolo%y.N
2hese are the central themes o all the books Gaddis completed' but the central ocus o
his last book is solely the player piano as a cipher or the collapse o humanity' the
indi&idual and creati&ity brou%ht about by commercialisation and mechanisation and the
di%italisation o our present time. MWiener tells us about a brilliant American en%ineer
whos %one out and bou%ht an e6pensi&e player piano. Cushkin or Cushpin' doesnt care a
damn or the music but hes ascinated by the complicated mechanism that produces it
thats what America is all about' what mechani+ation was all about and the deiication o
democracy a hundred years a%o.N Gaddis resorts e&en to @reud with the a&oidance o
stress and the thirst or success. =e ollows the thesis that entertainment is the parent o
technolo%y and that such a technolo%ical mass society has buried artistic authenticity that
is i%nored and inally made superluous. All masks all in the ace o death.
And indeed' William Gaddis himsel speaks rom this percepti&e essay cast as an
unwritten no&el. In his other works' he hid and at the same time re&ealed himsel throu%h
chan%in% and &ariously mirrored sel$portraits. In the ace o death howe&er' he let all the
masks all. 2he %ame is done' and there is no more time or iction. 9o one has
cate%orised Gaddis' nor heard him in so authentic a &oice as in this inal essay' but he has
ne&er been so ar$o rom his %enial nor %one so ar with his narratorial de&ices and
possibilities. Agap Agape nothin% but a mo&in% and persuasi&e postscript to the products
o the "D
th
:entury' but also 7delete this8 the dyin% echo o a %enius. 2his %reat writer
%rabbed the player piano as another e6emplarily postlapsarian @all o authentic art and
blended it with his most cherished art rom $ music. When I &isited Gaddis in his modest
;on% Island house in <!!/ and we talked or hours about literature and his work' he also
spoke about his project that he wanted to take up and had spent years collectin% material
and at whose centre would stand the player piano. ;ater on' Gaddis especially would let
out a smirk and acknowled%e that or him music was the hi%hest orm o artistic
e6pression' not literature. 2his was because the composer could chan%e somethin% rom
non$e6istence into e6istence' while the writer must always work pre$e6istin% material$
lan%ua%e. ;iterature thereore would always ha&e to contend with the suspicion o
/
pla%iarism. 2he lan%ua%e o music will always be let in a non$e6istent state as lon% as
the composer hasn3t written it down. Music must thereore be crated substantially and
ori%inally' and the composer is the medium o this creation which is achie&ed throu%h
him. And that' said William Gaddis' will always remain or him the %reatest secret o
artistic creation.
JReine Zeit Hr @iktionen.J Tages An"eiger' "? May "DDE
2ranslated by Anja Zeidler and John Soutter
#
3Finish with the 'iano'
William Gaddiss slim literary be(uest Agap Agape
"y )ebastian Fasthuber
translated by John Soutter
with Anja Zeidler
2he problem o the mechanisation o art and its concomitant depreciation occupied the
American author' William Gaddis 7<!"" $ <!!?8' or o&er ity years. Since the end o the
@orties as a junior reporter at The #ew $or%er, he was busy %atherin% material about the
workin%s o punch cards in the player piano and in <!/< he published a more e6tended
article on his theme in The Atlantic &onthl', and he continued se&eral times in his
chan%eable career as a no&elist to try to write a literary work on the decline o hi%h art
brou%ht about by todays increasin% a&ailability o reproduced works.
Althou%h nothin% came o it' in the mean time that celebrated masterpiece o late
modernism' Gaddiss irst no&el' The Recognitions 7<!//8' also went under. =e did return
to hi s theme' but had to %i&e up the necessarily len%thy research or a job in Cublic
(elations workin% as a speech writer in order to pro&ide or his amily. Gaddis %a&e
ra%ments o this abandoned te6t to a character in his ne6t book J R 7<!>/8' a no&el which
teems with ailin% artists.
In other writin%s and inter&iews' he admitted to bein% a slow worker' who is e&er %oin%
under the monstrous collection o material or some cultural$sociolo%ical work that soon
becomes nothin% but a runnin% %a% in his work. *ut Gaddis was ne&er able to let %o o
his theme' and so ater inishin% his satire on the law' A Frolic of His Own 7<!!O8' and
despite bein% seriously ill' Gaddis a%ain tried to %et his problem child' Agap Agape
7"DD"8' down on paper.
