tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5461044.post4498787099289936017..comments2023-10-24T11:03:41.388-05:00Comments on ladypoverty: Men in crisisJ.R. Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09076895859826581960noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5461044.post-82331294294096718122010-10-03T10:28:38.649-05:002010-10-03T10:28:38.649-05:00Most everyone has to warm up to Gaddis's style...Most everyone has to warm up to Gaddis's style. You will know a cruel person as he will recommend The Recognitions as the place to start. The Recognitions is amazing but it's also disorienting and requires a real willingess to suffer confusion and a feeling of feeblemindedness. That density of ideas and difficulty-through-lack-of-punctuation etc. is pretty well represented in JR so while JR is possibly the funniest Gaddis novel, it's not the easiest to read.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5461044.post-8110109091323170932010-10-02T11:51:00.826-05:002010-10-02T11:51:00.826-05:00Really glad you wrote this comment, because BDR re...Really glad you wrote this comment, because BDR recommended the same thing, only I read it as "you should really read [A Frolic of His Own], JR" instead of "you should really read JR." This illuminates so much.JRBhttp://ladypoverty.blogspot.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5461044.post-43112788582977279682010-10-02T11:19:51.257-05:002010-10-02T11:19:51.257-05:00Excellent!
If you like it, I suggest putting his ...Excellent!<br /><br />If you like it, I suggest putting his mid-70s era novel, JR, next in line.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5461044.post-86283798771804979992010-10-01T14:38:48.848-05:002010-10-01T14:38:48.848-05:00I haven't read it, but I am starting A Frolic ...I haven't read it, but I <i>am</i> starting A Frolic of His Own thanks to you and <a href="http://bdr.typepad.com/blckdgrd/" rel="nofollow">BDR</a>.JRBhttp://ladypoverty.blogspot.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5461044.post-17450013952453707332010-09-30T13:02:11.595-05:002010-09-30T13:02:11.595-05:00Dig it!
I think about similar stuff sometimes. I...Dig it!<br /><br />I think about similar stuff sometimes. I am restless and don't want to be tied to any particular role, so the indefinite nature doesn't affect me, but I see it among friends and among the families I work with.<br /><br />I have held many jobs since HS: ski shop employee, gas station worker from the days of full service, bakery employee, REI floor staff, researcher, environmental planner, lawyer, judge's law clerk, writer/editor, and now I'm a $12/hr "support specialist". <br /><br />Generally I am a hypercurious person so I am quickly bored by lots of jobs. There aren't many types of work where you can always be mastering things, always improving. When I pumped gas, the top limit of performing my job tasks arrived within the first month, probably actually the first week -- and the longest learning process was the human interaction skills, not the job's manual skill demands. Other jobs have been likewise.<br /><br />I think the thing that humans need from their work is a sense of meaning, or some might call it "personal identity" or "personal fulfillment." You hit on that nicely here.<br /><br />I would like to see the present economic collapse/squeeze/"challenge" (choose your euphemism!) result in people more frequently and thus more deeply thinking about the nature of work, why we do jobs, what social good there is in such work, what personal good there is.<br /><br />You ever read Mike Rose's <i>The Mind at Work</i>?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com