Nathan "N.R."’s
Comments
(group member since Oct 28, 2012)
Nathan "N.R."’s
comments
from the William T Vollmann Central group.
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Coming up in Sept at Ohio State, where Bill's archive is located ::https://library.osu.edu/blogs/osulsta...
I finally read those two reviews in LARB. Both excellent! In general, I'm really a bit surprised at the seemingly unanimously positive reception The Dying Grass has received ; especially after the flop of Last Stories.Holdstock's review ::
https://lareviewofbooks.org/review/th...
Coffman's review ::
https://lareviewofbooks.org/review/ma...
George wrote: "Interesting that the seller for this has another one with the same "acceptable condition" for $699. "I should've been quicker to catch that. But pretty much all of these reasonable prices are suspect.
Not a terrible price :: US$306.06+shipping, in 'acceptable condition' ::http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listin...
Geoff wrote: "As soon as I posted that, I felt I had spoken too soon... totally right on there..."All the same, I know what you mean when you say what you say. There are several typical Dream elements which have taken second chair to other (I want more of William the Blind!), newer stuff. But remember, his conception of these Dreams has changed over the past 25 years, especially with no new Dream since 2001.
Geoff wrote: "I don't know guys, I'm kinda missing the pages-long furious dream sentences we find in YBARA or Fathers & Crows in this one, ya know? I mean, it's still immensely good and all, but - I'm fiendin' ..."I disagree! I think that the page=layout he developed here allows him to return to that ever=ballooning sentence of YBARA ("I kept going over each sentence, seeing how much more I could pack into them" --WTV, paraphrased comment about YBARA); especially in the Nez Perce sections (the White sections are pretty clipped, though). It's just that the sub- and subordinate clauses appear more discrete due to the layout, but the sentences just keep rolling and rolling...
Geoff wrote: "But there is something to be said for the Whitman-like formatting and the relation of the titles of Leaves Of Grass and The Dying Grass. Also, Vollmann's prose here does have something to it that ..."I don't know my Whitman well enough!! And a Yes! to Jonathan's note about Wood, which may well be a more controlling locus than I'd noticed so far ; I'll keep my ears peeled.
Jonathan wrote: "oh and i'm gonna just leave this here because it seems so odd to have someone writing about WTV as if he is a big literary star..."I wish him well. His novel (pub'd in 2005) has 280 gr=ratings and 38 reviews. A year after publication, Bill's Last Stories has 95 gr=ratings and 32 reviews. I foresee The Dying Grass eventually slightly outstripping the popularity of Argall :: 152 gr=ratings, 26 reviews.
Meanwhile, his claim that "I think I can go further into their world while keeping a respectful distance than any other writer" may well be true. That 'respectful distance' is what I've called in the Dreams, Vollmann's allowing his characters 'space' (by using the epic mode of characterization).
Geoff wrote: "At first I was thinking the presiding voice was going to be Whitman"I kind of wish that Whitman had accompanied us a little further into the novel. Obviously, Bill's writing from source texts and borrowing phrasings from them ; but either there are too many diverse source texts (rather than a single ruling text like the Relations) or else their form of expression doesn't differ so strongly from our own early 21st=cent forms that they would strike us as so remarkable. And Bill has said that he had a hell of a time coming up with sources peculiar to the Nez Perces themselves ; so there's probably a lot more of his own imagination in writing them than there may have been in other Dreams?
Greg wrote: "From his talk it seems like there are at least three books before the next Dream. Coal vs Nuclear non-fiction (close to being done), long novel, and a shorter novel."
Good to hear that the coal/nuke book is getting closer to finished. From The Cloud-Shirt, an excerpt was pub'd a while back -- http://www.grandstreet.com/gsissues/g... But I've still heard next to nothing about The Poison-Shirt beyond Bill's early indication :: "concerning the Puritans vs. King Philip of Rhode Island," or Captain Cook's voyage to Hawaii. [17th or 18th cent.]
Can't wait to hear what the other two novels will concern themselves with. How You Are maybe one of them? [fingers crossed]
James wrote: "Doesn't the formatting give The Dying Grass a specific voice?"Well, yes, but two voices -- the epic mode of the Indian sections and the oral mode of the Bostons. But what I mean is the sort of echo of another text that has recurred within the various Dream Texts. That one thing I thought the Dreams were doing was bringing back lost voices, letting them out to play again. [but I had difficulty getting The Rifles into my schema too]
Vollmann is reading this week. Tonight in C=attle, if you're in the region. Don't miss it. Info and stuff somewhere above.
Jonathan wrote: "Is anyone else finding this a little less, i don't know, SOMETHING, than some of the other dreams? "I'm missing the Dream=specific voice -- The Ice-Shirt had the saga voice ; F&C had the Relations voice. But I miss that part in The Dying Grass where William the Blind would have wept over a newly acquired text which would mold the whole of the novel.
another. This one with a witty title ::"'The Dying Grass' Refuses to be Coralled"
http://www.popmatters.com/review/1959...
The thing about technology and the Dreams I recall from some self=description on Bill's part. But it's not in the programmatic sketch included in Eden ; must have been a comment in an interview. In The Ice-Shirt, for instance, iron (the be-all-end-all of technology) plays a pivotal role ; as with rifles in Crows. Kind of thing. The Cloud-Shirt is going to be about that other be-all-end-all technology -- coal/oil/nukes.
another review ::"William Vollmann's 'Dying Grass': Heartfelt, panoramic retelling of Indian Wars"
http://www.philly.com/philly/entertai...
Got another review ::"William T. Vollmann's new novel on the Nez Perce is 1,376 pages long"
http://www.oregonlive.com/books/index...
And discussion question ::
I had understood that the Dreams are about a clash of civilization kind of thing; and specifically the role played by technologies. But, aside from the Gatling, I'm not picking up what technology is the focus of The Dying Grass. Any thoughts?
James wrote: "How are folks feeling about the formatting of the writing?"I'm thinking its (finally!) a return to what he did in YBARA, which is to return to his sentences over and over again in order to pack in more and more. The various line breaks, indentations, etc allow him to pack in more subordinate and juxtaposed clauses while keeping the sentence open. I think it's a pretty cool technique for creating constantly ballooning sentences ; better than all those {[()]}s.
I'm also, in general, again reminded that Vollmann does not come from the tradition of the English Realist Novel. Much more so the sagas and epics and things like Genji, and Lautréamont.
James wrote: "Keep the comments coming! It's fun to "read along". I'm usually a few hundred pages behind Jonathan by now. My copy still hasn't arrived."I'm still out in the cold too. But I'm having trouble believing that it's the best Dream ; the others were all so good!
I'm not sure what to make of "storytelling in a strict, documentary way" either. I mean, I think it's probably just not true. Documented, yes, but not documentary. Nor strict, not by a long shot. [at least the previous dreams...]
