Richard at Caravana de recuerdos had a post last week on Doctor Faustus by Thomas Mann. I’ve mentioned I’m listening to the audio version of William Gaddis’ JR and as luck would have it I heard a brief mention of the story the same day I read the review. I love coincidences like that, with the added bonus of hearing an explicit mention of the Faustus legend in JR since it underlies a major part of Gaddis’ The Recognitions.

I know the excerpt won’t do it justice. You will have to imagine a drunken slur as Jack Gibbs unsuccessfully tries to make a point to Beamish, the lawyer of Schramm’s estate (he recently hanged himself), about Schramm’s manuscript and his experience in World War II. Tom Eigen supplies the interruption as Gibbs tries to make a point about the lie a general told to protect himself for leaving Schramm alone while protecting his retreat during the Battle of the Bulge:

– Trying to hurry Beamish…the cup came up for a long pull and he reached for the papers. – point is Schramm wasn’t just trying to write another God damned war book, whole God damned point in Faust the Lord has everything laid out for Faust to win but he won’t tell Faust, what the hell do you expect Faust to do? Lord staying above the God damned battle letting him break his God damned neck fighting for what was planned for him all the time what the hell do you…

– Jack, shut up! We’ve got to …

– Look how the hell do you expect me to read this whole God Damned thing to Mister Beamish without filling him in on the facts, ever see Schramm’s Western Beamish? Wrote a Western didn’t even have his name on it, point is he’s out there hanging on waiting for orders to fall back that never came from the Lord and this God damned general radioed him was a God dmaned lie, comes out saying he won the bet and…wait what the hell are you doing, expect me to read this whole thing to Mister…

(page 391 in the 1993 Penguin paperback edition)

Yeah, it loses a lot in carving it from the whole…hopefully the take on the Faustus tale still comes through.