Geoff’s
Comments
(group member since Oct 28, 2012)
Geoff’s
comments
from the William T Vollmann Central group.
Showing 121-140 of 158
Ashley wrote: "Gives one great hope to see people grow turgid with enthusiasm for a turgid (and almost unbearably lovely) work like Imperial. Geoff, you have my vote for president when we are asked to preform tha..."I have a hunch I might have some trouble getting through the vetting process for that particular office... not a squeaky clean past for this fella. But thanks for the encouragement!
PS-I peeked at your profile, how's The Oxford Book of Death? Great title..
Aubrey wrote: "Regarding your prediction for your audience, Geoff, I'm sure Vollmann thinks the same thing at times, and look how far his fans have come for him. I can't speak for others, but this particular Voll..."If I have your attention, Aubrey, I need not the world's.
Hadrian wrote: "Vaya con Dios, Geoff. I fell in love with Imperial, and would love to retread that journey.I've been thinking of doing the same thing for Europe Central, or maybe the extant Seven Dreams series."
I think there will be so much peripheral material to make this (already gigantic) read so much of a larger experience, as it aims right at the center of so many issues that America/Mexico/The World At Large is confronting right now (borders, biopolitics, resource shortages, racism, poverty, labor, on and on)... it feels very of the moment even though it was published in 2009.
Hey all of you bright and risen angels, my dears, I've begun reading Imperial and I'll be gathering related material such as interviews, reviews, essays (I'm hoping there is a possible plurality of relevant essays), photographs, related items NOT by Vollmann, etc. etc. and collecting them in my review-space as I go along (so it will be a developing piece). When I'm done with this beast of a book I'll post all the resources I've found in this thread. But, much like that desert land, I fear my audience is going to be composed primarily of sand, tumbleweeds, and dry winds. So be it! Paradise is made only inside our lonely skulls!
Oh wow The Grave of Lost Stories looks delicious. Let's see if I have an extra thousand bucks lying around here doing nothing.... nope.
Mala wrote: "Geoff,the issues you have raised are interesting topics for discussion indeed,why then,have they not found any takers?!I checked the Gr page for Argall & two other known names have read & reviewed..."
Yeah that's the chance you take when you read books nobody reads. I'm hoping some adventurous Goodreaders soon take up the task! The Brain Pain group is reading Vollmann right now, maybe I should head over there with my thoughts and questions...
I have written something that involves my reading of Argall: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...However, it does not even approach taking on this massive, complex, multi-faceted, mysterious and magickall work. Some issues to be discussed with readers of the Argall-text:
-The construction of the mock Elizabethan language, it's relation to Shakespeare and other contemporary writers, its subversion by Vollmann into something satiric, comical, but also deeply poetic and beautiful. I think William the Blind's Elizabethan rendering is the closest to a dream/night language (akin to a Finnegenean language-world) yet attained in the Seven Dreams.
-The manipulation of font style, size, appearance, etc. which greatly enhances the hermeneutic joy of experiencing Argall. The multiple spellings of place names, proper names (for example Argall, Argull, Argoll, Arkill, etc.), and even basic words are represented in a variety of spellings. The text becomes slippery and evasive and mercurial, changing and mutating before our very eyes as we read- difficult to hold, like images in a Dream...
-The massive endnotes and glossaries, which are endlessly fascinating, a pleasure to peruse, and reveal the depth Vollmann's research and deconstruction of the source texts.
-The time shifts at the end, the road signs, the ethical implications of this particular Symbolic history.
In my opinion this is the most immersive, strange, funny, violent, and Dream-like of the Seven Dreams. This is one hell of a complex and epic book, oceanic in ambition, dense and watery and windy, full of lunar light, forests and muck. I hope to engage some other Vollmannites and readers of Argall, or at least encourage others to give this book a read. There's nothing else like it out there that I've encountered (though I've heard parallels to Barth's Sot-Weed Factor and Pynchon's Mason and Dixon, but I haven't yet read either, so, perhaps someone else can jump in and illuminate things...)
I'm not sure how many of you know this Vollmann anecdote, but it was just sent to me by a friend, and I find it to be so utterly perfectly Vollmann-esque. Dave Eggers was soliciting contributions to Might Magazine,and they solicited Vollmann for contributions:"Zev writes to William T. Vollmann, soliciting his predictions for the year. Vollmann writes back, in crayon, on the other side of the letter, indicating that he'd like to contribute, but would like to be compensated. Because we never paid anyone for anything, and have less money now than ever before, we ask if there's anything nonmonetary we can do. He says okay, this is what he wants: a) One box of 0.45-caliber Gold Saber bullets; b) Two hours, in a warm, well-lit room, with two naked woman, to paint them, in water color.
" Zev runs to the gun shop on Second Street, and one of our part-time assistants, a bartender named Michelle, says she'll model and will bring along a friend. Vollmann drives down from Sacramento with a friend, who sits with Moodie in his kitchen as Vollmann paints Michelle and friend in the living room.
" We wait until after the session to hand over the bullets."
I found this curious document browsing about just now:http://www.melleragency.com/shared/de...
The description of the novel sounds quite enticing, though there is no info on publication date, etc.
Nathan "N.R."But either of those volumes Richard linked appear to be potentially entertaining and edifying, edited with our short patience in mind."Yes, certainly. After reading Fathers and Crows, I think they could be really fun, actually.
Richard wrote: " I was curious, contemplating delving into some of the sources..."I wonder how readable the Jesuit relations are. In F&C the excerpts Vollmann has chosen are interesting, but I'm thinking that might have to do with context, within the book. On their own they might be DULL.
Hadrian wrote: "Here's the listopia entry."This is fantastic. Thank you so much Hadrian!
Wow! Mala. This is incredible. Thanks for the good work!
Nathan "N.R." wrote: "Geoff wrote: "Here is something that approaches a "review" of Fathers and Crows:http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/..."
Thanks, Geoff. Not to be missed."
Quite wecome, Nathan. I feel the need to once again thank you for directing me to Vollmann (your thoughts spurred my interest almost entirely)- how I loved this book!
Here is something that approaches a "review" of Fathers and Crows:http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
...by the way, each of those interviews has 16 views each. 16. jaysus.
Would I be repeating something already posted if I posted the 1992 Bookworm interview for Fathers and Crows? Probably, but here it is anyways:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWDkA...
No no not mine, just fodder for the Vollmann group to drool over.
Not mine. But man that'd be a good one to have.
