If I haven't read anything before what would be necessary

>>9613170
yes

>>9613170
read the book if you want to. But some helpful things would be the greeks, bible, restoration lit, russian giants, turn of the century brit lit, german romanticism, modern poetry especially eliot, and various mythological texts. Pretty much what you'd expect from any high modernist text: everything. But I recommend you just read whatever you like. Read some secondary literature on the recognitions so you can situate without slogging through the entire canon just to read this one book

you should also use the Gaddis annotations website for historical stuff/translations etc