MWith our piano rolls' you can play better than many other people' and you can really
become a master o the keyboard. Moreo&er' rom the &ery irst day you can play the
whole repertoire while the proessional piano players can only %et to know some o the
repertoire. 9o pre&ious e6perience is necessary.N 2his newspaper ad&ertisement o <!"/
and other documents like it are the basis or the slim &olume inished shortly beore
Gaddiss death. @rom the no&els sick bed we hear a &oice that is easily identiiable as
Gaddiss' whose beautiully manic intonation makes not so much a whinin% as an incisi&e
complaint about the de%radation o art and the &ictory o consumerism and the essential
imposition o passi&ity upon any artistic acti&ity. I you are happy with the player piano'
what do you do with the piano player4 2hats ri%ht' you can .uietly shoot him.
2here is none o the old clichL about mellow old a%e in Gaddis3s Agap Agape and e&en
the stereotype o a rantin% and %rumpy old man doesnt do justice to the urious
monolo%ue stupidly called a no&el by the publisher. Althou%h the prota%onist sounds
bitter' it is not at all embitterin%' or e&en in a ew places' a wayward comedy sprin%s
rom out o its %loominess.
Ater a ew pa%es one is reminded o the style o 2homas *ernhard' whose The (oser
Gaddis .uotes time and a%ain. Ab&iously' Gaddis mi%ht ha&e seen the scarcely healthy
*ernhard as an intellectual brother. In the end' *ernhards repetiti&e style' his
>
e6a%%erated monolo%ues and his declinin% artistic elite suited Gaddis well in his stru%%le
with the enormous amount o material. Since one is indeed in all probability ne&er ready
to produce somethin% o ones ori%inal intentions 7M*ecause we ne&er know' can we' how
much time is let' do you see4N8' one must ne&ertheless produce it in some appropriate
orm.
)&en i in some places the result seems pu++lin%' Gaddiss inal ur%ent deence or
ori%inal art reads at times somewhat pitiully' he was ne&ertheless uninterested in any
elitist reaction to the democrati+ation o the arts. 2he te6ts raillery is at the apparent
&ictory o reproducibility o&er the Mreal thin%N itsel and at the assembly$line nature that
has also %rabbed hold o literature' de%radin% the author purely into a media i%ure.
JSchluss mit dem Ciano.J )er *tan+ar+' <! April "DDE.
2ranslated by Anja Zeidler and John Soutter
?
3The E*aggeration Artists'
William Gaddis's 'osthumous Wor& 'ays Reveren!e to Thomas
"ernhard
"y +ol&er Weidermann
translated by John Soutter
with Anja Zeidler
A dyin% man is writin% his last book and puts e&erythin% in it, 1my work is about' the
collapse o e&erythin%' o meanin%' o lan%ua%e' o &alues' o art' disorder and dislocation
where&er you look' entropy drownin% e&erythin% in si%ht. It is the last attempt to brin%
order in the world and its perceptual systems with which to curse the world as it is or one
last time and tell it that it is inimical to the soul' solely concerned about pleasure' idiotic
and that it also repudiates all this one last time. 1Wait. I&e just reali+ed I thats not what
I want to say I my whole beautiul thesis alls to pieces 1 he inally says. 2he thesis ails
and its reco%nition turns a%ainst the author and he dies. 2hus ends the inal book o
William Gaddis' the %reat moralist' the reormer and accuser and ea&esdropper o the
world' and the 2wentieth :enturys carto%rapher o American society. Shortly ater
inishin% the book' Agap Agape, that was based on a radio play commissioned by
Keutschlandunk' Gaddis died in <!!?. =e was >/ years o a%e. Agap Agape is his
literary testament
,n-isi.le Cop'ing
It really ou%ht to ha&e be%un' 1@rom March to Kecember' writes (udol' while I was
ha&in% to take lar%e .uantities o prednisolen' a act which I am bound to record here'
a%ainst the onset o my sarcoidosis' I assembled e&ery possible book and article written
by or about Mendelssohn *artholdy I but unortunately' it cannot' or this is the
be%innin% o another book, 2homas *ernhards <!?" no&el' Concrete. Indi%nantly'
Gaddis complains, 1I mean its the irst pa%e o my book' 2homas *ernhard had
pla%iarised beore I could e&en be%in %ettin% it down on paper. 2he lar%est parts o
Gaddiss last book are a condemnation o 2homas *ernhard' the pla%iarist o 1my words'
1my book. *ernhard has copied where&er possible' has had the thou%hts that Gaddis had'
had written the books that Gaddis wrote' cursin% the world as Gaddis wanted to curse it.
2he only problem is that *ernhard had all these thou%hts' books' curses beore Gaddis.
2his thereore is the only cultural case o what mi%ht be called pre$pla%iarism. In&isible
copyin%' books that are still unwritten' thou%hts unthou%ht' but now there is a rash and
e6cessi&e e6a%%eration that does not come about until later. A course' it is all a joke. 2he
e6a%%eration that is part o *ernhards style' and with this Gaddiss last book is nothin%
less than a hu%e act o re&erence to the work o that %reat Austrian curser o the world'
2homas *ernhard.
