James’s Comments (group member since Feb 22, 2013)

James’s comments from the William T Vollmann Central group.

Terra Nostra seems like a candidate

Seems like there has to be at least one real historical figure (not sure if that's the case in any but sot weed). Actually, Trotsky is glimpsed in Augie March. The biggest thing I think of with the dream series is the hard edged tone. Blood Meridian definitely has that, and the judge character has the demonic feel of some of Vollmann's characters.

Haven't had the chance to read it yet, but I would think John Dos Passos USA Trilogy might be a good option.

Interesting....going to keep this in mind.

Testimony: The Memoirs. Seems like it could be a good place for further reading of Shostakovich. Good reads uber reader Jonathan gave it the 5 star treatment.

James wrote: "I listened to this one last year, but am doing an actual reading with the Brain Pain group in 2014. If so, my home work is going to include the Teaching Company course below. Probabl..."
I started this lecture series last night. I would say that it's worth listening to. The first hour was a good overview with 3 excerpts from Shostakovitch's music and a nice bit of context for the environment he was working in.

That's why we all can't stop cruising used bookstores. I like to hit the Goodwills and St. Vinny's too. One day I might be as fortunate as Luc!

Russell wrote: "Just started this one in an attempt to catch up with the Brain Pain group for the April reading of Argall. Early stages: so far, so good."

I just listened to this again. Pretty good.

http://www.kcrw.com/etc/programs/bw/b...

I listened to this one last year, but am thinking about doing an actual reading with the Brain Pain group in 2014. If so, my home work is going to include the Teaching Company course below. Probably worth folks time if they are going to tackle Europe Central.

Great masters. Shostakovich, his life & music [sound recording] /
by Greenberg, Robert .Teaching Company

I liked the line, How many challenges remain for WILLIAM T. VOLLMANN?

Geoff, you keep bumping Imperial up my reading list.

Just finished Fathers and Crows. I enjoyed it more than the Ice-shirt, even though there were times when I was slogging through. Somehow F&C manages to be both dense and diffuse. I'm not sure how to really tackle any sort of review, but it is definitely worth the read. Next up is Argall and the Rifles in 2014.

Amazon has bargain priced remainder copies for ~ $7 USD. Is this a good deal? If the author is alive and kicking I like to try and buy new to put a few bucks in their pocket. How much if any do they make on a remainder?

Wow! Thanks Mala. The links definitely put the music right at your fingertips.

So... I found this article Friday Column: Classical Music in Literature , which also talks about Insect Dreams: The Half Life of Gregor Samsa,The Gold Bug Variationsand Hopscotch
and it has the following quote:

Seventh Symphony there is his Eighth Symphony (in my opinion, one of the 20th-century’s greatest), which Vollmann reads as a tribute to war-ravaged Leningrad; Opus 40, a sonata for piano and cello, certainly the most romantic thing Shostakovich ever wrote and one of my favorite pieces of music; the Eighth String Quartet, which in my opinion stands far above Shostakovich’s 14 others, and which Vollmann uses as a metaphor not only for the ravages of totalitarianism (as Shostakovich intended), but as a dark, dark eulogy for Central Europe....

I also found this article when I was searching for this topic yesterday Shostakovich in Love: William T. Vollmann’s Europe Central , but my workplace subscription to JSTOR won't let me access it. I'm not sure how much it talks about his music, but it seemed like a good start.

It was pretty dense to begin with, but it started to roll pretty quickly. I usually listen to audiobooks while I go on walks or do household chores.Typically, I wouldn't have listened to a more complex narrative like this one, but they ordered the audio version instead of the ebook version at my library. Unfortunately, I listened to several hours while shoveling snow this week. I was able to read The Sot-Weed Factor in print while I chipped away at this book on audio, so all in all it was a good thing.
The reader was very dry in his delivery and I thought he really brought to life some of the tics in Shostakovich's speech. The chapters where he goes over the music were pretty brilliant. I didn't find the repetitions like,"Elena, you're so lucky you didn't marry me" to be as annoying as some readers because they were a little like guide words. I ended up buying a print copy and referred to it at times if I felt like I was missing something. EU is a pretty rewarding read, and I think it will get better with a second look.

Starting my pre-reading of the The Sagas of Icelanders this weekend. I thought I would do the Preface by Smiley, Introduction by Kellogg, and the two Greenland Sagas.

I just finished this one on audio book. Looking forward to getting after it again when Brain Pain eventually tackles it. Does anyone have a list of the Shostakovich recordings examined in the book? I belatedly realized I should have been writing them down and getting them from my library to listen to. I'm hoping to rectify that error when I read the print version.