Reception and Influence
An article in the Oshkosh Daily in 1937 wrote (lipogrammatically) that the manuscript was "amazingly smooth. No halting parts. A continuity of plot and almost classic clarity obtains." After Book magazine named Jay Gatsby the greatest fictional character of the 20th century in 2002, the Village Voice wrote a humor column about Gadsby. Author Ed Park jokingly aped Wright's style ("Lipogram aficionados—folks who lash words and (alas!) brains so as to omit particular symbols—did in fact gasp, saying, 'Hold that ringing communication tool for a bit! What about J. Gadsby?'"). David Crystal, host of BBC Radio 4's linguistics program English Now, called it "probably the most ambitious work ever attempted in this genre."
La Disparition (A Void) is a lipogrammatic book partly inspired by Gadsby. The French novel not only omits the letter "e" in its entirety, but is also 50,000 words long. Its author, Georges Perec, was introduced to Wright's book by a friend of his in Oulipo, a multinational constrained writing group. Wright's lack of success with Gadsby made Perec aware that publication of such a work "was taking a risk" of finishing up "with nothing a Gadsby." As a nod to Wright, La Disparition contains a character named "Lord Gadsby V. Wright", a tutor to protagonist Anton Voyl; in addition, a composition attributed to Voyl in La Disparition is actually a quotation from Gadsby. Trevor Kitson, writing in New Zealand's Manawatu Standard in 2006, said he was prompted to write a short lipogram after seeing Wright's book. The attempt gave him an appreciation for how difficult Wright's task was, but he was less impressed with the end result. "I must say that the book leaves me in a state of non-grippedness (to quote Dave Lister from Red Dwarf)," Kitson wrote. "It seems extraordinarily twee (not that it uses that word, of course) and mostly about all-American kids going to church and getting married." Douglas Hofstadter's book Le Ton beau de Marot quotes parts of Gadsby for illustration.
Read more about this topic: Gadsby (novel)
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