)&en when Gaddis does not .uote him directly' or is not reproachin% him openly or his
pla%iarism' ne&ertheless he curses the world e6actly as *ernhard would. 2he whole
unortunate thin% as Gaddis sees it' be%ins with in&ention o the player piano. Gaddis
says' 1e&erythin% be%an with that. About a hundred years a%o' it hit America 1like a
pla%ue. 2he mechanisation o art. Mass culture. Impure art. Imitation. 2echnolo%y. 2he
alsiication o the world. And since then at the heart o e&erythin%, a row o holes. 2his'
!
or Gaddis' brou%ht about the curse into the world that is mass culture' the illusion that
e&eryone can be an artist' art made supericial and also the deiication o democracy' as
well as to all appearances utile and deluded institutions' the end o pain' the end o
mastery' the end o real art. 2he idea that an artist must be a personality' must %o on
readin% tours and must be presented to the public. :ommodiication. )&ery youn% pretty
poetess wants to be praised to hea&en and e&ery middle a%ed writer who has allen into
obscurity wants to be published' and beauty' beauty' beauty and joy must be put on
parade or the public. 1@inally the public will become the master and will brin% all sorts
o notes to sel$help$%roups, the basic idea behind our %lorious democracy. 2his will
make any true artist withdraw rom creatin% any real masterpiece. An impossibility.
12hey are at war with him. 2ake the 9ational *ook Award. 2hey %i&e you ten thousand
dollars or you to bite the hand that eeds you. Gala dinners at the Cla+a' where e&ery one
whos any one in publishin% is sure to attend and it all costs a cool hal million I but I
can hardly breathe I try to %et mysel up I
=is tirade is always broken by breathlessness. 2he Author is dyin%. 2his is his swanson%.
A swanson% to an oeu&re that be%an in <!// with the publication o that massi&e and all
encompassin% no&el' The Recognitions, and which no one wanted to read. 2here ollowed
a lie made distant rom literature which twenty years later was ollowed by J R, the
&isionary book about society' whose pretentious bri%ht rise' redemption' as well as the
prophecy o the comin% era o that inancial phenomenon o boom and bust that is
oretold o in ei%ht hundred pa%es o dialo%ue. In terms o amenability' all Gaddiss
books are diicult. ;on% and bulky' he did not ind many readers or himsel. 9ow at
least' the inal no&el is a neater .uicker and more radical swanson% at only one hundred
and twenty pa%es. A %reat joy to read.
&isse+ /ncounters
*oth writers ne&er met. 1*ut I ne&er met my pla%iarist. I am and remain my other. 2he
other' indeed' who always watches rom close .uarters. In his inal years' he hardly read
anythin% other than 2homas *ernhards books. =e lo&ed him and his work, 1the
presentiment o a berea&ement that is practically e&erywhere I a childs cry in the street'
or later when e&erythin% seems possible still I and that now is passin% by. As a child'
like this *ernhard was' .uite oten you %et ill' you %et better' mumps' measles' chicken
po6 I in the sick room' its all a .uestion o time. *ut now4 =idin% behind the whoopin%
cou%h is death' the last and best riend I 12homas *ernhard died inally in <!?! rom
his tuberculosis' which was the result rom ne%lected case o pneumonia. =is honoured
copier' imitator and mental riend dies nine years ater and shortly ater this book was
completed.
JKie Ubertreibun%skHnstler'J Fran%furter Allgemeine *onntags"eitung Zeitung, ! March' <D' "DDE' p. "?.
2ranslated by John Soutter and Anja Zeidler
<D
Furious Thoughts ,nbound- The Worlds ,ngathering- William
Gaddis .ast and )hortest #ovel. Agap Agape
"y )ebastian oms!h
translated by John Soutter
with Anja Zeidler
Agap Agape, a no&ella o just o&er a hundred pa%es' makes its appearance in Germany
i&e years ater the death o William Gaddis. 2his astonishin%ly short te6t or Gaddis
makes him or once seem more accessible than did his earlier work. In the our decades
o his career as a writer' Gaddis only wrote our no&els' but they are unparalleled in their
labyrinthine comple6ity. 2hey are always narrated with an unrestrained tenacity that the
reader can hardly keep up with. Jonathan @ran+en' himsel no literary miniaturist' has put
Gaddis down in an essay as 1Mr Kiicult. Gaddis earned such name throu%h his
challen%in% but i%nored <!// debut' The Recognitions' an encyclopaedic work o almost
threatenin% e6tent. 2his sin%le book created a dedicated cult ollowin% or Gaddis. 2o be
selected in to this band o the happy ew' one was e6pected to ha&e read all o the book. A
%reater %eneral readership was still let wantin% with the appearance o Gaddiss ne6t
no&el written completely in dialo%ue' J R in <!>/ which dissected capitalism. Similarly
to his other no&els and in the time %ap between their publication' the satire o Carpenters
!othic 7<!?/8 and A Frolic of His Own 7<!!O8 was aimed at the American theme o the
ri%ht way o doin% a thin% reli%ion' or reli%ion and justice respecti&ely which ound
Gaddis a place in the consciousness o the readin% public. 7more literally the sentence
%oes, Anly with the two no&els Carpenter0s !othic 7<!?/8 and A Frolic of His Own
7<!!O8' that deal satirically with reli%ion and the American law respecti&ely' did Gaddis
enter the consciousness o the readin% public8
;ike the search or an easier book and more accessible by a writer considered as diicult
like 2homas Cynchons The Cr'ing of (ot 12, there is unortunately no such access to
Gaddis. Agap Agape mi%ht oer such a ser&ice' but there is a ca&eat. ;ike a splintered
dia%ram' this e6tremely dense te6t becomes more comple6 and conoundin% the deeper
that it is entered' until inally one %oes down in a sea o meanin%. 2here is method
nonetheless' or Gaddiss masterly presentation is o the worlds un%atherin% within the
mind o one human bein%. Agap Agape is the internal monolo%ue o a man' who wants
to wrin% out rom his stru%%le with a mortal illness one last work about mechanisation
and especially the player piano.
2here is a %reat temptation to identiy the narrator with the author' or Gaddis did write
this te6t' while bein% brou%ht down by cancer. Gaddiss ascination with the moti&e o the
player piano is well known' since his irst publication' which was a newspaper article in
<!/<' tackled the subject' and in his irst no&el a character announces the publication o
such an epochal work about the theme. It is .uite ob&ious to accept the act that Gaddis is
documentin% his own ailure to brin% to an end the orm and plan o his work in the usual
monumental ashion. Fet e&ery easy bio%raphical interpretation must in&ariably run
a%round in the postmodern conusion' o which Gaddis is a master.
2his posthumous publication and the ra%mentary construction o the te6t ou%ht not to
ool one into thinkin% that this is anythin% but an e6actin% and precisely constructed
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no&el. A literary predecessor' to whom the narrator reers rom the start are the irritable
monolo%ues o 2homas *ernhard. 2he narrator in ad&ance eels pla%iari+ed by 2homas
*ernhard as he puts it. 2he narrator $ or better still $ the &oice to whose torrent o words
unbroken by any para%raphs we are listenin% is an old man' whose sick body presses him
urther towards death in spite o the years spent in researchin% this book. 9ow with
books' notes and clippin%s piled in a hospital room' the disorder around him is as nothin%
when compared to the chaos o the old mans thinkin%.
While his spirit and body dissol&e' he do%%edly clin%s to the hope o still bein% able to
produce such thin%s as sense and meanin%. 2hus he spreads his accumulated knowled%e
into a inal lin%uistic construction' throwin% out in sin%le breaths .uotations and allusions
that ran%e rom the wild associations rom Clatos Ptopian (epublic to the Internet and
back a%ain to 9orbert Wiener and *laise Cascal. =is urious thou%hts know no bounds'
no end' but also no order. 2he curious player piano is the sin%le e6ception. Its %reatest
popularity was at the be%innin% o the "D
th
Centur' an+ e-er ta%es hol+ of the monologue
to .ecome its focal point. ,t .ecomes the s'm.ol of a certain +e-elopment3 the arts go
into +ecline as soon as the arts come more an+ more un+er the influence of technolog'
that pea%s with the supremac' of the .inar' s'stem in the computer age.
Thus !a++is manoeu-res once more through the compresse+ area of his thin%ing an+ his
times, an+ e-en though this narrow .an+ of his must go through a monstrous +ensit', the
.oo% still remains astonishingl' rea+a.le. !a++is +oes not a++ an'thing su.stantial to
the narrate+ worl+ of Agap Agape but ne&ertheless' he lea&es an ironically summary
that is resi%natory in his inal lie lon% stru%%le or literature' art and truth. 2he
ra%mentary and unordered trapped in dissolution at the same time becomes the
e6pression o a necessary ailure. Gaddis has written his lon% announced masterpiece
upon mechanisation and the di%italisation o art' but which he also does not brin% to an
end.
JWild denken ohne Gren+en.J )ie Tages"eitung' ">th May "DDE' p. <>.
2ranslated by John Soutter and Anja Zeidler
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